Meet the New Boss (Pynchon's THEY or The Firm is Dead)

[Robin Landseadel]

On Aug 26, 2010, at 7:54 AM, rich wrote:

> yr first point is sadly true.

It saddens me when people refuse to see the obvious. That's a  
recurrent TRP theme that I [and Dave] like to point out.

> getting the little gray in the hair you get to see a bit more clearly
> and like a lot of Pynchon characters you're always on the edge of some
> dangling revelation where like some apparitions you only seem to see
> them in those hypnagogic twilight states (and I ain't talking celibate
> vampires here)

More like a semi-evasive crocodile?

> I don't fault Pynchon for later in life laying out the dirt on the bad
> guys but the likes of Crocker Fenway and Scarlet Vibe are not as
> interesting, drawn as they are like vampires (which they are)  
> exposed to the light

Crocker Fenway is a comic archetype, a variation on the Commedia del  
arte stock figure of Pantelone coupled to one of Raymond Chandler's  
head honchos. The net effect is very reminiscent of the Big Lebowski  
and by that I'm referring to the dude in the chair, not the Dude  
himself. In other words, this gross caricature is essential for the  
plot's loose stencilizing of Philip Marlowe's L.A.

Scarsdale Vibe turns out to be more complicated, seeing how he's  
constantly finagling in multiple directions, aiding the arts, handing  
out scholarships, giving directions for the ambulance drivers . . .

Still, Pynchon's always more interested in schlemiels anyway.