IVIV: Inherent Vice WIKI/Raymond Chandler

[Robin Landseadel]

On Feb 8, 2010, at 6:14 AM, David Meyer wrote:

> Is Doc cynical? I found him unimpeachably optimistic and good humored.

Guess it's his professionalism. Doc plays pretty Coy as a gumsandal  
[note—the word "gumsandal" appears in GR], doing the old "dumb hippie"  
routine to a fare-thee-well. But his thoughts are quite dark—consider  
his little "trip" to an L.A. that is rapidly going underwater or the  
scene on page 97 that I just quoted:

	"Yeah, but nowadays it's all you see anymore is cops, the tube
	is saturated with fuckin cop shows, just being regular guys, only
	tryin to do their job, folks, no more threat to nobody's freedom
	than some dad in a sitcom. Right. Get the viewer population so
	cop-happy they're beggin to be run in. Good-bye Johnny
	Staccato, welcome and while you're at it please kick my door
	down, Steve McGarrett. Meantime out here in the real world
	most of us private flatfoots can't even make the rent."

Also, "cynical" is a curious thing in Pynchonia:

	There's a word that needs to be close by when reading
	Pynchon: Satire. That's the true foundation of his massive
	diatribes, so remember that his style of satire is extraordinarly
	inclusive, and that satire is, after all, a development out of the
	old Greek cynic philosophy/lifestyle:

	If Antisthenes was not the first Cynic by name, then the origin of
	the appellation falls to Diogenes of Sinope, an individual well 	
	known for dog-like behavior. As such, the term may have begun
	as an insult referring to Diogenes’ style of life, especially his
	proclivity to perform all of his activities in public.
	Shamelessness, which allowed Diogenes to use any space for
	any purpose, was primary in the invention of “Diogenes the
	Dog.”

	The precise source of the term “Cynic” is, however, less
	important than the wholehearted appropriation of it. The first
	Cynics, beginning most clearly with Diogenes of Sinope,
	embraced their title: they barked at those who displeased them,
	spurned Athenian etiquette, and lived from nature. In other
	words, what may have originated as a disparaging label
	became the designation of a philosophical vocation.

	Within political philosophy, the Cynics can be seen as
	originators of anarchism. Since humans are both rational and
	able to be guided by nature, it follows that humans have little
	need for legal codes or political affiliations. Indeed, political
	associations at times require one to be vicious for the sake of
	the polis. Diogenes’ cosmopolitanism represents, then, a first
	suggestion that human affiliation ought to be to humanity rather
	than a single state.

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0703&msg=116746&keywords=cynics%20satire