IVIV: Sportello's integrity

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

About the only thing my IV re-reads made me think about is that Pynchon, 
somehow, manages it to present to us Larry Sportello as a, more or less, 
likable character. Why is that? Is it the dope smoking?
Is it Larry's silly way of clothing? Or the kitsch story about a little 
baby being rescued from the addiction of its parents? The Franzen-like 
family reunion in the end? Likely a mixture of all of these items.

However, the text (check out the page numbers for yourself!) gives us 
the picture of a natural born persecutor ...

- In Junior High, Larry took the finger prints of his classmates

- Later on, he did rat in a 16 (in words: "sixteen") year old girl just 
because she was dealing with horse

- His nickname "Doc", and now it becomes really interesting, Larry 
gained during the time when he was still chasing people not able to pay 
their debts. He had a little bag made of artificial red crocodile 
leather. Inside Knock Out drugs plus injection devices. Now, Larry says 
he never made use of it. But can we trust his statement? I don't think 
so and I'll explain to you why. First of all, the narrative voice is 
nearly identical with Larry's pov. Plus - and that's the crucial point 
by which Pynchon tells us the truth - the name "Doc" sticks to him! The 
stories are all around ... Everybody calls him "Doc".

So no surprise that he literally kills human beings in the end. Inherent 
Vice, indeed ...

KFL