IVIV: Sportello's integrity

[rich]

the problem is that he's too blandly depicted to really hate or care
much for or at the least understand his motives.

i was just watching a movie called Leaves of Grass where ed norton
plays identical brothers, a brilliant philosophy professor and also a
brilliant pot grower ( a quite likable chap who later in the film
enacts a sportello like act of violence). the whole movie feels so
phony and contrived it brought to mind what I envision IV the movie
may turn out to be.



On Sun, Mar 20, 2011 at 1:25 PM, alice wellintown
<alicewellintown at gmail.com> wrote:
> I don't like Larry. He's not the Dude and he doesn't have fun
> adventures or funny friends. Though Bigfoot is a plus, most of Larry's
> crew are just too flat on their feet and false in their features. The
> book is a failure.
>
> On Sun, Mar 20, 2011 at 12:13 PM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen
> <lorentzen at hotmail.de> wrote:
>>
>> 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
>>
>>
>>
>