what would pynchon do?

[Michael Bailey]

It seems to me that in Pynchon's books we get the initiation of
violence against capitalist pigs and evil loan sharks, and the
question is not really even, does Pynchon accept the narrative that
makes ObL an important part of a real threat?

I'm a conspiracy theorist, a pacifist, and an anarcho-syndicalist fan
of Chomsky (I don't try to reconcile those viewpoints, it's like
having 3 girlfriends, ok if they never meet, although if you *could*
get them together peacefully...) - but even I place some creedence in
ObL having been a bad ass and even bad karma!

but does Pynchon accept that narrative so totally and unquestioningly
that without specifying circumstances we can be sure he would see old
ObL as a kill-on-sight target?




there are a spectrum of incidences in the Pynchon oeuvre to compare ---

as part of a team, old Frank blows away that train...

as the culmination of a passionate investigation, and in self-defense,
Doc Sportello cancels that Prussia guy's series

Tchitcherine and Enzian pass like ships in the night

Reef stands by while artist boy beats him to the punch vis a vis Vibe,
thereby flushing an army of bodyguards who most likely would've foiled
Reef too

Vato and Blood are on cordial enough terms with the VC to receive
advance warnings and avoid violent confrontation

In AtD, that anarchist shooting the industrialist is spoken of with
what seems like approval, only regret being choice of body parts to
aim at...

the Chums of Chance avoid violence, not as a principle but just out of
a sort of aesthetic distaste, it sez in AtD somewheres

----------


so let us dispose of the most likely scenarios:
a) given a younger Pynchon, who was after all a Navy man, if his most
unforgettable person during his tour had been not Pig Bodine, but his
combat instructor, and he directed his career accordingly - then as
part of the Navy Seal team, I doubt that he would swerve at the last
moment

- but, given the type of person that would carry away from the
military a deep and abiding impression of Pig Bodine, how likely is
that?


b) let's say if ObL were hiding in New York City, maybe driving a cab,
and Pynchon had just gone to Abercrombie and Fitch to buy a rifle --
hmmm, ok, I don't think that sounds quite right, maybe he went to
Harlem to buy a rifle like Madonna does in Who's That Girl, say he
needed to get the feel of it as research for his next Doc Sportello
book, Inherent Twice, set in Colorado during Hunter Thompson's
campaign for sheriff...or its sequel, Inherent Rice, set in Chinatown
("forget it, Doc...it's Chinatown!")

anyway, he's holding the rifle and he had the cabbie wait for him
outside, and as he gets back into the cab with the rifle, something
clicks and he realizes it's ObL
does he shoot him, or does he like sort of conversationally feel him
out about the whole terrorism businss, maybe ObL's heart isn't in it
anymore, maybe he made those videos at gunpoint, o-or maybe he was in
deep cover, such deep cover that they made him chief (how could you
say no?) and now is trying to get back to where he once belonged, like
the spy who came in from the cold?  at least gets to know him first,
find what he's think'in (trying to do that Vineland inflection,
thinkeen) so he woult'dn have to think back later and wonder if he did
the right thing