Chabon on BE

[Rich]

As I've said before Pynchon has left preterite somewheres



> On Oct 20, 2013, at 3:21 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> It is an analogy, and only one of many possible zones.  Not that I espouse this kind of zonal paradise.  It just seems Pynchon repeated model.
> 
>> On Sunday, October 20, 2013, Rich wrote:
>> But what good is it if only accessible by the well connected (haha)?
>> 
>> Hardly a paradise, no?
>> 
>> rich
>> 
>>> On Oct 20, 2013, at 2:22 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> 
>>> I think DA is supposed to be internet Zone, anarchy, a place w/o rules or rulers. Pynchon Paradise. What is it "for?"  Wrong question. What for do you want to make it?
>>> 
>>> David Morris
>>> 
>>> On Saturday, October 19, 2013, John Bailey wrote:
>>> Yeah, I'm a bit confused about DeepArcher too... as far as I can tell,
>>> it's a program lodged in the deep web, which as you say is basically
>>> the "place" where IP addresses aren't connected to DNS so won't show
>>> up on any search engine, and you need a direct link or knowledge of
>>> the specific IP address to access it.
>>> 
>>> So that kind of makes sense - DeepArcher is a program with Second
>>> Life-like aspects that can't be accessed unless you have the key. And
>>> later on the security of the fortress is compromised, and then the
>>> gates are just thrown open and it basically leaves the Deep Web and is
>>> accessible from the surface.
>>> 
>>> What I really don't get is what the *hell* the program is for. A
>>> Second Life that only a handful of people can get into? And do what?
>>> The descriptions of Maxine's early journeys around the place make it
>>> seem like a point-and-click adventure game with no mystery to it or
>>> reason to play further. Except it has stunning graphics, for the
>>> era...
>>> 
>>> At first I thought it was a navigation system for travelling through
>>> the Deep Web but that doesn't really seem right, since it would
>>> basically be a search engine with graphical interface for finding the
>>> IP addresses of places that aren't meant to be findable. Which would
>>> be exactly the thing that would pose a threat to the entire meaning of
>>> the Deep Web, even if you could erase your footsteps the way DA
>>> promises.
>>> 
>>> Anyway, maybe that's the point - that this supposedly subversive
>>> method of total anonymity itself provides the architecture for control
>>> and surveillance and some sweet home shopping.
>>> 
>>> On Sun, Oct 20, 2013 at 2:04 PM, Michael Bailey
>>> <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > On Oct 19, 2013 7:09 PM, "Monte Davis" <montedavis at verizon.net> wrote:
>>> >>
>>> >> Chabon is careless there. Ernie's capsule history is not *historically*
>>> >> baseless: yes, DARPA did fund some of the IT research leading to TCP/IP
>>> >> and
>>> >> packet switching. And yes, the Cold War justification for that funding
>>> >> *was*
>>> >> to develop a network technology that could "work around" servers knocked
>>> >> out
>>> >> by enemy attack, so that government could keep communicating.
>>> >>
>>> >
>>> > One of my other favorite authors, John Crowley, in _The Translator_
>>> > made the female protagonist's dad a darpa dude and evoked those times
>>> > wonderfully.
>>> >
>>> > If we were gonna get crazy and do a non-p group read like we did a few yrs
>>> > back - I guess I finally thought of the one I'd suggest (-:
>>> >
>>> > But getting back to BE, I sort of have a question about this deep web where
>>> > Deep Archer resides - does that correspond to anything nonfictional?  I mean
>>> > are we talking about using a browser to navigate to some bare IP address
>>> > known not to dns at all but only to the cognoscenti? Afaik there were bbses,
>>> > ftp and gopher, and then all of a sudden there was yahoo and aol and urls
>>> > but nowhere was there anything like deep archer which is sophisticated,
>>> > ambiguous - nothing like the games I'm aware of - plus it's more and less
>>> > than a game, possibly even a place that responds to users' emotional and
>>> > spiritual states of mind and even a place where a person can be said to
>>> > reside while accessing it.  Maybe a mmorpg or a Second Life type
>>> > environment?
>>> >
>>> > A development of the angelic realms alluded to at the beginning of Vineland
>>> > and the amazing things computers - the ideal readers with the ideal insomnia
>>> > - can do with mere 1s and 0s by stringing enough of them together.
>>> >
>>> > Also on a different note a compare/contrast between Maxine and March, Maxine
>>> > having the annointing (though somewhat revoked) to do a little something
>>> > about fraud while March is more a John the Baptist voice in the wilderness -
>>> > strictly speaking there's no real need to say they represent stances that an
>>> > author could take in depicting a social scene, but if a choice like that is
>>> > evident in BE, it seems to me Pynchon - whose Sistine Chapel, Gravity's
>>> > Rainbow, could be described as more March-like - i
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