Atdtda37: Awaken from his life, 1054-1055

[Mark Kohut]

I suggest 'continuous reality' is used against all of the discontinuous dream states your observations have found. 
On Thursday, April 17, 2014 4:56 AM, Paul Nightingale <isread at btinternet.com> wrote:
  
The first paragraph suggests continuity from the previous section (‘All he’d dropped in for really …’ etc) and even suggests that sex might not have taken place between Lake and Lew (‘Often these days she couldn’t tell if something was a dream …’ etc). With Deuce, it seems, out again quickly and Lake left alone, there is a reference of sorts to the ‘wild parties’ she attended once (1052). Perhaps ‘continuous reality’ (1054) invokes photography, one still image succeeded by another.
If the previous section offered Lew’s take on Lake and Deuce, here their perspectives are offered; however, there is no reference to Lew or the scene in the previous section. One might conclude that Deuce’s dream (‘a woman lying next to him who seemed to be dead’) has something to do with Lew’s case; and perhaps Deuce recalls all the crimes he has committed, including Webb’s murder. Perhaps the investigators who appear on 1055 replace Lew insofar as Deuce attempts to establish a relationship with them. Earlier, he has insisted he does the same kind of work as Lew (1053); and his reference to ‘crazy Anarchists’ suggest he is still in the same business as when he was introduced in Ch16. On 196 ‘Deuce came to imagine himself “on assignment” …, a sort of undercover “detective” …’ etc, and now he insists he is also ‘a deputised officer’, even though his star/badge is missing (1055). As interrogation continues, ‘his
 connection with the crime, still unnamed’ might even recall Lew’s crime, the ‘sin he was supposed once to have committed’ (37). On that occasion Lew’s guilt is certain if unnameable; here, Deuce, whose guilt has been recorded by the narrative elsewhere, hopes to evade exposure. 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20140422/de17898e/attachment.html>