LISS/STPEVR Zoyd in the morning

[Mark Kohut]

They USED to carry messages. Just like the Pentocostal dove did.

https://www.britannica.com/animal/pigeon

On Wed, Apr 22, 2020 at 10:00 AM ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:

> Thomas sez:
>
> -Zoyd as Ned Bottom.
> > He’s a hardworking guy. Working class hero
> > “we’ll meet at Ninny’s Tomb!”
> Bottom and the other workers have vocations, trades, jobs they are
> skilled at. They were once apprentices and are now masters of an art.
> This skill is power for the workers.
>
> They've no skill as Thespians. To keep their jobs they must hone their
> skill, but  as actors (or writers or Playwrights or Bartlebys ... see
> Pynchon's Sloth Essay), to keep  heads they depend on the fickle
> generosity of magnanimous royals. Zoyd, not an actor but a musician,
> has some related experience, but his once a year gig as an actor (not
> bad work if you can get it), and his head (including his maidenhead)
> can be kept only if he performs for his fickle and violent bosses.
>
> While we readers of books admire the author, the playwright, the
> actor, the musician, the poet, we know that even Shakespeare, the son
> of a provincial glover and illegal wool trader, was an actor, a
> popular entertainer, a job most people considered dishonorable.
>
>
> Yeah, as the exchange with Hector you quote below suggests, Hector, of
> Mexican ancestry (a Latino and usually a  target of the corrupt
> police, not to mention the faux protestant work ethic of
> pro-capitalism working class whites) is, ironically, spouting the work
> hard and play by the rules success myth) , even as he, like Zoyd,
> collects a government check. But yeah, Zoyd hustles. And Hector,
> though he hectors the hippies, and has disgust for how they live,
> because he half believes the false narratives about hippies and
> communes, and because he is more like them than he cares to admit,
> because he fears the false narratives about his people, respects Zoyd
> for his industry and work ethic. The fake economy in America can not
> allow the real economy, as the pandemic now has exposed it, to compete
> as a narrative, people can not know that communal living, as any
> economist knows, is inherently economical. The crazy commune
> narratives, the murder, neglect ... narrative, the hysterical high
> pitched narrative must silence the community. Americans are generally
> afraid of anything cooperative. Americans consider cooperative and
> communal living subversive.
>
> >
> > For one thing it’s still morning, early riser in my book. Those doves in
> > the dream could be the souls of the 290 people aboard Iran Air 655,
> > Thanatoids in the making.
>
> They are carrier pigeons and I place emphasis on the word **carrier**
> because, though I am not an expert, carrier pigeons don't carry
> messages; though they are related to the carriers of messages, they
> are not honing pigeons, but show pigeons, bred for perfect beauty.
> Not a mistake Pynchon would make. If it is one. And I don't think it
> is. The word carrier here seems to allude to an aircraft carrier. The
> squadron of jays, to a squadron of US jests. The light under the wings
> of the pigeons, like the light under the jest wings. So the text, in
> dream and in history seems to be about the US war on Iraq. Yes, I
> agree, that the Iranians murdered by the US are referenced here.
>
>
> >
> > If he sleeps later than usual, he must usually get up pretty darn early -
> > the reason he sleeps in is he’s psyching himself up to pull his stunt
> this
> > day (“he’d been planning this for weeks” (3)) - usually it’s not as hard
> > for him to get up for the various gig economy stuff that he does because
> > even Hector knows he’s not lazy (“it ain’t like you’re lazy or afraid to
> > work, either” (28))
> >
> > Here are all the things he does:
> >
> > Drive to clothing store
> >
> > Gas up the chainsaw and tousle his hair and get a word to the wise about
> > his plan from Prairie’s friend Slide
> >
> > Drive to joint up in the woods
> >
> > Parley with the Barman (who he played b-ball with in the 6 Rivers
> > conference (7)) and the metrosexual logger dude
> >
> > Drive to Ralph, Junior’s venue
> >
> > Do the jump
> >
> > Then a certain amount of schmoozing and police paperwork and Hector
> > Hectoring. As Rod Stewart said, “...police wouldn’t give me no peace.”
> >
> > All before Ralph, Junior turns on the neon lights at the Cucumber Lounge
> > “early” (12)) and he goes home to dinner.
> >
> > But —- where does Whitman come in?
> >
> > &&&& oh, that first bar he goes to is called The Logjam; logjam is also a
> > notional notation in Brock Vond’s mind for the anti war/pro pot/civil
> > rights situations he’s tasked with floating to the mill!
> >
> > —- also, did you say something about a dog?
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>