BEg2 Chap 8 Summary Part 2

[Allen Ruch]

Chapter 8 Summary Part 2

Part 2: Wall of Silence Diner
Cast: Maxine, Lucas, and Cassidy

We learn that Slothrop is not Pynchon’s only character to possess clairvoyant private parts: when “phone numbers, koans, or stock tips from which she’s likely to profit are close by,” Maxine is possessed by the urge to pee, which brings her invariably to something useful written on a restroom wall.

This time the “gotta-go alarm” rings near former tech “greasyspoon,” the Wall of Silence. Lucas is inside, and asks Maxine to check on a woman named “Cassidy.” Seems Lucas brought Cassidy here to break up with her, and she vanished into the bathroom.

Cassidy is distraught, but not devastated. She tells Maxine that Lucas told her his name was “Kyle.” The scene is set in a Pynchonian sentence so wonderful it bears full quotation:

“They sit there side by side, mutually invisible, the partition between inscribed in marker pen, eye pencil, lipstick later rubbed at and smeared by way of commentary, gusting across the wall in failing red shadows, phone numbers with antiquated prefixes, cars for sale, announcements of love lost, found, or wished for, racial grievances, unreadable remarks in Cyrillic, Arabic, Chinese, a web of symbols, a travel brochure for night voyages Maxine has not yet thought about making.”

Seems that Cassidy is a graphic designer, a former employee of hwgaahwgh.com. She designed DeepArcher’s splash screen—“like that chick who did the tarot deck.”

(She means Pamela “Pixie” Smith: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pamela_Colman_Smith)

She claims that her inspiration bordered on the supernatural— “I felt I was duked in on forces outside my normal perimeter…” “Next thing I remember is one of them [Lucas? Justin?] saying holy shit it’s the edge of the world.” Still Cassidy believed they’d have trouble building traffic: “Better if they go for a single customer, Gabriel Ice or somebody.”

When Cassidy leaves the stall, she proves to be an underage woman covered in tattoos and sporting purple hair. Agreeing to see if Lucas/Kyle is still there, Maxine finds him and says, “Lucas, she’s twelve. And you better start paying her royalties.”

[Minor Spoiler: Cassidy does not return as a character, but is mentioned again in Chapter 26. ]