BE Ch 9 summary (corrected)

[Joseph Tracy]

Oops looks like one of my thumbs did some weird action on the track pad while I was typing( down in final scene change where I seem to have inserted a copy of shower scene out of place).  Does that happen to others?  Wandering thumb syndrome.  So here is corrected version.

> On Dec 15, 2021, at 4:27 PM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
> 
> BE chapter 9 summary
> 
> The chapter starts with  call from Axel Quigley( NYC Finance) about “another heartrendingly sad case of sales-tax evasion,..”, this time “ a restaurant chain called Muffins and Unicorns”;suspect is 
> Vip Epperdew, whom  Max had encountered before, working for city, in Montreal,  building a file on him through Felix Boingueaux( lot of vowels there to get to  Boingo) with whom maxine pretends to be “another bent businessperson interested in the “hidden delete options” for her point-of-sale network, only out of technical curiosity, of course”. He offers in  on a project to disable the kind of phantomware they are discussing. ““We build it, we disable it. You’re frowning. We’re beyond good and evil here, the technology, it’s neutral, eh?” They eat pizza watch TV and in Heidis’ words Niyhing Happened.
> Axel tells Maxine”“Just wannit to let you know, Vip’s ass is grass and the Finance lawn mower’s about to make its pass.” 
> “Thanks for the bulletin, I’ve been losing sleep.”
> Axel looking for Vip, and Maxine can’t help.
> 
> Scene change,  Maxine nodding off, while worried about what Reg has got into. Reg calls, alarmed,  so they meet in east village. 
> “You look like shit, Reg, what happened?” 
> “Technically,” moving his hands away from the keyboard, “I’m supposed to have free run of hashslingrz, right? Except I always knew I didn’t. And, well, yesterday, finally, I walked through the wrong door.”  ….. door said ‘Toilet.’”
> “So you entered illegally . . .”
> “Whatever. Here’s this room, no porcelain in sight, looks like a lab, test benches, equipment and shit, cables, plugs, parts and labor for some job order I quickly realize I don’t want to know nothin about. Plus then’s when I notice there’s all these jabberin A-rabs around, who the minute I come through the door they all dummy up.” “How do you know it’s Arabs, they’re wearing outfits, there’s camels?” “Sounded like that’s what they were talking, they weren’t Anglos, or Chinese, and when I waved at them like ‘Yo my sand niggas, what up—“
> “Reg.”
> ( this last had me literally LOL)
> “Well, more like Ayn al-hammam, where’s the toilet, and one of them comes right over, cold, polite, ‘You are looking for toilet, sir?’ There is some muttering, but nobody shoots at me.”
> “Did they see the camera?”
> “Hard to say. Five minutes later I’m summoned to the office of the Big Ice Pick himself, first thing he wants to know is did I get any footage of the room or the guys in it. I tell him no. I’m lying of course. “And he’s like, ’Cause if you did get footage, you would need to give that to me.’ It was that ‘need,’ I think, like when the cops tell you you ‘need’ to step away from the car. That’s when I
> started to get scared. Second thoughts about the whole fuckin project, frankly.”
> “What were these guys doing? Assembling a bomb?” “I hope not. Way too many circuit cards layin around. Any bomb with that much logic attached to it? Trouble down the line.”
> 
> Reg says  Eric has not seen footage , is looking for Ice’s hawaldar, but maybe also qat( tree leaf stimulant) or other score.
> 
> scene change- Maxi in shower when “nowhere-near-history Horst Loeffler, looks in making Psycho music.
> ““Hey! I’m a day early, you surprised?” 
> “No and also try to quit leering, Horst? I’ll be out of here in a minute.” Is that a hardon? She has retreated into the shower too quick to tell.”
> Horst finds Chunky Monkey in freezer, asks where are boys. Otis with Fiona, Zig rehearsing for play.  He says he missed them and Maxi perceives heavy ex-husband blues. She offers he stay for order in dinner, Ziggy retuns has war hug with dad,jokes about Krav Maga class, they discuss food options, Otis arrives, more food stuff, they settle on Pizza. Horst wants to be “tubeside” by 9 for one of his biopics, ( Humorous fictional biopics lised), calls Maxi his little everything bagel, boys roll eyes, says he has rented space at World Trade Center, because everything is online these days, less need to be close to farm country.  Horst and boys fall asleep in spare bedroom watching golf biopic and Maxi wishes to join them.  
> 
> scene change: Next day Horst takes sons to WTC, which apparently has 5 foot sway range, maybe more in storm.   Chapter ends on interesting Note: On days of storm, according to Horst’s co-tenant Jake Pimento, it’s like being in the crow’s nest of a very tall ship, allowing you to look down at helicopters and private planes and neighboring high-rises. “Seems kind of flimsy up here,” to Ziggy. 
> “Nah,” sez Jake, “built like a battleship.”
> 
> So I left out much banter and  exegesis of fictional bio-pic history( I think fictional) and non-plot side avenues. And maybe those are where some good thematic materials are to be found. 
> Couple three questions.
> ?  a picture of secretive arab speakers working for hashslingerz, and of  Ice wanting to hide it, is further confirmed. Speculations? Suggestions?  Maxines question about a bomb and  Reg’s answer  about a lot of coding for a bomb, seem rather leading, but is pynchon widening the door on inside job idea or are we being set up for a strong counter argument??? Is there any historic information about these kind of fishy or not-fishy  pre-9-11 connections between tech, Intel,  Islamic techies, Al Qaeda itself???
> 
> Is it prety obvious, even in theis chapter, that Horst is going to move back in? 
> Why does P have him so tuned in to TVbiopics ad Ben & Jerry’s. 
> TV is a communal activity with Maxi’s friends and photo graphic records are kind of a big deal with Pynchon ?, So like Yo Yo, my sand niggers what up with that?
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> --
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