BE group read: CH 2

Sun Nov 7 09:09:43 UTC 2021

Chap 2;
What wit! What crackling prose, as alive as you or me it feels. I had
forgotten the feel of this.
 A pianist up and down the keyboard of nuances, every adjective and adverb
enriching the telling.
Punchy, stage-like, stand-up comic-like...What other novel of his is quite
like this in the prose?
Very New York, I would suggest. Shorthand like "Couple years in fact" , a
complete sentence.

Hashslingerz, "a purpose on earth written in code none of us can read"...

"Borderlines by the boatload" ....
www.health.harvard.edu › a_to_z › borderlineBorderline Personality Disorder
- Harvard Health
<https://www.health.harvard.edu/a_to_z/borderline-personality-disorder-a-to-z>

Borderline personality disorder is characterized by poor self-image, a
feeling of emptiness, and great difficulty coping with being alone. People
with this disorder have highly reactive and intense moods, and unstable
relationships. Their behavior can be impulsive. They are also more likely
than average to attempt or commit suicide. Sometimes, without intending to
commit suicide, they harm themselves (for example, cutting or burning) as a
form of self-punishment or to combat an empty feeling. When stressed,
people with borderline personality disorder may develop psychotic-like
symptoms. They experience a distortion of their perceptions or beliefs
rather than a distinct break with reality. Especially in close
relationships, they tend to misinterpret or amplify what other people feel
about them. For example, they may assume a friend or family member is
having extremely hateful feelings toward them, when the person may be only
mildly annoyed or angry. People with borderline personality...

A nation of such people we infer from a writer of such soft generalizing?
At least a city of such, right?   Once again, this character type out of
Fromm's* Escape From Freedom, *

a book which one Pynchon scholar has shown, he says, greatly influenced
Pynchon.

Maxine is immersed in this world trying to see clearly but also full of the
bad relationship surround. With one girlfriend solid thru a shared man. [
sorry, from Chap 3]. That's solider than in Jane Austen.

the mob is mentioned, Film, TV, this is NYC. Corruption is the daily bread
and Maxine now lives outside the law because she too.  It gets her more
business!, this is NYC.

The burning torch above and in front of the opened book on the Association
letter she gets. The Law ready to go up in flames? Already done?

On Sat, Nov 6, 2021 at 4:22 PM Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

> I will delay one more day on votes about the rate of our group read, but
> it looks like the long haulers have it. 4 days per chapter with an extra
> day for the chapters over 13 pages. Vote now if you want a faster read.
> Today is the last of 4 days for this chapter, but I will post the chapter
> 2  summary now because tomorrow I will be away til late.  No rush if you
> have more thoughts on CH 1. Any early volunteers for Ch 3 Nov 11-14? I will
> post general chapter schedule  and invitation to host by Monday.
>
> Bleeding edge Ch 2 summary
>
> at end of Ch 1 Reg Despard arrives at Maxine’s office and  is brought in
> with warmth, affection
> and curious anticipation. “Do get your ass in here. Long time.”
> CH 2 BE
> Reg Despard’s name -  Reg by itself derives from latin for
> ruler/king/queen The only historic Despard I found was Edward Despard (
> 1751-18030 famous for contending for equal teatment of races, right to buy
> land in Carribean, for marrying a black woman, for accusations of sedition
> that, though unproved, bankrupted him and later for accusation and
> conviction for  questionable plot to kill king George 3, for this he was
> drawn and quartered long after that horrifying practice was in use. He was
> a social reformer/revolutionary Influenced by Tom Paine.            Reg
> Despard first met Maxine on a carribean cruise.
>
> Reg looks considerably hammered by interval of a couple years( this would
> fit life of Edward Despard, but why hammered?). He is a video documentarian
> who began as movie pirate making camcorder videos of first run movies,
> duplicating and selling for a dollar or 2. He got drawn into academic scene
> by professor who says he is on leading edge ”“with your neo-Brechtian
> subversion of the diegesis.”  Soon he is shooting his own pictures and has
> a business making documentaries. Maxine asks what he’s there about and …
> “It’s this company I’ve been shooting a documentary about? I keep running
> into . . .” One of those funny looks Maxine by now knows better than to
> ignore.
> “Attitude.” “Access issues. Too much I’m not being told.”
> Reg thinks info is hidden in Deep Web, Maxi says maybe you want a techie.
> He already has one named Eric Outfield.
> The firm who commissioned the documentary is called hashslingerz, does
> computer security , reputed to be expanding , making big money….
>
> R “ I have this tiny advance the company’s kicking in, plus I’m allowed
> total access, or so I thought till yesterday, which is when I figured I’d
> better see you.” “Something in the accounting.” “Just like to know who I’m
> working for. I haven’t sold my soul yet—“
>
> The firm is owned by Gabriel Ice, Maxi recalls  photo of boy billionaire
> in white, makes Bill Gates look charismatic.
> “That’s only his party mask. He has deep resources.”
> “You’re suggesting what, mob, covert ops?” “According to Eric, a purpose
> on earth written in code none of us can read. Except maybe for 666, which
> tends to recur.
> Reg asks maxi if she still has concealed carry permit and if whole set up
> is too paranoid.
> “Not me, paranoia’s the garlic in life’s kitchen, right, you can never
> have too much.”
>
> In  the course of  a talk about pay Reg suggests she looks like  film star
> Rachel Weisz.This leads into 5 pages of flashback to a budget cruise Maxi
> went on at suggestion of her sex, cop, pop culture obsessed best friend
> Heidi Czornak. The cruise was Heidi’s  attempt to break Maxine’s post
> divorce depair which was causing her to drink too much and cry a lot. The
> passengers are mostly from“AMBOPEDIA Frolix ’98,” a yearly gathering of the
> American Borderline Personality Disorder Association.”
> She meets Reg on this cruise, continues to drink heavily, meets duck stamp
> collectors and other amusing folk, gambles  and talks with Reg using
> Jujubes under the influence of “Generic Undiagnosed James Bond Syndrome,
> whole different support group.She meets Joel Weiner ( the real??? J Weiner
> was  an unscrupulous real estate mogul indicted many times) Occasionally
> forgets about Horst. This trip the budget cruise line is headed for
> borderline of Haiti and Dominican Republic. Her and Reg start drinking
> Mamajuana, a jar containing a vine soaked in rum and red wine with voodo
> love spell. They find room in abandoned luxury hotel and misbehave on
> moldering bed amidst vines and lizards.
>
> Back in novel’s real time Maxine asks Reg if they… He politely or memory
> fogged by mamajuana says no. We find out somehow Weiner indirectly caused
> Maxine's license to be revoked when she “cut him too much slack” not
> following evidence of fraud and offering him some “tricks of the trade out
> of “friendship”.
>   “Friendship?” Reg is puzzled. “You didn’t even like him.”
>  M “A technical term.”
> We get more details of license removal, possibility of appeal which Maxine
> does not pursue.  Not sure she wants to be   “the one incorruptible still
> point in the whole jittery mess, the atomic clock everybody trusts.”
> …………………………………………………………….
>
> Hope that isn’t too long or too short for  a summary, but still lots of
> room for details and questions raised.  Summaries help me see the acton as
> a whole, since Pynchon writes so engagingly in the digressions.
>
> comic issues- Ambopedia, academic media criticism, duck stamps, James Bond
> Syndrome, cheapo luxury cruises,
>
> serious issues- divorce; secretive powerful tech firm tagged
> 666/Ice/apocalyptic angel Gabriel; deep web; real estate fraud abuse; fraud
> investigation;  moral and job independence.
>
> comico-serious-why hashslingerz ?
>
>
>
>
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>