BE group read: CH 2

Joseph Tracy brook7 at sover.net
Mon Nov 8 14:49:10 UTC 2021 

Right on Mark. This is definitely a theme and worthy of our interest.

> On Nov 8, 2021, at 3:09 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> The book is permeated with money, with commercialism, with NYC as the
> center of
> money and its fungibility; more posts to come on that as TRP leans into it
> hard. Examples galore.
> The business of America is business said one former President and at this
> time, in this
> NYC, in this America, dotcommers a constant here, along with Maxine's
> profession
> and trying to follow the money, it is no accident to me that Pynchon uses
> the phrase, label,
> "late capitalism" imo. It is a thing and has been and it is getting later
> and later, he might be saying.
> 
> Late capitalism as a thing, concept, stresses the workings of monopoly, the
> system working toward
> monopolies, an inherent vice one might say.
> 
> In this reading it now occurs to me that Pynchon stresses the movement
> toward monopolies---the duck stamp
> collector, the Beanie Babies collector.
> 
> On Sun, Nov 7, 2021 at 7:53 PM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> I’m not following, just skimming a bit from some of these posts. But I
>> hope your discussion doesn’t get short-changed by your use of labels like
>> “postmodernism” and “late capitalism.”  Pointing to a text description of
>> *anything* as an example of one of those isms is just lazy and
>> self-defeating for a real discussion, even if it’s used as a term inside
>> the text.  TV isn’t just TV, if you catch my drift.  Links within the text
>> for deeper intent is a richer source IMHO.  Reference to outside text or TV
>> or current life is great, but only so far as the novel provides its take on
>> them (for the most part).  Authority is always a moving target.  Anyway,
>> that’s my 2 cents.
>> 
>> David Morris
>> 
>> On Sun, Nov 7, 2021 at 7:02 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> Uh, maybe, if that means the idea of bootlegging from the screen, but
>>> Seinfeld got it from NYC life....
>>> ....in the nineties at least, people were doing this and selling lots in
>>> the streets of New York and other cities.
>>> Openly enough on the streets of Jersey City where I lived when I wasn't in
>>> NYC, very smilingly perky attractive Chinese-American woman in my neck of
>>> JC....
>>> 
>>> I also think TRP is satirizing academia and supposed film-makers as well.
>>> Reg is just doing commercial film, everything is now commercial in late
>>> capitalism.
>>> As well as satirizing postmodernism and its labels.
>>> 
>>> On Sun, Nov 7, 2021 at 6:32 PM David Elliott via Pynchon-l <
>>> pynchon-l at waste.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>>>  pp. 8-9 in the PB on Reg as movie pirate - "... far ahead of the
>>> leading
>>>> edge of this postmodern art form" "with your neo-Brechtian subversion of
>>>> the diegesis."
>>>> Do you think Pynchon got the idea from the Seinfeld "Little Kicks"
>>> episode?
>>>> en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Little_Kicks
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> |
>>>> |
>>>> |  |
>>>> The Little Kicks
>>>> 
>>>> George tags along to a company party held by Elaine. He hits on Anna,
>>> one
>>>> of Elaine's employees, but she isn't i...
>>>> |
>>>> 
>>>> |
>>>> 
>>>> |
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>    On Sunday, November 7, 2021, 03:21:53 PM EST, Joseph Tracy <
>>>> brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Edward Despard’s life is a fascinating bit of evidence that modern
>>>> ethical ideas about racial/ethnic justice are not as restricted to
>>> recent
>>>> times as some argue. His complaints about the Crown's financial abuse
>>> and
>>>> his administative attempt at racial justice in Honduras landed him in a
>>>> narrow prison and when a fellow officer visited him he looked in bad
>>>> shape.The parallels to Reg seem a bit extreme but the power and
>>>> ruthlessness of Ice&co soon become evident. This is the second time in
>>>> Pynchon’s novels that a person with a camera is on the frontlines of
>>>> ominous cultural changes, and since Vineland in the 80s the documentary
>>>> (and Docudrama) has become a major force of social critique, from
>>> Michael
>>>> Moore to Citizen 4, few things so authoritative as seeing an event,
>>> though
>>>> we have also learned that editing can be pretty misleading.  Reg is
>>> already
>>>> shaken by what he is seeing, perhaps more than makes obvious sense. He
>>> has
>>>> the documentarian’s sense that he needs confirmation, grounding, solid
>>>> evidence. But what this reader feels as an overall impression is fear,
>>>> which Maxine picks up as "One of those funny looks Maxine by now knows
>>>> better than to ignore. “
>>>>  The name Gabriel Ice amplifies this subtle note of fear, particularlly
>>>> for the Pynchon reader, with references to ATD’s  Vormance expedition to
>>>> Iceland and the Ice monster they release, but also Gabriel and the
>>> Trump-et
>>>> of apocalypse.  The comic prose style that P uses gives the reader a
>>> safe
>>>> distance from the drama. He is cluing us to what looks like some dark
>>> stuff
>>>> but he doesn’t want to manipulate our emotions. It’s like a vampire
>>>> appearing in the Simpsons, funny, silly but not necessarily empty of
>>>> meaning.
>>>>  “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.” The use of 666, appearing only this once in the novel,
>>> and
>>>> kinda offhand, has some serious implications connected to a digital
>>>> powerhouse with connections to the government, or several governments.
>>> In
>>>> the book of the Revelation, which is admittedly a strange piece of work,
>>>> 666 has 2 meanings; it is connected to a figure called the beast or
>>>> 'anti-Christ’ and implicit in his ’name’, and it is a mark instituted by
>>>> the beast's rule, a number embedded in the body that allows the
>>> citizens to
>>>> buy or sell and restricting those who don’t have the mark from economic
>>>> transactions. This kind of system has been made dramatically more
>>> feasible
>>>> with digital technology and is not without proponents among the high
>>> tech
>>>> plutocrats. Some are nervous that the pandemiic and the idea of a
>>> digital
>>>> passport point in this direction. Not trying to say Pynchon sees this a
>>>> prophetic situation, but he is throwing out some pretty dark imagery
>>> around
>>>> Ice and the implicit growth of electronic surveillance and secretiveness
>>>> that got kicked into high gear after 9-11.
>>>>  I don’t like John of Patmos’ book at all, the cruel gloating as God
>>>> pours out his curses on an evil humanity does not appeal to me, but is
>>>> there some possibility that the altered state that allowed this vision
>>>> holds some inherent logic about the combination of economic and military
>>>> imperialism that reached an early height of power in the Roman empire?
>>>> Well, that is what is weird about ‘sacred texts’.  They look like
>>>> superstitious nonsense one period and like uncanny prescience the next.
>>>> Pynchon works this territory with uncommon fearlessness and can’t
>>> easily
>>>> be reduced to a skilled hypertext game player for me. My own connection
>>> to
>>>> literature, to words, to images, is not without the quality of 'a
>>> purpose
>>>> on earth written in code none of us can read’ but all of us want to.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 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 ?
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
>>>>> 
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>>>> 
>>>> 
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