BE group read: CH 2

Joseph Tracy brook7 at sover.net
Mon Nov 8 14:53:40 UTC 2021 

I notice that "late capitalism" occurs four times in the novel. seems a worthy thing to consider why , how, whatever.
Anyway, I for one am really looking forward to  the  death and burial of capitalism , timely or untimely, and pleased to hear it called late . I am even ready to completely skip over post late capitalism along with later post late capitalism.
> On 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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