BEg2 chapter 3 Qs & tentative As

[Michael Bailey]

Thanks, Joseph!


Thoughts and questions

Maxine is a highly social being in a crowded city and her life is full
of human connections. Same with Heidi and several of the characters we
meet. Is this partly or intentionally to draw a contrast to her later
isolated plunge into the deep web and relations that are simulated
avatars of the real?


- interesting possibility. As the Jim Belushi character said in About
Last Night, “at this point, we still don’t know.”


 Is it a more general contrast with the movement to a virtual society?

Maybe exploring that, like is there a difference between all this
online entertainment/info and “bread and circuses”?



Thoughts on that?

Pass for now



How important are the jokey digressions like the funny bit about the
fake Kosher inspectors?

Not just a joke, that one:

https://nypost.com/2021/05/23/long-island-rabbis-accused-of-mafia-like-methods-in-kosher-turf-battle/amp/

But in general, imho, the jokes are the important bits




What kinds of forces does the Deseret embody for Maxine, for us, and
why is it so prominent in the novel?

LDS? I find it fascinating that they have their own word for “honeybee”



Why the poking at internal Jewish ethnic tensions?

I hope someone will offer something. I have a few no doubt wrong impressions.

Hochdeutsch more assimilative?



Is there really a pop culture department at City College?

Not that I could find


The entire chapter is backgound information on the characters and
culture. Does it retain interest or weaken the momentum?

Heidi introduced. Lots about Horst. Oh yes, it’s germane. Gripping.
The way she keeps on being friends with Heidi. The way she still
thinks about Horst.


Is it necessary?

If chapter 1 introduced Maxine, and Chapter 2, her work, then Chapter
3 introduces her emotional/social milieu. As Dave Letterman used to
say, “the pyramid of comedy!”


 Does the comedy carry us through a lull in dramatic action?

No, no - the drama carries us thru lulls in the comedic action, it’s a
figure-ground type of thing I guess but the comedy rules (imho)