BEg2 Chapter 4: Pow! Pow!

[Mark Kohut]

It IS very funny; the funny ripples all the time....the comic 'surface' is
brilliantly observed and stated. Even the "deeper satire" is hilarious.

This is a major 'comic' novel in both senses---Mel B's and 'comedy"
tradition in literature---yes.

On Thu, Nov 18, 2021 at 9:01 AM Allen Ruch <quail at shipwrecklibrary.com>
wrote:

> I just wanted to add that some of Chapter 4 is pretty funny. While I am
> not saying that Pynchon isn’t engaging in deeper satire, there’s also a lot
> of humor here, too. For instance, the videogame. There’s not a lot of New
> Yorkers who haven’t fantasized about eliminating the kinds of people who
> serve as “targets” in the game. To me, it’s a laugh-out-loud moment:
>
> ++++++++++
>
> “Come on,” sez Otis, “let’s just cruise around.” Off they go on a tour of
> the inexhaustible galleries of New York annoyance, zapping loudmouths on
> cellular phones, morally self-elevated bicycle riders, moms wheeling twins
> old enough to walk lounging in twin strollers, “One behind the other, we
> let them off with a warning, but not this one, look, side by side so nobody
> can get past? forget it.” Pow! Pow! The twins go flying, all smiles, above
> New York and into the Kiddy Bin. Passersby are largely oblivious to the
> sudden disappearances except for Christers, who think it’s the Rapture.
> “Guys,” Maxine astonished, “I had no idea— Wait, what’s this?” She has
> spotted a line jumper at a bus stop. Nobody paying attention. H&Kwoman to
> the rescue! “All right, how do I do this?” Otis is happy to instruct, and
> before you can say “Be more considerate,” the pushy bitch has been
> despatched and her children dragged to safety.
>
> “Way to go Mom, that’s a thousand points.”
>
> +++++++++++
>
> I mean, this shit is funny, because it’s genuine. (“Morally self-elevated
> bicycle riders!”) Sure, talk about desensitization, drone strike training,
> dehumanizing young men so they can kill; fine—but this is also pure Mel
> Brooks here, and anyone who lives in a big city understands “Pow! Pow!”
>
> —Quail, big fan of “Death Race 2000” (1975)
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>