BE ReRead. Chap 5 In Which Maxine Learns a Lot

[Mark Kohut]

We know Pynchon was deeply influenced by the Great Max Weber. One of his
own deep archers, so to
say. I am going to offer this as a gloss on this mysterious tech world and
that chicken in this chapter:

When Max Weber suggested in 1917 that the world had been disenchanted, he
meant that modernity was best understood by the expansion of “technical
means” that controlled “all things through calculation.” The real power of
these technical means lay not in the techniques and technologies themselves
but in the disposition of those who used them, in their unshakable
confidence that there were in principle “no mysterious, incalculable
forces” they could not calculate and control. Such a technical rationality
had replaced the “magical means” premodern people had used to placate gods
and spirits.

On Fri, Nov 19, 2021 at 5:32 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> We learn of the male dickheads who dominate tech companies.
> Pynchon has the concept permeate: Benford's Law pops up
> "wagging its dick"....Ice is described as an arrogant prick....
> These males throw parties with naked chicks.
>
> I continue to contrast with the female sensibilities, here Driscoll, who
> sees the dicks as they are and is instantly simpatico with Maxine.
>
> Maxine learns there is no randomness in this operation via Benford's Law;
> it is manipulation by agents......hashslingerz is hiring big for its
> "virtual corporation" ...ghost
> vendors are mentioned...we are in the aetherial realm, of course, no
> physical substance.
> The constant latent fear of "virtual reality" here, I might say; no place
> to stand; no solid ground anywhere.
> The most extreme Luddite fear besides unemployment maybe?
>
> Love the riff on online games. I knew folks who played solitaire online as
> constant stress relief, at least.
>
> Where some are learning Arabic...to do "big deals".....So Baby Bush can do
> his daddy one better.
>
> Chicken-killing ritual for a meat facial at the salon?? Kinda opposite the
> hi-tech world. Old-fashioned
> practices co-exist in hi tech NYC?
>
> Maxine learns she is being followed; realizes at the end they must know
> where she lives already.
> No randomness here; seen and known as she discovers manipulated 'fraud"??
>
> In a traditional mystery, what would the private dick be thinking to do
> now?
>
>
>
>
> Pop-ups, little "goombas" a mob-resonant joke (to pick up on the earlier
> mob reference ) AND a character in a Mario Brothers video game.
>