BE CH 34 summary

[Joseph Tracy]

BE Ch 34
 Halloween at the Deseret
Focus moves from generalities about Halloween in NYC to family plans: Zig  going as Empire State Building with stuffed mokey on side, and with  Otis, going to T-or-T with Indian friends in Deseret, chaperoned by Vyrva and Justin. Eric going with Driscoll as NAND logic gate to Village. Maxi and Horst put goodies outside apt, have sex for an hour, then Maxi heads to Deseret to check on kids.Heidi going out with camcorder as Margaret Mead to record urban primitive. Tenants of Deseret have gone all out with pricy treats and special effects. Misha & Grisha both show up as Osama Bin Laden.
“We were going to go as World Trade Center,” Misha explains, “but decided OBL would be even more offensive.”
They are there in honor of Lester Traipse the real ghost on the scene
“You guys were friends with Lester? Did business?” Or to put it another way, what earthly connection . . . unless that’s the point, and the connection is anything but earthly. It’s fuckin Hallowe’en.
    “Lester was fellow podonok,” Misha blushing a little, as if embarrassed at how lame this sounds, “friend of scumbag hackers everywhere.”
Maxi asks if they trained as hackers in Russia.
…“Not that I mean to pry, it’s only that Lester may have fallen afoul of Gabriel Ice, who as you must know is practically synonymous with U.S. security arrangements. So Russian intelligence would naturally have an interest in his activities.” “He owns this building,” Grisha sort of blurts, getting a look from his coadjutor. “If he’s here tonight, maybe we’ll run into him. Him or one of his people. Maybe they won’t like seeing Osama twins. Who knows? Little Mortal Kombat maybe.”

They run into Ziggy Otis Fiona and her friend along with V and Justin who Mish anf G recognize as maker of DeepArcher and admit to being fans. They exchange biz cards. M&G  see DArcher as real place, refuge. ….
“Lester,” Grisha whispers, eyes angling upstairs toward the pool, “Lester’s soul. You understand? Stingers on roof. That.” A head gesture out into the All Saints night, toward far downtown where the Trade Center used to stand,…

Chapter ends with Heidi returning
AFTER HER HALLOWE’EN ANTHRO EXPEDITION, Heidi has come back a changed person. “Children of all ages enacting the comprehensive pop-cultural moment. Everything collapsed into the single present tense, all in parallel. Mimesis and enactment.” She may’ve been having a little incoherence after a while. Nowhere did she see a perfect copy of anything. Not even people who said, “Oh, I’m just going as myself” were authentic replicas of themselves. 
    “It’s depressing. I thought Comic-Con was peculiar, but this was Truth. Everything out there just a mouseclick away. Imitation is no longer possible. Hallowe’en is over. I never thought people could get too wised up. What’ll happen to us all?” 
“And because you tend to be a blamer . . .” 
“Oh I blame the fuckin Internet. No question.”

Thoughts: I thought Ziggy’s King Kong on Empire State was reference to Is it Ok to be A Luddite which refers to Kong as ultimate Luddite badass killed by airplane tech ? or beauty? We find out Ice owns Deseret, and that M& G knew Lester T.  Heidi seems to feel real horror has eclipsed imaginary or something like that??? Lester’s death grows slightly as mystery and source of anger.