BEg2 ch 18 quick summary, private noses

[Mark Kohut]

Just want to point out the word "insanely". Counteracts in the text the
rightness of feeling guilt.

So far, 9/11 foreshadowings are pretty minimal it seems to me.  Unknown
money flow, some Middle Eastern folks,
what'd I miss? But the angel of death, since Maxine's dreams are
foreboding, resonates as stated. Her dreams in BE
are presented as some kind of precognition.

Now a petty thief trying to repent and make restitution is dead. Around
threatening Gabriel Ice. But his ghost may traipse
about.

On Thu, Feb 10, 2022 at 8:03 PM Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

> Thanks Neal for posting this. Tells the core story. Already the last day
> according to schedule for ch 18.
>
>  One of the most appealing things about Maxine is her compassion for
> everyone, especially those who just want a life wrth having,  and her
> reaction to Lester T’s death is like an emotional upping of the ante. This
> quote is odd and credible, "Insanely she begins to blame herself. Because
> she found Ice’s tunnel. Ran away from whatever was approaching. It’s Ice
> getting even, coming after her now.”
> Her dark dream about LT has come true and it brings her to the issue of
> her own failure of courage. It seems P is packing that turning point with
> meaning. It stirs personal issues for me and the feeling that there are
> often fears behind the fears we thought we dealt with. When she sees Lester
> with the blonde is it her psyche trying to pull him back into the land of
> the living? Is the blonde bombshell significant.  Suddenly this is a murder
> mystery and she cares and is grasping for meaning in what she knows to be
> an already very complicated narrative.
>   I wonder if P’s purpose is to bring 9-11 and every act of organized,
> carefully plotted violence into a closer emotional range. But to also show
> how hard to resolve any crime and know what is true and real. The
> specificity of a person who is cared for summons our sense that there
> should be justice, that the guilty party or parties should reap what they
> sowed, since this life that could as easily have been our life has been
> taken for someone’s convenience, or ego or geostrategic move.
>   If Lester’s life is forgettable, what about ours? And how easily notions
> of justice become misdirected revenge. Maxine does not even know what she
> witnessed earlier or how to order what she has experienced, feels pummeled
> by Shawn's questions. Who has not experienced something like that. How
> clear and real a picture of what happened can emerge? Will a private nose
> clarify things?
>
> Another dream, another underworld. Once again Maxine is in the depths of a
> dream at a real place looking down under the waters of the Deseret pool and
> ?Lester? is there in a suit and he is saying “Azrael". Her first response
> is to think of the Smurf Gargamel’s cat, but Lester/not Lester’s face says
> no and she realizes it is the name of the Angel of Death of Judaism and
> Islam. Both religions have relevance, both people play roles in her
> investigation and in the larger focus of the book. Once again her mind
> turns to the corridor in Montauk and Ice also named after an angel,
> Gabriel. The world Angel translates literally as messenger, but what is the
> message? Is this about the death that is coming( 9-11) or is this about a
> choice between fearlessness and fear, truth and death, annunciation or
> dissolution.
>
> The movement from smurf cats to angels of annunciation and death is
> interesting.  Are we surrounded by commercial cartoon myths but too distant
> from the undelying mythic language to understand the writing on the wall?
>
> > On Feb 8, 2022, at 1:44 AM, Neal Fultz <nfultz at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > * Maxine hears on the radio that Lester Traipse has been found dead
> > (apparent suicide?)
> > * But then she spots him going down to the subway. Or was it a lookalike?
> > * She discusses this with her therapist, Shawn
> > * But her session runs long, cuts into the session of Conkling
> Speedwell, a
> > professional nose
> > * And they get lunch, and discuss perfumes, freelancing, and nasal
> forensics
> > * She and Conkling go to the Deseret to investigate Lester's death in the
> > below-pool viewing rooms
> > * Lester was murdered with a ballistic knife (KGB?)
> > * Conkling gets a scent, takes an air sample, and they head back to his
> to
> > compare with his personal collection
> >   * and he matches it to the 9:30 Club in DC
> > * Later, Maxine dreams of the crime scene beneath the pool. Lester's
> corpse
> > says "Azrael"
> >
> >
> > ---
> >
> > "Sam Valiant, Private Nose" (1961) -
> > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJn-5xoSw34
> >
> > “Every Crime Has Its Peculiar Odor”: Detection, Deodorization, and
> > Intoxication" -
> > https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.18574/9781479805372-002/pdf
> >
> > The most recent incarnation of the deodorizing detective is the eponymous
> >> protagonist of The Sniffer (2013–)—a popular Ukrainian television series
> >> directed by Artyom Litvinenko and internationally distributed by Amazon
> >> Prime and Netflix
> >
> >
> > 9:30 club - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9:30_Club
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>
>
>
> --
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>