Re: BEg2 chapter 2 one thing the Reddit poster said…

[Joseph Tracy]

Nice review of this topic of BPD and why Pynchon may be using it.  Certainly the word borderline is almost interchangeable with boundary. Maxine seems to want to sit on several boundaries and decide, sort of, in situ, which way to go. This is understandable in many ways. There is lots of confusion at the social borderlines and being on the ‘legal’ side is not always being on the humane or just side. Actual border guards are one of many examples. We all do some of this borderline fence sitting or moving back and forth according to our own compass( does that count for mixed a metaphor?).  
   There is a dark side to this; someone is ‘nice’, shares a social space with you but is doing some real nasty shit( Weiner, Windust)( are Ws really double Vs?) so we are tempted to not know too much or assure ourselves that the niceness is what matters. It happens on many scales. Saudis are our ‘friends’ because they buy our weapons and occasionally lower oil prices for the US. 

> On Feb 19, 2022, at 1:41 AM, Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> …raised a valid point: the symptoms of Borderline Personality Disorder do
> not really square with the behaviors of the people who are cruising on the
> Aristide Olt with Maxine.
> 
> https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/borderline-personality-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20370237
> 
> “With borderline personality disorder, you have an intense fear of
> abandonment or instability, and you may have difficulty tolerating being
> alone. Yet inappropriate anger, impulsiveness and frequent mood swings may
> push others away, even though you want to have loving and lasting
> relationships.”
> 
> 
> None of the online stuff I’ve seen explains why they call it that, I mean,
> why “borderline” in particular?
> Not real impressed with that nomenclature for that set of symptoms tbh.
> 
> 
> So I think it’s fair game for detournement by Pynchon.
> 
> The cruisers actually all seem like people with more money than sense who
> are avoiding thinking about how they acquired that money or anything useful
> they could do with it.
> 
> (Except Reg Despard, whether on spec or on whose behest he’s filming we
> never learn…)(so I guess he’s ignoring the boundaries of privacy? and thus
> a fitting participant?)
> 
> A-and that Joel Wiener - buyer-up of rent-controlled buildings &
> converter-to-co-ops thru shady & nasty means (a real guy & apparently still
> at it) - was the faux-simpatico dude whom Maxine became far too trusting &
> perhaps fond of, to the point where she revealed certain secrets of her
> trade -
> 
> Which somehow became known to the ACFE, precipitating her expulsion
> therefrom -
> 
> Which (along with her acceptance of more and more shady client references
> from Horst during their somewhat drink-sodden courtship) I can’t quite
> bring myself to cite as evidence that she later took Igor’s money, but does
> reveal a less-than-exemplary adherence to strictly constructed ethical
> boundaries -
> 
> And that “boundary” thing may be what Pynchon is getting at with the
> “Borderline” -
> 
> Borderline, boundary, same difference sort of -
> 
> Overstepping, like Horst with his dalliances ignoring behavioral boundaries
> implied by his commitment to Maxine,
> 
> and Windust with his “free market” idealism ignoring human suffering,
> 
> and Joel Wiener with his attachment to profit overstepping legal and
> ethical boundaries to his rights versus his obligations vis a vis his
> tenants
> 
> Or New York’s appetite for consumer goods creating mountains of garbage
> that transgress into places that should be safe from it
> 
> Or the bribed approvers of the Deseret pool, leaving the space where they
> meet the requirements of their jobs, to step into the line of “money money
> who cares where it came from”
> 
> I mean, this sort of ignoring good-sense boundaries is a lot more
> meaningful a definition of “borderline personality disorder” than the DSM
> one, imho.
> 
> Heidi cancelled (at this point, deep into creative headspace beyond the
> borderline of mundane sensible interpretation, I make bold to say) because
> she realized the textbook definition didn’t make sense & that - as a
> responsible academic - she doesn’t suffer from that sort of BPD.
> 
> Whereas Maxine, who, in this interpretation anyway, is going to spend the
> book* learning about boundaries and borderlines, perhaps does. And thus
> needs the cruise.
> 
> 
> * a) if she does indeed turn down Igor’s cash, that’s her setting boundaries
> 
> b) in the passageway beneath Ice’s cellar, she learns about the limits of
> the protection her Tomcat can provide
> 
> c) I think she is also going to reach and respect some limiting factors -
> ie borderlines - regarding her ability to seek justice for Lester Traipse
> 
> d) and definitely is repeatedly reminded of the limits of what she can find
> out about 9-11
> 
> e) also, she is able to use the Tomcat later in the book as she reminds Ice
> of some boundaries to what he can get away with w/r/t Tallis.
> --
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