BEg2 chapter 10 asynchronous addenda

[Joseph Tracy]

This is great. Kozmo never made it to rural Vermont or western MA, neither did Duane Read, but Uber kinda sorta did and it is everywhere in Costa Rica, even the rural areas. So I never heard of Kozmo and didn’t follow that name with an internet search? I’m not sure it completely overturns  the magical realism aspect because Marvin seems to bring information from both sides of the Ice/Windust divide. I do think there is almost always in TRP a practical backup explanation for magical stuff. Sometimes it is metaphorical like deep archer, which has several aspects without a technological explanation, but works very well as a metaphor for human relations with cyberspace.  
   One question this brings up is about whether the Windust information is reliable and who wants Maxine to have this information.( She wonders if Windust himself is the source) Later we get confirmation of important parts of this story from his ex-wife and it seems to hold up. Maybe part of the implication is that in the information age it is hard to keep information hidden and certainly  that  theme of the power of secrecy  is critical to BE. In an information war truth is the only good guy.
At any rate there seem to be power struggles and info warfare and deception everywhere , from within hashslingerz, from within branches of CIA, within the government ,  within the tech circles, within the small circle of deep archer etc. 

In stained glass circles and probably in stained glass squares also, flying buttresses are more a source of reverent awe than amusement. I guess we think of the windows as the actual wing feathers of the ark.I will be the first to admit that if these cathedrals fly it is only through time and with a lot of help from planetary motion and what not.

I’m glad you went further into ch 10 
   

> On Jan 1, 2022, at 1:32 AM, Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote: planetary motion and what not
> 
> Kozmo.com
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kozmo.com
> 
> This article contains the logo and the fact that there was no delivery fee.
> 
> How is there any money in that at all, then? Very mysterious.
> 
> 
> Marvin, the magical Trinidadian delivery man -
> “We’re everywhere, like Duane Reade.”
> 
> Duane Reade being a ubiquitous drugstore chain in that time/space
> (acquired by Walgreens in 2010)
> 
> Marvin is an extrapolation of the irrationally exuberant vision of kozmo.com
> :
> If they can deliver for free,
> then it’s only a short step for Marvin not to accept tips, and only another
> step for him to anticipate her needs, obviating any necessity for ordering!
> 
> For me, it’s a reminder of how very much easier technology is making a lot
> of things, and how much easier they stand to become, for which I can’t help
> but feel some gratitude. (Both to technology and its purveyors*, and to
> Pynchon for showing it)
> 
> Since this is a work of fiction, a shimmer of magical realism - and used
> for good! to inform Maxine about Windust - is like a measure of Maraschino
> liqueur in a Papa Doble.
> 
> The part of one’s mind which is reluctant to accept magical realism, but
> fine with wheels-within-wheels paranoidish explanations, might be happier
> with the notion that somebody, say - Ice? - is tracking Maxine’s progress &
> is paying Marvin to do this.
> 
> 
> * when I was a dishwasher at TGI Fridays in 1981, some of us were relaxing
> after work, & the cook mentioned the restaurant’s purveyors - a word I’ve
> often found to be, if not as hilarious as flying buttress, still quite
> amusing.
> 
> I asked him if a purveyor was a perverted surveyor, and without blinking he
> replies yes, it’s a fellow who goes around with a plumb bob up his ass!
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l