BEg2 chapter 12 digging in again

[Mark Kohut]

If I were even a fifth part observational as P, I would see enough to be
visually smart....but, in retrospect from an unobservational of
vehicles kind of guy, Yes.

There are simple plain trucks....there is a LOT of contract work in
NYC....a LOT......there is off the books work....there are day
laborers....but the hiring of others
in the constant building trades work is everywhere....

On Fri, Jan 7, 2022 at 10:59 AM Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

> So New Yorkers, can I ask after the passage about the unmarked
> construction vehicles/activities - Zat real? Do you notice such ? Does
> anyone?  I have the sense a lot of this is direct observation by P, but not
> things I would notice in my infrequent visits.
>
> > On Jan 7, 2022, at 2:26 AM, Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > Joseph Tracy wrote:
> >
> > Going uptown, Maxine gets a weird slow ride with an anti-semitic
> > cabbie who may be about to lose his license, she doesn’t like park
> > ave.
> >
> >
> > https://youtu.be/GcCNcgoyG_0
> > Off topic perhaps…
> >
> >
> > Park Avenue:
> >
> > “Built originally as a kind of genteel lid to cover up the train
> > tracks running into Grand Central, what should it be, the
> > Champs-Élysées”
> >
> > There’s a fascinating Wikipedia article on Park Avenue, and one on the
> > Champs-Élysées.
> >
> > Maxine isn’t impressed!
> >
> >
> > “In broad daylight, however, at an average speed of one block per
> > hour, jammed with loud and toxic-smelling traffic, all in advanced
> > states of disrepair, whose drivers suffer (or enjoy) a hostility level
> > comparable to that of Maxine’s driver here—not to mention police
> > barricades, Form Single Lane signs, jackhammer crews, backhoes and
> > front-end loaders, cement mixers, asphalt spreaders, and battered dump
> > trucks unmarked by any contractor’s name let alone phone number—it
> > becomes an occasion for spiritual exercise, though maybe more of the
> > Eastern type than anything connected with this radio station, now
> > blasting some kind of Christian hip-hop.”
> >
> > Cash for clunkers - years in the future from 2001 - did noticeably
> > remove a lot of jalopies from circulation.
> >
> > Not an unusually long sentence for Pynchon, but partakes of that listy
> > sense for which Slothrop’s desk gave many of us a taste.
> >
> > Drivers suffer “or enjoy” their hostility level.
> >
> > Tom Wolfe talked about New York traffic in some essay or other, how
> > every little micro aggression inflicted by one’s fellow commuters
> > caused a little more adrenal hypertrophy, or something like that but
> > more polished. And how the drivers came to expect and enjoy it.
> >
> > The commute becomes an extension of her Zen sitting, but with the
> > cabdriver’s “evangelical” hostility the looming presence her sitting
> > is set against, instead of Horst.
> >
> > This resonates nicely with an earlier reference to the single-person
> > submarine she erects around herself when looking at real estate
> > threatened by the same type of demolition and construction happening
> > around the cab.
> >
> > “Dump trucks unmarked by contractor name or telephone number” is a
> > little unsettling - it’s as if Chicago School propaganda of
> > privatization had pushed away the idea of the city owning and
> > maintaining the streets with city vehicles and valued public servants
> > enjoying benefits and held to accountability in the name of a
> > commonality of interest, in favor of a low-bid scramble.
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>
>
>
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>