BEg2 chapter 13 brief summary

[Mark Kohut]

Yeah, Midol West. Witty. Remember the image of the Columbus area of
Ohio in *Against
the Day? *
Basically, the asshole of America?

And the rest of your summary so perfectly shows us, if not the plot clearly
(the plot is still unclear)
then the thematic meanings of 'the plot".....The money, follow the money,
show me the money, Ice
wanting to buy off---Trump-like---March; Madoff's Ponzi scheme, which seems
to me an internal metaphor for
hashslingerz and emblematic of many tech companies in this novel.

Another country's men somehow connected; the web of whatever is very
international and now more mysterious than ever.

And more intersection with an unknown force via Magical Realism elements.
Are these elements a kind of doubling
of the mysterious movements (and power) of money? Disembodied forces like
disembodied money, which is, basically, what money
is these days....electronic creations?

And then the hint of real physical danger. And I don't know what
flulike feelings in one's fingers are but I know they would be
bad.......I am reminded of the German word (which our German readers might
enlighten us with) for a perfectly attuned feeling
for things; a feeling beyond words and intellection...."fingertip
feeling".....

On Mon, Jan 10, 2022 at 3:35 AM Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Airport
> Tail ‘Em and Nail ‘Em
> Omega Diner on 72nd
> Days later at the Deseret
> Pizza joint downtown
>
> At the airport, Maxine has ridden along to say goodbye to her sons and to
> Horst as they leave for their multipurpose visit to parts West.
> They’ll be flying to Chicago for some sightseeing then renting a car for
> visiting Horst’s parents in Iowa and then touring the “Midol West,”
> Maxine’s name for the part of the country that makes her feel like she’s on
> her period.
> Saying it aloud doesn’t awaken me to a joke or pun, so perhaps this is
> something a female friend may have shared with Pynchon. Probably a New
> Yorker - like that Talking Heads song about flyover states, The Big Country
> - “I wouldn’t live there if you paid me…nosiree!”
> https://youtu.be/b640fKk45J8
>
>
> After the guys walk away, only Otis looking back, Maxine sees Vyrva and
> Justin on their way to DEFCON in Las Vegas, which was July 13-15 in 2001. —
> quite a bit of time since the story began on the first day of spring.
> They expect quite a bit of interest in DeepArcher.
>
> Back at the office, Daytona the receptionist is watching on the
> Afro-American Romance Channel (ARCH) a movie that sounds a lot like “Jerry
> Maguire” without the Jerry Maguire character - eliminate the middleman?
>
> During a commercial she gives Maxine a message to call Gabriel Ice. When
> she does, their conversation escalates into a clash that culminates in his
> hanging up on her. But not before warning her to stay away from Tallis. Oh,
> and asking her how much she thinks he would have to pay March Kelleher to
> lay off hashslingrz on her blog, which he probably knows she will answer
> that that’s not buyable.
>
> Rocky Slagiatt “checks in, as usual bringing no luggage.”
> Little double take on my part - it’s a play on checking in to a motel/
> checking in by phoning.
> Never connected those before.
> Applying the “no luggage” modifier to the phone call, probably means
> “aroused suspicion in her.”
>
> They meet up at the (not currently on Google) Omega Diner on 72nd, and he
> introduces her to Igor Dashkov and his two young sidekicks Misha and
> Grisha. Misha and Grisha (affectionate Russian nicknames for Michael and
> Gregory) are just out of “zona,” Russian prison.
>
> Igor asks her about Bernie Madoff and, after a look at some printouts he
> gives her, she tips him off that it’s a Ponzi scheme.
>
> Big mitzvah, we can expect some gratitude later.
>
> Days later, she goes to the Deseret for a swim, but a bit of Magical
> Realism in the form of an anthropomorphic elevator takes her not to the
> pool, but to an unfamiliar floor where she meets up with Reg Despard.
> He’s been fired (and his apartment ransacked) (although he saved some of
> his footage by hiding it) from the Hashslingrz documentary project after he
> started following some of their people to the Deseret.
> He tells her Gabriel Ice is one of the owners of the Deseret.
> They stealthily leave the building & ride a bus downtown to 8th Street. At
> a pizza joint’s sidewalk table she has a “flulike” feeling in her fingers
> giving rise to a suspicion that Despard’s ransackers might be people even
> more dangerous than Gabriel Ice.
> She warns him to be careful.
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>