Chap 22. The center cannot hold....

[Mark Kohut]

Reg hasn't been heard from, fired from hashslingerz, like Eric.
Who will take Maxine around the Deep Web.

This chapter is just about the exact center of this novel via pagination,
and didn't someone once point out that Pynchon has structured other novels
such that key thematic explanations or occurrences often happen in the very
middle.
The zone of theme, so to speak.

Seems kinda key here. Down into the Deep Web for a look 'round, where
Pynchon
creates on paper a prescient META virtual (alternate) world. P. 240...."It
surprises Maxine
how populated it is down here in sub-spider country....then another of P's
famous LOL witty "lists".
"pilgrims"...."remittance folks"--hints of AtD?---"fugue cases", LOL....

Sandwichgrrl.....'manga-style subteen face".......yes, that is the face of
the girls on manga books...
and that is also a continuing critique of the high tech geek world....