SLPAD - 114 - “Low-Lands” - 26

[Michael Bailey]

Whenever he was away from Cindy and could think he would picture his life
as a surface in the process of change, much as the floor of the dump was in
transition: from concavity or inclosure to perhaps a flatness like the one
he stood in now. What he worried about was any eventual convexity, a
shrinking, it might be, of the planet itself to some palpable curvature of
whatever he would be standing on, so that he would be left sticking out
like a projected radius, unsheltered and reeling across the empty lunes of
his tiny sphere.



What are lunes?

Lune: a crescent-shaped figure formed on a sphere or plane by two arcs
intersecting at two points
https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Lunes (4th definition)


He doesn’t mind being gradually raised along with his surroundings, but if
the world itself shrinks so he’s sticking out…


You could translate that into socioeconomic terms - he can accept his
wealth increasing as part of a tableau “floating all boats”

But then a planetary shrinkage would be likened to the general economy
contracting, leaving him and his wealth conspicuous

It’s possible that this is a manifestation of a guilt feeling about the
uneven and frankly unfair distribution of benefits pursuant to the
rent-seeking of the financializers shepherded by Wasp, Winsome, and their
influential ilk.

Or just a personal fear of pitchforks and torches when the inevitable
uprising of the exploited (personified in the muscular and ruffianly
presences of Rocco and Pig) comes to pass - get in good with those guys
before the Reign of Terror?

Or maybe that’s not at all what Pynchon is getting at here, although if
that’s not it, what is it?

Flange -
Likes the sea
No meeting of the minds with Cindy
One word for his job: “No”
Likes wine and music
Proletarian friend Rocco
Ne’er-do-well friend Pig
Elaborate thought processes