History's hiccup - Princip Returns?

[Michael Bailey]

Hi, Matthew,

I’ve been getting interested in the Merle thread of AtD, as sort of an
archetype of a techie way of being in the world.

Not much of a one to comment on or get involved in current events, maybe
the only times he comes close to that is when he’s speculating humorously
about linkage between Blinky Morgan and Michelson Morley, and when he and
his old photo mentor Roswell Bounce demonstrate a method of running a
photograph forward and backward in time, & specifically mention (to Lew,
whom they’ve called in to consult on security) trying that on a photo of
the New York Times with a tricky calibration for the night of its bombing
in 1910 - going on to say that ever since they’ve been delving into such
matters there’ve been signs of unseemly interest in them from parties who
didn’t announce themselves:

“Now you’ve seen the unit in action,” said Merle, “let us just give you the
rundown on why we asked you in. Some funny things’ve been happening around
here lately. Gorillas out in the alley just standing, smoking, watching.
Telephones ring in the middle of the night but nobody’s ever on the line.
Cars cruise past, closed sedans, smoked-glass windows, very slow, and some
of the license-plate numbers show up more than once. And then just out in
the course of the day’s work, somebody’ll pass along a word or two of
caution, or concern, never too loud, never allowin their lips to move.”


But I haven’t exhaustively read all the Merle bits yet.

Maybe not the only facet of him, but there’s a part which really gets
interested in the technical details of stuff, yet not so much in the
politics and personality factors?





On Tue, Dec 10, 2024 at 6:35 AM matthew cissell <mccissell at gmail.com> wrote:

> Howdy folks,
>
> Hey, anybody in here? Sure is quiet. Smells 'bout the same though. Has
> everybody packed up and moved over to Fauxbook, sorry, Metiocre? Me? I'm
> more of a muta kinda guy. (Wha'? Got no Muta? Jump on yo scoota and go find
> the Man with Muggles!)
>
> Are we still down about the soft coup? Yes, it is sickening to be trapped
> on a bigger version of the Titanic, and watching the derelict Capt. order
> the Band to play on. We're not that much better off over here in Europe.
> Fascism is having quite the heyday. And some fools act surprised. Didn't
> they understand Albert when he said that the rats would return?
>
> I get it that back in August you were busy so you might have missed the
> story about the British tech entrepreneur (Mike Lynch) and his boat getting
> hit by a cyclone off the coast of Italy, killing him and 5 others. But
> shouldn't that send up a little *V.* resonance alert? I know, very
> different boats and occupants.
>
> On the other hand, the health care CEO being gunned down in NY last week
> should have prompted the AtD fans to take note. I'm not here to write one
> of those, "I don't condone violence, but..." mini-rants. Let's just take a
> minute to appreciate the echo (or is it a rhyme? Certainly not repetition,
> unless it is the repetition - avec différance - of the repressed repetition
> of the name of the Father as the petit objet of the Nomic Cloud of the
> tomorrow that is always not quite becoming now....) Did I just go Theory?
> Sorry, just goes to show that electro-shock and the rest can't make all the
> bad stuff go away.
>
> Assuming the guy they have (Luigi) is the culprit - he was carrying a copy
> of his manifesto? I can see conspiracy threads spinning - it does seem a
> push to make him out as Princip or even Sacco and Vanzetti. He comes from a
> wealthy family, went to a private school, worked as a data engineer... that
> doesn't sound like anarchist material. He apparently gave a positive review
> to Teddy K's manifesto, but then again so would I if I posted things like
> that. Now the media can do its shitshow and experts can speculate about
> moitve. TLC, Showtime and The History Channel will brawl (lawyers and other
> weapons to be employed) to get the rights. And maybe he'll "tell it all" in
> an exclusive with Geraldo Rivera. He'll explain that after an
> ayahuasca ceremony he came to see the golden wheel he was on inside the
> greater cage of humanity and came to hate the Misery Machine and its
> plutocrat architects, and decided to send one down to Hades in an attempt
> to redeem his soul and even the karmic balance.
>
> Maybe I should focus on the book, keep it literary. If you did some basic
> Shakespeare study, the profesor (or book) probably talked about how Hamlet
> is waiting; he has to be sure that his Uncle is guilty and his Uncle has to
> die knowing why he is being killed, that's why Hamlet doesn't kill him at
> prayer: "am I then revenged/ To take him in the purging of his soul,/
> When he is fit and seasoned for his passage?"
> In other words, violence, if it must be done, must be done right, but even
> then there is a price to pay. Hamlet may avenge his father's death but it
> will seal his own fate. Notice that in his work, Pynchon is also very
> careful of who employs deadly violence and why. The attempted assaination
> of Scarsdale Vibe reflects the historical reality of anarchists and others
> trying to kill people in positions of power, but it also serves as a
> cautionary tale. If you pick up a gun, they will happily respond with bombs
> or worse. I'm not familiar enough with the work of various scholars that
> have focused on the use of violence by protagonists in Pynchon's books so I
> can't recommend a related essay. In my opinion, AtD doesn't really advocate
> violence toward the Capital Class. However, it does seem to indicate that
> it is a very real scenario for those that have foreclosed on the happiness,
> opportunities and future of the downtrodden and unborn.
>
> And with all that in mind, James wood should write a statement of apology.
> Scarsdale Vibe is fairly realistic,  albeit exaggerated no doubt as one
> would expect in satire. Vibe shot an old lady. Trump said he could shoot
> somebody. Vibe has no taste. (This is a wonderful expression of how
> Economic Capital can be used to acquire the objects of taste - i.e. a
> painting, etc. - but that same EC cannot be converted into Cultural Capital
> [good taste as defined by legitimization conferred by institutions, people,
> etc.] in the way that Cultural Capital can be converted into EC.) In the
> 70's Pynchon wrote a book that used WWII as a vehicle to criticize the war
> (and more) being waged at that time. Is it a stretch to think that his 2006
> publication used the Belle Epoque period to address many of the ills that
> have been growing and ongoing into the present and foreseeable future? (If
> you have read Picketty's "Capital in the 21st Century", that will make more
> sense.) Sadly, though, James Wood is simply too blind to see his own error
> and too arrogant to recognize it once it has been pointed out to him.
>
> Fire the bastards - indeed.
>
> We will now return to our regular programming. Now up, The Lawrence Welk
> Show with Special Guest Barbara Mandell
>
> ciao
> mc otis
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>