Shadow Ticket Group Read 2025

Sat Jan 10 18:00:00 UTC 2026

Unamalgamated Ops certainly reminded me of Hammet's Continental Ops..but
I've hardly read him....one I think....
More political in his mysteries than the other writers are,right Jochen?
(looking up Hammet on my email hisotry I see I sent Jochen
THIS from The Guardian back in 2017 AND ...yes, look at it for Pyhchon's
way of telling his detective stories, his digressions in
every novel not least the mysteries....which might be described,
including,maybe especially Shadow Ticket almost all digression,right?
(and with a fave
philosopher name-checked in The Maltese Falcon I MUST read it. (I have only
seen the movie)

https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2008/feb/26/whendigressionsgetrightto?CMP=share_btn_tw

On Fri, Jan 9, 2026 at 12:18 PM j e l <ssnomes at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hicks seems more like Hammett's Continental Op...you could describe him as
> the Anti-Continental-Op.
>
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Continental_Op
>
> And he does not seem like Chandler's Marlowe or MacDonald's Archer. He's
> not his own man, doesn't have his own agency (<-- this right here)...he
> works for someone else who's always calling the shots. He gets summoned and
> sent wherever They want him to go...for reasons unknown...
>
> --jel
>
> On Fri, Jan 9, 2026 at 7:35 AM rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > let's not forget Lew Archer. I'm surprised Chandler gets most of the nods
> > when discussing Pynchon, and when MacDonald is referenced it's from the
> > first paragraph of Vineland, one of the non-PI books.
> > Hicks also has definite Archer vibes, the guy who has seen it all, the
> > world-weariness of things, corruption and malice, high and low. he
> doesn't
> > dance, I'll give you that.
> > Hicks when talking to Lew Basnight (bing!) says he sees the latter as
> > someone to aspire to which Basnight says I'm sorry to hear that. we know
> > Lew's story and though a small bit in ST, it's interesting that Pynchon
> > gives us his 'denouement', and a rather sad one.
> >
> > rich
> >
> > On Fri, Jan 9, 2026 at 9:17 AM Corbeau Castrum via Pynchon-l <
> > pynchon-l at waste.org> wrote:
> >
> > > I think of deaf and dumb as being professional confidentiality, the
> > > character's essential humility (whether in terms of ego ie their lack
> of
> > > righteousness, or more spiritually/preterition), and as related to the
> > Fool
> > > tarot (which is connected to Tyrone Slothrop in GR if memory serves)
> > >
> > > This also connects to Pynchon's own self-image, which is
> extraordinarily
> > > self-deprecating as indicated by Slow Learner's introduction (and other
> > > anecdotes I've heard).
> > >
> > > Deaf and dumb is also maybe 2/3 monkeys (sees evil, but hears no evil
> and
> > > speaks no evil [if you accept my tendentious interpretation that
> > dumbness =
> > > not speaking, eg "struck dumb"]) — and doesn't that characterize
> pynchon,
> > > his immense knowledge and vision of the world, seeing all this evil in
> > the
> > > world, but ultimately paralyzed to act upon this vision?
> > >
> > > Sent from Monopolistic Pocket Computer™
> > >
> > > -------- Original Message --------
> > > On Friday, 01/09/26 at 21:08 Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > > Great stuff so let's use Chandler on the detective as Lancelot-like
> (as
> > > I remember it; PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong here.)
> > > >
> > > > an objective 'professional' knight-errant...more Quixotic than
> > > Lancelot....
> > > > Works for love of it.....like heroes
> > > > is outside marriage in more ways than one..
> > > >
> > > > And why 'deaf and dumb"?.....it is all in his head not ascertainable
> by
> > > real world senses?...Idealistic, yes but
> > > > beyond the senses??/
> > > >
> > > > On Fri, Jan 9, 2026 at 7:59 AM Corbeau Castrum <filsducorbeau at pm.me>
> > > wrote:
> > > >
> > > >> There are some basic similarities shared between Pynchon's detective
> > > novels post-ATD, presumably the genre conventions as he understands
> them.
> > > They consist of:
> > > >>
> > > >> a private detective protagonist (i.e. not police/the state) who
> tries
> > > to remain “professional” (“Trying to be professional here,” 3 IV “Hicks
> > > trying to stay professional,” 2 ST)
> > > >>
> > > >> is deaf and dumb (“Deaf and dumb, part of the job,” 4 IV,
> > > “Professionally D and D,” 36 BE, “D and D, Lino, that’s me,” 26 ST)
> > > >>
> > > >> is happy to work without immediate pay (“All on spec, eh?” 7 IV,
> “Not
> > > that I mind working on spec,” 11 BE)
> > > >>
> > > >> struggles with matrimonials (“I don’t do matrimonials, man,” 191 IV,
> > “I
> > > hate matrimonials,” 127 BE, “[…] too bad that matrimonials, as you’ll
> > > recall, were never my line—” 4 ST)
> > > >>
> > > >> There are perhaps some other commonalities exclusive to Pynchon's
> > > detective novels but these are the ones most obvious to me.
> > > >>
> > > >> On Friday, January 9th, 2026 at 19:33, Mark Kohut <
> > mark.kohut at gmail.com>
> > > wrote:
> > > >>
> > > >>>
> > > >>>
> > > >>> So, this first chapter alone seems to me most like the beginning of
> > > *Inherent
> > > >>> Vice *as TRP sets up
> > > >>> the private dick and the 'case"...this is obvious I know but back
> to
> > > basics.
> > > >>>
> > > >>> Q: I am not great detective novel well-read enough nor well noir
> > > >>> movie-watched enough to know this:
> > > >>> I know many, many open with the 'dame' visiting our detective and
> > some
> > > kind
> > > >>> of human entanglement
> > > >>> happens that matters for the case....Is it the case that most start
> > > with a
> > > >>> new dame that the detective
> > > >>> has never known?
> > > >>>
> > > >>> Or why do both of Pynchon's similar mysteries start with,
> relatedly,
> > a
> > > >>> woman with which the detective has some kind of history?
> > > >>> And, also,although I have to refresh the plot details, Maxine in
> her
> > > >>> mystery has a past entanglement emerge (but not at the beginning,
> > > right?)
> > > >>> --
> > > >>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> > > --
> > > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> > >
> > --
> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
> >
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>