Chapter 1: Section 1: Page 4: Line 17

With the deftness of long habit, he flipped Darby upside down, and held the flyweight lad dangling by the ankles out into empty space—"terra firma" by now being easily half a mile below—proceeding to lecture him on the many evils of looseness in one's expression, not least among them being the ease with which it may lead to profanity, and worse.

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Where to start?! I wouldn't want to be some boring normie and start at the beginning. I'd rather be like a great Greek poet and start in the middle! The middle, in this sentence, is "terra firma" which is actually actually the middle, considering the Chums of Chance are in the sky and I'm sure some adventure of theirs will have taken place (or will take place (or will have Took-en place (I just re-read The Hobbit so that one was for me. You can ignore it))) underground.

Now that I began briefly in the middle, I'll go back to the beginning and just take the sentence apart in a linear fashion. That's because I've read too many comic books in my time and that's their standard modus operandi. First page is a big splashy battle to attract the kid flipping through the unpurchased book and then the second page ditches that excitement for the boring beginning of the story. Most comic books don't realize that they don't have to present their story in this manner. It's so boring!

With "[w]ith the deftness of long habit," we see that Lindsay Noseworth is a huge bully who not only hands out demerits but threatens the safety of every person on board the Inconvenience. What good are demerits if threats of physical violence are parceled out as well?!

This entire scene reeks of the conservative's civility argument. "Please speak and act the way we think you should speak and act or else we will punch you in the nose or shoot you with our guns. Be civil, for God's sake!" If informality of speech might lead to cussing, what leads to bullying young people into obeying arbitrary rules that have nothing to do with morality or ethics?! Oh! Oh! I know the answer to this one! A low self-esteem or some innate fear which leads to a fervent need to control and dominate every situation! It's the rallying cry of the authoritarian! I bet Lindsay considers himself to be a whatever a Libertarian was in 1893. No wait! That would probably be an Anarchist! Lindsay's definitely not that!

Here's the difference between an Anarchist and a Libertarian: a Libertarian is an Anarchist when it comes to their own life but when somebody encroaches on their own individual liberty (not the liberty of the individual but their own personal liberty!), they expect there to be a law or government to stop that from happening. An Anarchist understands that true personal freedom means everybody is doing their own thing and can live with the, possibly, resulting chaos. A Libertarian believes in personal freedom for everybody as long as that personal freedom parallels their beliefs. A Libertarian ultimately needs some kind of bodyguard; an Anarchist defends themselves! That's why Libertarians usually turn out to be Authoritarians in disguise.

I know Anarchy is going to be a constant theme in this book! Even if that anarchy is really just activists organizing for social and economic justice and being labeled as anarchists by people who profit from the current status quo.

You might have noticed that I've refrained from swearing so far on this blog but not for any reasons regarding looseness in one's expression! I'm just trying to stay more in character! Grunion Guy...I mean, Anonymous Blog Writer doesn't swear as much as that other guy, the one that professes to be Grunion Guy but is really mostly just himself, Anonymous Blog Writer. Wait. What? Hmm, maybe if I confuse myself enough, I'll allow myself to start swearing again!

Chapter 1: Section 1: Page 4: Lines 15-16

 "Or shall we say ten? How many times," continued Lindsay Noseworth, second-in-command here and known for his impatience with all manifestations of slack, "have you been warned, Suckling, against informality of speech?"

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Oh boy doody how I dislike Lindsay Noseworth! My bong is practically bristling at his smug attitude! Or it would be if I owned a bong. The only time I ever smoked pot and it really affected me was with a bong. This was for two reasons: 1. I apparently don't know how to inhale; 2. I didn't know how to operate the carburetor. (Interesting fact about the word carburetor: it's way easier to spell than you'd initially think! Just don't get all fancy with it and Boom! Nailed it!) By not knowing about the carburetor and placing my hand over it, I was sucking on this two foot long bong without anything happening. So all this goofy smoke was building up in the bong but none of it could actually transfer to my lungs due to physics or something. Probably not chemistry. Chemistry took place later after my friend Karl smacked my hand off the carburetor as I was sucking and suddenly Dixie whistled! Oh my!

Anyway, I wasn't really into pot. But Lindsay still would have narced on me because I was into mushrooms and LSD. He would have been giving me demerits left and right and center! And I would have laughed and laughed and said, "Wait. Lindsay. Wait! Lindsay! Do you know, hee hee, how much, haw haw, your nose is worth?!" Then Lindsay would have said something which I totally wouldn't have argued with at all; he would have called me an idiot.

So Lindsay loves to enforce rules and won't tolerate fun and shenanigans. If Satan's lawyer were to present a case for Lindsay, just to, you know, get the debate going because Satan's lawyer is always the smartest guy in the room and believes nobody else ever thinks about anything or comes to their beliefs and decisions through thoughtful self-reflection based on lived experience and ethical considerations, I might—MIGHT!—agree that goofing around hundreds of feet in the sky could be dangerous. And that maybe somebody needs to be mature enough to yell "Settle down!" every now and again. But even if I might agree to that hypothetical argument from a patronizing hell-bound advocate, I'd still rankle at every interaction I had with Lindsay.

Oh! But then I'd realize that Lindsay doesn't seem to have a problem with Suckling hanging dangerously over the side of the airship (which we'll get even more proof of in a sentence or two!). Lindsay is concerned about "informality of speech"! After that, I'd feel a little bit ashamed of how much Lindsay might reside in me because while I didn't shame Darby for his comment "I can't hardly wait," I was awful critical of it! I suppose even the most chaotic of us need to realize that there's always going to be a small percentage of lawful in us. But I don't have to like it!

Fifteen to sixteen lines in and I don't think I've commented on how much I love the way Pynchon communicates things. Sure, sometimes he says something that makes me think I just lived through the ending of the movie Pi. But sometimes he says things like "known for his impatience with all manifestations of slack" and I think, "I can't believe nobody every talks about how humans orgasm from reading mere words."