"Sometimes," Miles with a strangely apprehensive note in his voice, "these peculiar feelings will surround me, Lindsay . . . like the electricity coming on—as if I can see everything just as clear as day, how . . . how everything fits together, connects. It doesn't last long, though. Pretty soon I'm just back to tripping over my feet again."
* * * * * * * * * *
Miles Blundell is either demonstrating psychic power or he's simply become a metaphor for the times he's living in. What he's describing is less like intuition or ESP and more like the inspiration that comes upon a person who suddenly sees the universe in a way never imagined before and changes our understanding of it forever. In a way, Pynchon has chosen the year 1893 as that moment for America (and probably the entire world, seeing as how he begins at the Chicago World's Fair. But even that is probably a microcosm of his overarching theme: the world but in the context of America's historical view and perception of it) because it's kind of this "Miles Blundell sees the secret of Three-card Monte" moment. Things are changing rapidly thanks to advances in our understanding of the world and electricity is coming on strong. Soon we will see where the curse of Scotland is really hiding and it will change our understanding forever.
Or maybe Miles Blundell is just on LSD and he's peaking pretty hard here. It's amazing how much you understand everything on acid! Although when you come down, you either lose the ability to see the connections or, sober, you actually see more clearly and realize you on LSD was a fucking idiot. I once understood how the number three connected everything; I once understood how idiotic the buttons on remote controls were; I once figured out that I had been living in hell for over one thousand years (hell being the parking lot of a strip club) while Jupiter was following me; I once learned that standing at a urinal in a club with your dick out and not being sure if you needed to pee or not while only slightly hearing the beat of the music at the periphery of your senses was one of the most comfortable places I've ever been.
You learn a lot of stuff that doesn't help you in life while on acid!
"like the electricity coming on"
I forgot that earlier I suspected Miles Blundell might be epileptic. This is more evidence for that theory.
No comments:
Post a Comment