The form he was given to fill out was unusually long, particularly the section headed "Reasons for Extended Residence," and the questions quite personal, even intimate, yet he was urged to be as forthcoming as possible—indeed, according to a legal notice in large type at the top of the form, anything less than total confession would make him liable to criminal penalties.
* * * * * * * * * *
This being a Pynchon novel, I don't think I've thought enough about paranoia. I didn't feel like there was too much paranoia happening among the Chums of Chance. But Lew Basnight is practically paranoia personified. He probably knows all of Slothrop's Proverbs for Paranoids, possibly having invented them all. His life is a wreck of false gossip perpetrated by who even knows and believed by everybody. He suspects everybody he sees knows more about his moral failings than he does. And now he's met this guy Drave who all but confirms that it's true. Lew must repent for his past deeds, whether he knows what they are or not.
Bureaucracy is just paranoia made literal, especially when it's state run. This form at the hotel hasn't been printed up by any Big Government They but it's threatening enough. To learn to atone, Lew must give up his most intimate details and secrets (at least the ones he is aware of) under the threat of legal consequences in large type! Who wants to know his secrets? Why do they want to know his secrets? How can he go on without giving in and giving up his secrets? And why will he be punished if he doesn't reveal them in the exact correct way?!
The legal notice on this form is the literal declaration of the anxious feeling of paranoid people which they often have when filling out forms. It's the feeling that if they break any rules, even unintentionally, there will be severe consequences and probably punishment.
It's too bad I haven't read all of Pynchon's other books because I feel like the Inconvenience might represent Against the Day. What if other characters in the book represent other books of his? What if Lew Basnight represents Bleeding Edge? That's the detective/noir one, right? And I'm sure it was super paranoid because look who we're talking about here!
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