Chapter 1: Section 3: Pages 21-22: Line 15 (300)

 "Deadbeats!" he screamed, by way of introducing them to the quatercentennial celebration of Columbus's advent upon our shores.

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"Deadbeats!"
Perhaps this is a sly wink at the fact that the Chums of Chance are actually dead boys? If the crew of the Inconvenience don't happen to be ghosts or angels, I'm going to be as disappointed as Dick Grayson never winding up being Harvest. I mean it was right there in the story! How did Scott Lobdell fuck up his run of Teen Titans even more than he was already fucking it up and was going to continue to fuck it up? At least he could have written one cool moment that actually worked in story terms by making Harvest future Dick Grayson who had been turned into a vampire and lived for a thousand years before traveling back in time!
    Shouting "Deadbeats!" at each other should be the official greeting on Columbus Day. Although that point is sort of moot now that we're basically phasing out that shit National Holiday and replacing it with Indigenous Peoples' Day. Which is actually the absolute least this country can do for Native Americans. The fucking absolute least.
    Here is a knock knock joke I wrote for Columbus Day. Some people will think it's a terrible joke because it portrays truthfully what Europeans did to the Native Americans and they'll think I'm having a laugh at the horror. Other people will think it's a terrible joke because they love being white so much that they need to pretend that white people have never acted terribly ever and everything they did made the world a better place for everybody and not just for themselves. Basically, nobody will like this joke unless you're a huge prick who finds nothing sacred. Like me!

Knock Knock!
Who's there?
The White Man!
The White Man who?
Get out of my fucking house!

Too soon?

Chapter 1: Section 3: Page 21: Line 14 (299)

 The diminutive sentinel held out his palm as if for a gratuity, which the boys ignored.

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What did I just say in the previous entry? Republicans only tip if they feel they're being judged by others in the moment and they'll resent having done it for weeks.

Lindsay may have, if I'm being generous (which I hate to be but, as an intellectual, I have to pursue every avenue of textual possibilities!), denied the gratuity for other reasons. One reason might be because he knows the man taking the ticket money is a fraud and doesn't deserve a tip. Another might be that Lindsay knows tips aren't usual for this monetary interaction and so there's no need.

Miles, on the other hand, almost certainly misses the man's actions entirely, being somewhat oblivious to his surroundings in the manner you might expect from a young person with a penchant for clumsiness.

Chapter 1: Section 3: Page 21: Line 13 (298)

 Presently they found a gap in the fence, and an admissions gate with something of the makeshift about it, lit by a single candle-stub, whose attendant, a scowling Asiatic midget of some sort, though eager enough to take their proffered fifty-cent pieces, had to be pressed by the scrupulous Lindsay for a duly executed receipt.

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Just like a good Lawful Evil person, Lindsay doesn't mind sneaking cheaply into the Fair if he can pretend everything is on the up and up. If it was just a hole in the fence with nobody manning it, Lindsay would make some excuse about going in for free while pointing out that it's the Fair's responsibility to maintain the fence properly if they didn't want people sneaking in for free. Maybe that might tend a bit too close to Neutral for Lindsay's tastes (he'd still do it; Lawful Evil people do whatever the fuck they want whenever they can but they prefer to keep some thin veneer of law and order about their machinations and wrongdoings). But getting the receipt is the cherry on top of the Lawful Evil behavior.

Yes, I know, sneaking into a Fair at a reduced rate through a makeshift gap in the fence manned by a stereotypical 1890s foreign villain isn't exactly "evil." The "evil" part of Lindsay's alignment comes from Lindsay himself being a huge bully and a jerk-faced jerko.

"the scrupulous Lindsay"
The problem with the adjective "scrupulous" is that it doesn't quite describe what Lindsay (and I might as well add this so that people who haven't quite gotten it yet understand me completely: ". . . and Republicans") really is. The definition of "scrupulous" is "very concerned to avoid doing wrong." But what Lindsay actually is is "very concerned that somebody will notice them doing wrong." He's just concerned about getting caught; getting a receipt is how Lindsay's covers his own ass.

"their proffered fifty-cent pieces"
The cost to get into the Fair in 1893 was actually fifty cents. So Lindsay and Miles aren't actually cheating the system other than that they're ignoring how shady this entrance to the Fair is. That must be why the receipt; Lindsay knows this is some con man but what difference does it make if they're paying regular Fair prices anyway? The cost for children under 12 was a quarter, so this narrows down Miles and Lindsay's age by a bit. They're definitely teenagers.
    And just because Lindsay and Miles paid the correct price, I'm not revoking the shit I just said about Lindsay! He's a Lawful Evil conservative bastard crowing about Law and Order while wielding his power in a way that lets him do whatever he wants.

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 At a distance the boys could see in the sky the electrical glow of the Fair, but hereabouts all was in shadow.

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Massive amounts of money have gone into a temporary structure to wow the world while the neighborhoods surrounding it sit in its shadow, depleted of all sustenance, no shimmering electricity, no fanfare, no safety. By being a testament to capitalism, the Chicago World's Fair succeeded far better than anybody could have guessed. A secluded area where no cost was too much to show the world what great improvements America could bestow the world while letting the surrounding areas fester in filth and poverty and the constant threat of physical danger.

Chapter 1: Section 3: Page 21: Line 11 (296)

 At length the car deposited them at a street-corner from which, the conductor assured them, it would be but a short walk to the Fairgrounds—or, as he chuckled, "depending on how late in the evening, a brisk run," and went on its way in metal-to-metal clangor and clopping.

* * * * * * * * * *

I dug out a map of Chicago at the time of the Columbian Exposition and worked out the exact corner that the lads would have been dropped off, considering it was the south side of the city and they'd only have a short walk.

No, of course I didn't. But that's what I think people expect from a blog like this! People who actually want some grand, nearly unintelligible discourse on Pynchon and all his novels aren't going to find that here. But the people who just want silliness and whimsy with maybe some accidental insight into the novel won't ever get that experience because the idea of a blog concentrating on every line of a novel they're probably never going to read aren't going to read this blog anyway!

I'm the worst at branding.

Anyway, I guess the south side of Chicago could be dangerous and this chuckle-head conductor thinks it's funny that these two kids could be killed on the way to the fair and also those horse-drawn conveyances must have been super noisy and I bet everything and everybody smelled really bad and can you imagine how many flies must have been covering everything?! Who are the maniacs who yearn for returning to eras of the past?! Oh sure! Please may I live in turn of the 19th century Chicago where the air reeks of cattle murder and mutilation and where I'm almost certainly living in poverty and where rich industrialists hire Pinkertons to bust in the heads of anybody trying desperately to improve the living conditions of every day folks and where immigrants are treated as sub-par human beings? Oh boy!

Imagine if Disneyland weren't based on fairy tales and imagination but realistic depictions of past eras? I bet I'd see far fewer posts on Facebook from friends who somehow think "staying young" means purchasing only items branded Disney.