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 He tried to answer honestly, despite a constant struggle with the pen they insisted he use, which was leaving blotches and smears all over the form.

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Pynchon is easier to grok when he's using difficult scientific theories as analogies for mundane modern occurrences than when he's simply writing a scene where some amnesiac sinner has run into a stand-in for the devil (or Bill W) and begins to stumble through the bureaucratic nonsense that's his only path to atonement. At least with a scientific theory I don't understand, I can read about it on the Internet, giving myself a place to begin figuring out what Pynchon might be getting at. But where do you start with something this broad and open-ended? Is our interpretation of Lew's experience of atonement supposed to rely on our own backgrounds and where we come from? Or is Pynchon getting at something intensely specific?

Here, Lew struggles with a pen given to him by Drave and associates, the first tool in a specific method of atonement. Generically, this could be any religion or self-help association. I'm most familiar with Alcoholics Anonymous so I see Lew's path to recovery through that lens. Drave and a group of people embrace Lew, who comes to them for help, and they declare they can help him. But they also have a strict set of rules that he must follow if it's going to be successful. Struggling to be honest with a pen that blotches and smears is a metaphor for trying to help yourself within the constraints of a 12-step program that isn't specifically suited for any one person (except maybe Bill W and Doctor Bob).

But this can also be a metaphor for Christianity or any other religion or any system of betterment akin to AA. "We can help you but you must do as we say" is always the caveat. "We know better than you or else why would you be in this situation in which you can't live?" "It worked for me so it can work for you as long as you work it."

Anyway, that's what the leaky pen symbolizes for me. It's the first step for helping Lew on the road to atonement and it proves the journey will not be easy. Is it Lew's leaky pen that's difficult or is it actually the being honest with himself?

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 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.

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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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 The lobby clerks and the bellmen on duty all acted like they'd been expecting him.

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So Lew Basnight is in The Twilight Zone now. I mean he was already in The Twilight Zone when he found himself in this strange plaza within a plaza, and probably when he found himself in a Chicago he didn't recognize, and probably even when he realized he couldn't remember the sin he supposedly committed. It's just that I didn't recognize this as an episode of The Twilight Zone until all the bit players Lew had yet to meet recognized him immediately and began tipping their hats and saying things like, "Welcom to the Esthonia, Mr. Basnight!" and "So glad you could make it, Mr. Basnight!" and "How's tricks, Lew?"

And you know what that means, right? Drave is totally the devil! The antagonist of every episode of The Twilight Zone is the devil unless otherwise stated in the dialogue. That's just a simple fact.