Chapter 1: Section 6: Pages 51-52: Line 126 (919)

 After a couple-three slow puffs, "Ever come out of work in this town when the light's still in the sky and the lamps are just being lit along the big avenues and down by the Lake, and the girls are all out of the offices and shops and heading home, and the steak houses are cranking up for the evening trade, and the plate-glass windows are shining, with the rigs all lined up by the hotels, and—"

* * * * * * * * * *

Lew takes a slow moment to think about it and then gives evidence for how it's going to cost Nate quite a bit of money to get him to leave Chicago for Denver.

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 51: Line 125 (918)

 Lew reached for a panatela and lit up.

* * * * * * * * * *

Sounds like Lew is considering the cost of the favor Nate is asking of him.

"panatela"
A long thin cigar. I don't know how this is a penis joke but since Pynchon wrote it, I'm sure it's funny.

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 51: Lines 122-124 (915-917)

 "Lew, it's gold and silver mining out there. Nuggets for the picking up. Favors that you can name your own price."

* * * * * * * * * *

Here we see how capitalism keeps most Americans down. Because this is the intersection of making money and keeping other people from making money. There's lots of money in mining which means a lot of people not doing any mining are going to want their hands on that money and are willing to pay other people for information that can be used to take that money out of the hands of the people actually doing the mining. Money enough for everybody except the poor sods who are actually pulling the gold and silver out of the earth. So much money that if somebody comes along and says, "Hey, I want to find a way to steal the claim from that old guy down the canyon . . . you know, the one with the donkey?", you can say, "Well, I reckon that's gonna cost twenty thousand dollars." And the person, knowing exactly how much money is in the ground out there, will instantly put out their hand and scream, "Deal, sucker!"

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 51: Lines 120-121 (913-914)

 "O.K, boss, I get the drift. It's not up to you, that what you're about to say?"

* * * * * * * * * *

Nate's a coward and Lew let's Nate know he knows. Obviously it's up to Nate; it's his agency!

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 51: Line 119 (912)

 As if this were a real question, Lew began to recite names of plausible colleagues, all of them with an edge on him in seniority, till Nate's frown had grown deep enough.

* * * * * * * * * *

"As if this were a real question"
The question: "Who better than Lew to ramrod the operation?" Lew decides to point out all of the people who would be a better fit. But since it wasn't a real question, Nate shows his displeasure at the path this conversation has gone down. He's sending Lew and it was never meant to be a discussion.

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 51: Line 118 (911)

 W.C.I. had decided to open a Denver office, Nate explained, and with more Anarchists per square foot out there than a man could begin to combat, who better than Lew to ramrod the operation?

* * * * * * * * * *

They'll have to change the Denver office's name from White City Investigations to Mile High Investigations. Or, I suppose, the whole "White City" connotations still fit. You know the kinds of people they mostly investigate. You know.

"more Anarchists per square foot out there"
Why are there more Anarchists in Denver than Chicago? Does it have something to do with frontier life? My guess is that the further west you go, the more "anarchists" you're going to find. Because what type of people would move west? Those who are tired of all the bullshit rules established on the east coast. Also there's probably a ton of people blowing up railroad trestles in an attempt to hit the railroad barons in the pocketbooks until they decide to improve working conditions and pay.

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 51: Lines 116-117 (909-910)

 "Lew, you card! Be serious!"

* * * * * * * * * *

In other words, "Yes, Lew, that's exactly what I'm doing but you can't be that direct. You have to let me spin it in a way that doesn't make it look like my motives are selfish and shitty."

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 51: Line 115 (908)

 "What 'region' is it I'm being packed off to, Nate?"

* * * * * * * * * *

Why would Nate be sending Lew away? So the Pinkerton's can't get their hands on him? Or is there more money to be made spying on people somewhere else in the country? "Like, say, Denver to spy on the railroads" is something a person who glanced ahead a line and saw the word "Denver" might say.

I'm ashamed to admit I've never been packed off by a company to another location. Mostly I always just quit jobs after they hurt my feelings for one reason or another. Never let a person who's paying you think they can treat you like shit!

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 51: Line 114 (907)

 Lew looked up, poker-faced.

* * * * * * * * * *

Now I'm going to have that song stuck in my head for the rest of the day.

"poker-faced"
Displaying no emotion. But displaying no emotion while understanding emotion. You can't just display no emotion like Data. A poker-face is meant to show the person across the table from you that you're hiding something, like joy at your hand or the pain of existence. But if you're Data, that's just your normal face. I suppose that works to your benefit in poker. Except Data doesn't know how to bluff so you don't have to read his face. If he's betting, he's betting the perfect amount for the risk of the hand he's currently holding. Data sucks at poker.

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 51: Lines 112-113 (905-906)

 One day he came bounding into Lew's office surrounded by a nimbus of cheer phony as nickel-a-quart bay rum—"Good news, Agent Basnight, another step up your personal career ladder! How does . . . 'Regional Director' sound?"

* * * * * * * * * *

Sounds like a scam to foist some of the failing business onto Lew.

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 51: Line 111 (904)

 The discontent became evident in the White City shop as well, as The Unsleeping Eye began to lure away personnel, soon more of them than Nate could afford to lose.

* * * * * * * * * *

"The Unsleeping Eye"
The Pinkerton code was "We never sleep."

This feels like an Injury to the Eye is about to happen.

When a company feels like another company is cutting into their business, instead of making their company more appealing and efficient, they tend to either try to run the other company out of business or simply purchase the entire thing. Nate's probably panicking because eventually he might lose his cash cow, Lew, to the Pinkerton's. Remember, even Nate admitted the Pinkerton's pay better!

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 51: Line 110 (903)

 Of course this provoked some grumbling in the business, mainly from Pinkerton's, who, having assumed American Anarchism was their own personal cookie jar, wondered how an upstart like White City dared aspire to more than crumbs.

* * * * * * * * * *

It's capitalism, baby! If there's money to be made in painting protestors just trying to make life better as anarchists, paint away! But also maybe find a way to squash any competition because how dare anybody else make any money off of making the world miserable for a whole lot of people.

Why would the Pinkertons want to share in this business? They're making fistfuls of money by perpetrating terrible acts of violence against a population that nobody cares about! Who would want to share in that windfall?!

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 51: Line 109 (902)

 Soon, along with dozens of file drawers stuffed with the information he brought back, Lew had moved into his own office, at whose doorsill functionaries of government and industry presently began to appear, having surrendered their hats in the outer office, to ask respectfully for advice which Nate Privett kept a keen eye on the market value of.

* * * * * * * * * *

As we've really learned so well in this digital age, businesses make a lot of money by simply gathering and redistributing information. Lew is an expert at observing and Nate is taking advantage of that. Lew gathers intel on the front lines of the workers' movement while in disguise and Nate sells that information to the people who want to quash the movement. Lew is currently a middleman for helping to keep workers in abhorrent conditions although this sentence doesn't express Lew's attitude. We don't see exactly what information Lew is passing on. Will he sabotage the effort to destroy the striking workers or hold back? Does Lew even pick a side? Although, I suppose, if he chooses to not pick a side, he's picking the side of the powerful. Pretending you're above the fight doesn't make you intellectually superior because you refuse to get dragged into the conflict; it simply makes you a tool of the powers that be. They want you disinterested. They want you looking at more pleasant things. They, in fact, depend on it.

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 51: Line 108 (901)

 He found himself out by factory fences breathing coal-smoke, walking picket lines in various of W.C.I.'s thousand disguises, learning enough of several Slavic tongues to be plausible down in the deadfalls where the desperate malcontents convened, fingerless slaughterhouse veterans, irregulars in the army of sorrow, prophesiers who had seen America as it might be in visions America's wardens could not tolerate.

* * * * * * * * * *

I know this book was written in 2006 but it fucking hurts my heart that Pynchon is describing the world of 1893 and, aside from maybe many of the people picketing being fingerless, nothing much has changed. America's wardens have done a pretty good job of simply giving out enough slack to quiet enough people so that things hardly change at all. And when things do change, you can bet the pendulum will eventually swing back—maybe not quite as far—to take back much of what they resented giving away. What do you think Reagan's 80s were? It was the pendulum swinging back as far as they could get it. And what do you think is happening right now? The rich and powerful have once again stoked the powers of racism and xenophobia to get the white poor and working class to help push the pendulum back as far as they can get it.

"prophesiers who had seen America as it might be in visions America's wardens could not tolerate"
These days, you don't even need America's wardens to shut down the prophersiers. Now all it takes is a bunch of moderate centrists to tell anybody who'll listen that a better world isn't realistically possible. Centrists are Goddamned dream killers. I suppose they always have been. It's the people who are comfortable in the current status quo who don't want to make any waves even if making waves is necessary for the lifting up of all the boats chained to the bottom that can't, for traditional, systemic, and racist reasons, rise with the tide.

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 51: Line 107 (900)

 Anarchist-related tickets began landing on his desk with some regularity.

* * * * * * * * * *

Better Lew's desk than some ex-cop fired from the force because he loved to bust people's heads too much. His fellow cops, busting heads right beside him, were probably all, "Yeesh, Frank. At least try to hide the boner."

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 51: Line 106 (899)

  Anarchists and heads of state being defined these days as natural enemies, Lew by this logic became the natural gumshoe to be taking aim at Anarchists, wherever they happened to pop up in the shooting gallery of day-to-day history.

* * * * * * * * * *

There it is explicit. Everybody assumes, since Lew was Ferdinand's handler, that he's pro the rich and powerful while anti the poor and working class. So Nate sent him to the Anarchy meeting expecting that Lew couldn't sympathize with people he found disgusting and so would learn some intel that would help stop them in their fight against their employers. But it probably works the other way too. If anybody at the meeting recognized Lew as somebody who has been seen around town with the foreign leader, they'll automatically assume he's trying to infiltrate the movement. But all that other stuff I said about Line 104 is the part of this that's unstated. By saying that it's hanging out with the Archduke that caused everybody to think he's the enemy of the working class, Lew is suggesting that it isn't true at all. As we've seen, he's actually gained sympathy for the movement by attending the meeting.

So his job as handler of the Archduke has led to another job to keep an eye on the Anarchists simply because of the assumptions made about the job he was paid to do. As if somebody being paid has to believe in the work they're doing! If that were true, nothing would ever get done in America!

I'm not saying people should be taking jobs they find unethical! I'm just saying you don't have to love feeding people hamburgers just to throw a fucking slab of meat on a grill at Burger King. I guess it helps though. Man, I'd love to get off on feeding people hamburgers! I'd be king of the King, slinging Whoppers while singing and dancing.

Man, I just wish I loved doing anything as much as I love doing absolutely nothing.

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 51: Line 105 (898)

 Look after one royal, everybody starts making assumptions.

* * * * * * * * * *

Okay, okay! I made my own assumption as to what happened because of the Austrian Archduke! This clarifies the "it" a little more (although not yet spelling it out). "It" must be the way people are now treating Lew because he was the handler of Franz Ferdinand. Perhaps it's the way they reveal their true terrible natures to him, thinking, "This guy hangs out with the rich and powerful so he must hate poor people too!" Or maybe people just assume Lew is rich now and expect him to buy drinks down at the corner bar.

Sometimes there are benefits to reading a book one line at a time and considering carefully every line. And then sometimes there are moments where a line is just building up to the next line and I really should read more before I open my stupid mouth (via my stupid typing fingers).

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 51: Line 104 (897)

 It must have been that Austrian Archduke.

* * * * * * * * * *

This is the first sentence after an asterisked break from the last scene. Without further context, I'm guessing the "it" refers to Lew's suddenly sympathetic attitude toward the workers and anarchists. After spending so much time up close to a rich and powerful man who treats people in the world as his play things and hunting prey, Lew has begun to see the world differently. The rich aren't making the world a better place, no matter how many jobs they create or how little they give to charity while making as large a public spectacle as they can about their philanthropy. They don't bring order or law or justice. They bring chaos and cause poverty and abuse anybody they can for whatever whim comes over them.

It's also possible the "it" refers to something else which the next sentence will explain!

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 50: Line 103 (896)

 Lew understood that this business would not end with him walking out the door tonight and over to the El and on to some next assignment.

* * * * * * * * * *

I'm reading this sentence in two ways. First, once Lew walks out of this meeting to go about his other business, nothing will have changed. The people in the meeting still need to fight for their rights. They will continue to strike and to bomb factories and to make as much of a ruckus as they can so that their plight can no longer be ignored by the dumb, content masses. Lew couldn't stop it if he wanted to.
    But the other way to read this—the more important way, I suppose—is that Lew can never go back to the life where he could say he didn't know or care about these kinds of issues. They have broken his heart with their music and their need, with their humanness and Americanness, and it is "unmendable." This business is now his business and he can't ignore it anymore. He'll leave the meeting and he'll go back to White City Investigations and he'll do his assignments. But he can't go back to simply thinking that his assignments do no harm. He'll no longer be able to simply follow orders. He once lived a life where he was able to keep himself from caring. But that life is no more. He can't not care now. He's seen the way things are and he, unlike many other Americans, cannot pretend it's different so that he doesn't have to pay the price of caring.

This experience Lew just had reminds me of Franz Pökler's realization in Gravity's Rainbow about how he allowed himself to not see or care about the concentration camps in Germany:

"Pökler helped with his own blindness. He knew about Nordhausen, and the Dora camp: he could see—the starved bodies, the eyes of the foreign prisoners being marched to work at four in the morning in the freezing cold and darkness, the shuffling thousands in their striped uniforms. He had known too, all along, that Ilse was living in a re-education camp. But it wasn't till August, when the furlough arrived as usual in its blank kraft envelope, and Pökler rode northward through the gray kilometers of a Germany he no longer recognized, bombed and burned, the wartime villages and rainy purple heath, and found her at last waiting in the hotel lobby at Zwölfkinder with the same darkness in her eyes (how had he missed it till now? such swimming orbits of pain) that he could finally put the two data together. For months, while her father across the wire or walls did his dutiful hackwork, she had been prisoner only a few meters away from him, beaten, perhaps violated. . . . If he must curse Weissmann, then he must also curse himself. Weissmann's cruelty was no less resourceful than Pökler's own engineering skill, the gift of Daedalus that allowed him to put as much labyrinth as required between himself and the inconveniences of caring. They had sold him convenience, so much of it, all on credit, and now They were collecting."

"The inconvenience of caring." That's what Nate and his coworkers and his clients are all selling. But Lew, having experienced the songs and the meeting and Moss Gatlin's words, has now, and forever after, been inconvenienced.

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 50: Line 102 (895)

 Yet here they were expressing the most subversive thoughts, as ordinary folks might discuss crops, or last night's ball game.

* * * * * * * * *

Nothing more subversive in America than talking about how people are going to force employers to treat their employees like human beings.
    Once again, Lew cannot help but separate the people at this meeting from what he sees as "ordinary folks." At least exposure to the people who have only been defined by rumor and innuendo before this night will soften him to their plight.

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 50: Line 101 (894)

 But here was this hall full of Americans, no question, even the foreign-born, if you thought about where they had come from and what they must've been hoping to find over here and so forth, American in their prayers anyway, and maybe a few hadn't shaved for a while, but it was hard to see how any fit the bearded, wild-eyed, bomb-rolling Red description too close, in fact give them a good night's sleep and a square meal or two, and even a veteran detective'd have a hard time telling the difference from regular Americans.

* * * * * * * * * *

We see how Lew has simply integrated the bias of the capitalist system when he still, at the end of his observation of how human and American the people fighting for workers' rights seem, regards them as separate from "regular Americans." Just what is a "regular American" if not someone who simply wants to earn their fair share for their labor so that they can provide food and safety and a future for themselves and their family? Who are the "regular Americans" if not these people trying to make America a better place, not just for themselves, but for all of those who would come to its shores in search of a better life? Does Lew consider only people who own a home "regular Americans"? Only people who have a certain amount of money in the bank? Only people who can buy and sell other poorer, less fortunate, people? Who are these "regular Americans"?
    If you ask the modern media, I'm pretty sure they'd say "regular Americans" are white people living in the heartland of America (and I mean the neutral definition of "heartland" which means "the center of the United States" and not the part of the definition that says a "heartland" is the most important part of a region. Most people, especially reporters, don't seem to understand that those two definitions aren't one and the same. But pretty convenient for those living in the middle of the country, isn't it? Maybe the West Coast should craft a new definition of West Coast that also means "the smartest and biggest dicked part of the country").

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 50: Line 100 (893)

 There was a kind of general assumption around the shop that laboring men and women were all more or less evil, surely misguided, and not quite American, maybe not quite human.

* * * * * * * * * *

This is what is called othering people. You delude yourself (and others) into thinking a person is sub-human or evil so that whatever you do to them can be ethically justified. It's what Fox News and right wing talk radio have done to liberals and why so many Conservatives truly believe that they'd be justified in running over or shooting anybody protesting for equality in this country.
    Now, you might think, "Oh look. You're othering Conservatives!" But here's the thing: I see the way they act and guess what? I still want this country to be a better place so that they can also partake in it. Why they want to make the world worse for so many people, I'll never understand. But if we make the country and the world better, everybody will benefit. Us liberals aren't just out here trying to make a grand paradise just for ourselves. We want all y'all conservatives to realize you don't have to be so angry all the time. Chill out, man! Stop listening to those yogurt-brained motherfuckers on the AM dial!

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 50: Line 99 (892)

 Nate Privett, everybody else at W.C.I., needless to say most of the Agency's clients, none had too good of a word to say about the labor unions, let alone Anarchists of any stripe, that's if they even saw a difference.

* * * * * * * * * *

Come on, Pynchon. I already covered all of this while carefully considering all of your other sentences one at a time! I guess this is for the readers Pynchon knows aren't paying particularly close attention. Maybe this means I'll be able to write less and less about every sentence as the book goes on because I'll already have anticipated every character's reaction to every possible situation in which they might find themselves! I bet I'll have about seven thousand blog entries where the only thing I type after the asterisk break is "Grandmaster Literature Reader!"

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 50: Line 98 (891)

For something here was striking him as what you'd have to call odd.

* * * * * * * * * *

That odd feeling is witnessing the truth of something that you've been told was something else for far too long.

Is the use of the word "strike" here considered a pun?

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 50: Line 97 (890)

. . . moving from the minor mode it had been in throughout into the major, ending with a Picardy third cadence that, if it did not break Lew's heart exactly, did leave a fine crack that in time was to prove unmendable. . . .

* * * * * * * * * *

I've mentioned before that I know nothing about music or the language of music. I know saying something moves from the minor to the major communicates emotion to those who understand music (not to mention understanding what the heck a "Picardy third cadence" is!) but it means nothing to me. Which means I'm lucky that Pynchon concludes the statement by describing how the movement makes Lew feel.

"prove unmendable"
Nate sent Lew to this meeting expecting him to be hard and cold and to reinforce the idea that these Anarchists are monsters causing pain and destruction with no purpose or reason. Instead, Lew's heart is touched by their singing and their passion. As I figured, sending Lew to this meeting has backfired on Nate. Lew has found himself sympathetic to a cause which, prior to meeting Nate, he expressed having no interest or opinion on.

Chapter 1: Section 6: Pages 49-50: Line 94-96 (887-889)

And another which went,

Fierce as the winter's tempest
Cold as the smoth'ring snow
On grind the mills of Avarice
High rides the cruel-eyed foe. . . .
Where is the hand of mercy,
Where is the kindly face,
Where in this heedless slaughter
Find we the promis'd place?
Sweated, despised and hearthless,
Scorned 'neath the banker's boot,
We freeze by their frost-bound windows—
As they fondle their blood-bought loot—
Love never spared a sinner,
Hate never cured a saint,
Soon is the night of reckoning,
Then let no heart be faint,
Teach us to fly from shelter
Teach us to love the cold,
Life's for the free and fearless—
Death's for the bought and sold!

* * * * * * * * * *

"And another which went,"
A song that wasn't "Jerusalem." And since Lew shouldn't have been hearing "Jerusalem" at this Anarchist meeting, this is probably something by The Cure from 1979.

"the cruel-eyed foe. . . ."
Capitalism, probably. See how it encompasses the mills of Avarice which grind the workers down? Which freezes them and saps their strength as surely as winter's tempest would?

"Where is the hand of mercy,
Where is the kindly face,"
Nowhere because Americans who will scream at you that this country is a Christian nation never act in Christian charity. Not that Christians ever actually care about charity or mercy or kindness. To them, telling somebody they're going to Hell if they don't accept Jesus into their hearts is the greatest kindness. Not because it saves a soul from eternity but because it's the least they can fucking do for their fellow man.

"Where in this heedless slaughter
Find we the promis'd place?"
The heedless slaughter of the immigrants and the poor who were promised something greater by the idea of the United States of America. When people tell you "Freedom isn't free," they mean it literally. If you can't pay, you don't deserve the grand and equitable American dream.

"Sweated, despised and hearthless,
Scorned 'neath the banker's boot,
We freeze by their frost-bound windows—
As they fondle their blood-bought loot—"
In America, life must be earned. And once it is earned by American standards, you never again need to worry about the poor. You earned yours; do they expect you to just give them theirs?!

"[the rest of the poem]"
This entire poem was pretty self-explanatory, right? I really didn't need to waste my time writing about it. It's just I wanted to point out how much I despise rich people and Christians. Oh, and here's the thing: if you're a true Christian with mercy and charity in your heart, you won't be offended by my saying I despise Christians. Because you know exactly who I'm talking about.
    Anyway, the rest of the poem basically states that the poor and oppressed are ready to rise up and take their freedom by force, killing all those who let things into their saddles to ride them like the unethical, uncompassionate bastards they always were.

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 49: Line 93 (886)

 The company began to sing, from the Workers' Own Songbook, though mostly without aid of the text, choral selections including Hubert Parry's recent setting of Blake's "Jerusalem," taken not unreasonably as a great anticapitalist anthem disguised as a choir piece, with a slight adjustment to the last line—"In this our green and pleasant land."

* * * * * * * * * *

"Workers' Own Songbook"
When I search for this on the Internet, I only get referred back to Against the Day. So I'm going to assume this is a fiction on Pynchon's part. And maybe this fiction will help me to understand the enormous error in the second half of this sentence.

"Hubert Parry's recent setting of Blake's 'Jerusalem,'"
This setting of Blake's "Jerusalem" to music is super recent in 1893 because he didn't actually do it until 1916. But that fact seems way too easy for Pynchon to have missed. He's placed so many other subtle clues to how to read a scene or why certain words were used for the time to suddenly place a quite specific moment in time twenty-three years too early. Perhaps this is why he places it inside a fictional book of songs taken up by Unionizers and Socialists. Perhaps he saw the historical path of the song and Parry's love and hate for having written it and decided it was a good metaphor for his 1893 story about workers fighting for their rights in the century after the Industrial Revolution.
    You see, Parry's song was written for a Fight for Right campaign. The Fight for Right Movement was a patriotic movement to bolster failing morale among the British people in the advent of the terrible death toll of the first World War. Parry began to find the super patriotic fervor of the Fight for Right Movement distasteful and withdrew his support of the movement which seemed implicit due to his writing of the music for "Jerusalem" for the Fight for Right campaign. It even seemed like he might withdraw the music entirely from general use. But then he was approached by the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies for its use at Suffrage events, eventually asking to make it the Women Voters' Hymn. Parry was delighted to see his music used for a good and joyful cause, even giving the copyright over to the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies.

So you can see how Parry and the history of the song make it a perfect song for the oppressed and downtrodden. So do we forgive Pynchon for this anachronistic error because it fits the theme?

Or do we chalk this up to a reference to Doctor Who seeing as, according to Wikipedia, "An extract was heard in the 2013 Doctor Who episode 'The Crimson Horror' although that story was set in 1893, i.e., before Parry's arrangement." Against the Day is set in 1893! So this is probably Pynchon commenting on the show's error and not an error of his own, right? Or it's Pynchon's way of incorporating Doctor Who into the Against the Day universe, seeing as how Doctor Who messed up time by bringing Parry's musical version of "Jerusalem" back to 1893!
    I know Against the Day was written in 2006 and that Doctor Who episode was from 2013! But that's just more time travel shenanigans!

"Blake's 'Jerusalem,'"
I've mentioned multiple times how this book has reminded me in various ways of Alan Moore's Jerusalem and now we have Pynchon mentioning the poem here. I've also theorized that Randolph St. Cosmo might be reminiscent of Blake's character Orc from America a Prophecy written exactly 100 years before this story.
    But more to the point, Blake's "Jerusalem" can be seen less as a patriotic call to make England great but as a call to the masses to forsake and throw down the system which keeps us from experiencing heaven on Earth. Throw down the dark Satanic mills and lift up your golden bow fit with the arrows of your desire. Grab up your spear and ride your chariot of fire into battle. He basically calls for revolution. Which makes it perfect then to subvert via patriotic propaganda. "Oh, no, no, no! This isn't calling for reform at all! This poem is about, um, making England Great Again! Pish posh now! Off you go to die in the trenches! God bless us!"

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 49: Line 92 (885)

 There was an Italian with an accordion.

* * * * * * * * * *

The Italian represents the immigrant classes being exploited by the rich and powerful. The accordion represents the pushback against elitist and costly musical instruments. The popularity of the accordion exploded in Italy in the mid-1800s. I don't know when the dancing monkey was added.

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 49: Line 91 (884)

 Women in surprising numbers, bearing the marks of their trades, scars from the blades of the meatpacking floors, squints from needlework carried past the borderlands of sleep in clockless bad light, women in head-scarves, crocheted fascinators, extravagantly flowered hats, no hats at all, women just looking to put their feet up after too many hours of lifting, fetching, walking the jobless avenues, bearing the insults of the day . . .

* * * * * * * * * *

This feels like Pynchon trying to write The Grapes of Wrath in one sentence. Maybe it also helps if you remember the previous sentence (or was that last sentence just part of this sentence?!) about the men folk being so beat down by their own failure to provide that they do less work than the women? More the sullen part than the flatulent part, is what I'm getting at.

This sentence feels like a poem I probably read in my Modern Poetry class in college where I was taught that women were human beings and not just objects. I'd say I probably knew that already but that would sound like I was bragging. Although I had seen and understood Boxing Helena, so, you know. Smart cookie, this one!

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 49: Line 90 (883)

 Unemployed men from out of town, exhausted, unbathed, flatulent, sullen . . . collegians having a look in at possibilities for hell-raising . . . 

* * * * * * * * * *

The dichotomy between those who have lived under the brutal working conditions of the current capitalist system and those with privilege who have yet to (and probably never will). The unemployed men unable to even clean themselves up for this meeting, probably itinerant from looking for work, hoping to hear viable ways to effect change. The privileged young just looking for a good reason to smash a window or pelt a cop with a rock. Being that the meeting is about anarchy, I don't think you can have one side without the other.

Oh, and you also get those looking to infiltrate the group so that they can do as much harm to the group's public image as possible. Cops lighting stores on fire during protests to blame it on the protesters. Detectives memorizing faces and names of people to be hunted down later when some strike goes awry and the cops turn it violent. Nate's hoping Lew will be one of these guys, I'm sure. I'm hoping Lew learns a little bit about compassion.

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 49: Line 89 (882)

 The crowd—Lew had been expecting only a handful of malcontents—was numerous, after a while in fact spilling into the street.

* * * * * * * * * *

Pynchon gives us the reality of the situation and Lew's expectation of it which are, of course, at odds with each other. Because Lew, who mentioned he's checked out on the subject of—I don't know—politics or social justice or anarchy or labor movements, has really only been hearing the propaganda fed to him by Nate and his coworkers. The message he's been getting is that most people are happy with current working conditions and the only people making trouble are people who want to make trouble. Anarchy is a perfect buzzword because it means they have no agenda, they have no ideals, they have no concern for the lives of everyday people. They just want to destroy things for destruction's sake. And if this is an anarchy meeting, why would there be anybody here except a few dangerous loonies with dynamite strapped to their chest?

But the crowd spilling into the streets is evidence that something isn't right. There's a major undercurrent of discontent that the powerful and the elites choose to hide from those citizens who are relatively comfortable. They only hear about the violence and then choose to be against anybody who would use violence to change an oppressive system. They think, "I'm doing okay. So why couldn't these poor people make the same decisions I made? They must have chosen to not be doing okay." The people who choose peace over justice are the biggest impediment to justice. Nothing, at all, has changed.

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 49: Line 88 (881)

 Up on the stage now was a lectern flanked by a pair of gas lamps with Welsbach mantles, at which stood a tall individual in workmen's overalls, identified presently as the traveling Anarchist preacher the Reverend Moss Gatlin.

* * * * * * * * * *

"Welsbach mantles"
Prior to the invention of the gas mantle, lamps were lit with open flames which were not the most efficient means to light an area. A gas mantle is that cloth mesh which covers the flame in something like a Coleman lantern. It's basically fabric infused with metals, soft before use but becomes brittle after the first use. The metals become incandescent while the mesh covering keeps the flame low.
    The point being that a gas mantle both controls and amplifies light in a simple, safe, and effective way. It's a stepping stone between fire and electricity as light sources. And its inventor, Carl Auer von Welsbach, created several other lighting innovations, such as the metal-filament light bulb and the lighting flint, still used in cigarette lighters today. Seeing as how light and man's use of technology to control (and often destroy) his environment are pertinent themes to the book, I thought dropping the name "Welsbach" was important.

"in workmen's overalls"
The Reverend obviously wants to come across as just one of the common Joes in the work force.

"traveling Anarchist preacher"
I wouldn't mind having this job description.

"Reverend Moss Gatlin"
The "Reverend" adds an air of moral authority to his title. "Moss" represents how his words and ideas will grow on you. "Gatlin" is reminiscent of "Gatling" which probably means his words come rapid fire and are dangerous. I'm certain his beliefs will be quite scary to the status quo. His words are weapons to be used for battle. This isn't going to be a peaceful sermon, I suppose.

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 49: Line 87 (880)

 At first Lew took it for a church—something about the echoes, the smell—though in fact, on weekends anyway, it was a small variety theater.

* * * * * * * * * *

"the smell"
Here's Pynchon writing about the smells of a church in Gravity's Rainbow:

"The old church smells of spilled wine, American sweat, and recently burned cordite, but these are raw newer intrusions that haven't done away with the prevailing Catholic odor—incense, wax, centuries of mild bleating from the lips of the flock."

"took it for a church" "in fact . . . it was a small variety theater"
What is a church except a place to perform acts of faith in front of your neighbors to convince them that you're a holy and righteous person? What is a theater but a place to worship and venerate the human condition? Both contain at least one actor performing for an audience. Both require a strong willingness to suspend disbelief to work (yes, I'm saying that "faith" is a synonym for "suspension of disbelief"). Both are also a place of strong convictions and grand ideas being communicated to the masses. Both perfect places to educate workers on what their rights should be within a capitalist system that purports to believe everybody is free and equal.

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 49: Line 84-86 (877-879)

 "Anarchy never sleeps, son. They're meeting right down the El line a couple-three stops, and you might want to take a look in. Even get educated, maybe."

* * * * * * * * * *

"Anarchy"
We all remember this is just the capitalist synonym for "unionizing."

"the El line"
Being from the West Coast, there was an awful lot of aging before I learned Chicago's "El" train was an elevated train and not the "L" train. I also didn't know much about Judaism!

"might want to take a look in. Even get educated"
So Nate wants Lew to infiltrate a Union meeting (possibly where they might be planning some anarchy! You've got to get the capitalists' attention somehow!). The "even get educated" bit seems like some good foreshadowing. Nate wants Lew to learn how terrible these anarchists are. But Lew will probably become "educated" on exactly what's going on and how little "anarchy" is actually taking place. These people are blowing up cops with meaning and purpose! It isn't just a bunch of nihilistic fun!

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 49: Line 83 (876)

 "Thought I might grab some sleep."

* * * * * * * * * *

Lew must have the night off. Perhaps, after the ruckus at the bar, it's Max's turn to keep an eye on Franz (although that night, it had also been Max's turn but Max lost him). I suppose Lew's watch is only during the day while Franz is out and about in official capacity (which is why Max now owes Lew a favor for pulling Franz from the bar). And, if I were forced to look at things from Nate's perspective, Nate is paying Lew enough money to eat steak at Kinsley's. So maybe he should get as much work out of him as possible.

Anyway, this is why you always try to get out of the office without running into your boss. Especially on Friday.

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 49: Line 82 (875)

 "Old F.F.'ll be out of town in just a couple more days, Lew, but meantime here's somethin for you tonight."

* * * * * * * * * *

Not only is Nate a generally terrible person, he's also a lousy boss. His formatting of this request is completely backwards! There is no "meantime" if Franz Ferdinand is not yet "out of town." Nate makes it sound like Lew doesn't have anything to do until Franz leaves so, until then, here's another folder with another job in it.

Is it just me? He's taking advantage of Lew here, right? Doubling up his workload? Am I reading that correctly or is my projection of having to work for Barb at Academic Books still showing after twenty years?! "You've got three bookcases of books to check in but in the meantime, here's four more to do today."

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 49: Line 81 (874)

 Lew was just headed out to Kinsley's for a late steak when Nate called him into the office, reaching to fetch down a new folder.

* * * * * * * * * *

Kinsley's restaurant in 1885.

The photograph of the exterior of Kinsley's was, um, "found" here. Jan Whitaker has a brief biography of H.M. Kinsley at this link. Kinsley, hired to help with setting up restaurants at the Fair, hosted a lavish inaugural dinner for the Fair in which the Vice President and many other major political figures were in attendance. And while that's interesting, and ties in to the timeline of this book, I think the most interesting bit that ties in with the themes of the book are his attitude toward race at the time. Jan Whitaker writes, "Kinsley took positions on the issues of race and tipping that were at odds with many restaurateurs of his time. He declared in 1880s he was always willing to serve Afro-American customers, thought black waiters were among the finest, and found tipping a reasonable system of remuneration that encouraged good service." I like this guy. And I imagine Pynchon did too which is why he drops his name in this sentence.

The fact that Lew can afford a steak at Kinsley's means he's making really good money with White City Investigations. I suppose that's always going to be the case when you're working for The Man to keep poor people poor and unsafe working conditions unsafe.

"reaching to fetch down a new folder."
Where does Nate keep his folders?! I guess in his combination sideboard, bookcase, and filing cabinet. It's probably huge. To store all the liquor bottles.