Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 52: Lines 128-129 (922-923)

 Lew blew a smoke ring, and a few more concentrically. "Well now shit, there, Nate."

* * * * * * * * * *

And there it is. The final lines of this interaction and this section. Lew lording his winning hand over Nate, slowly, methodically, luxuriously. And then letting Nate know, in one incomplete sentence, how he pities Nate and his experience. He may run White City Investigations. He may hobnob with the rich and powerful. He may earn quite a bit of money oppressing workers and destroying unions. But his quality of life is for shit. He's never actually seen Chicago. He just lives there and exploits it. And he thinks he's going to trick Lew into a Denver transfer without ponying up anything?!

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 52: Line 127 (921)

 "No," Nate staring impatiently, "not too often, I work too late for that."

* * * * * * * * * *

First off, I highly doubt Nate is doing much work. So "I work too late for that" means "I'm usually passed out in my office by then." Nate also might be a little bit upset to learn that Lew's ability to perceive things better than the average person means that Lew actually gets more enjoyment and fulfillment out of his existence than Nate does. But mostly Nate is just getting angry and impatient because Lew noticed that Lew has all the power in this transaction and he's making the most out of it. He's really letting Nate dangle here. "You want me to go to Denver? Well, it's going to cost you, buddy!"

Chapter 1: Section 6: Pages 51-52: Line 126 (920)

 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: Lines 122-124 (916-918)

 "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 (914-915)

 "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 (913)

 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 (912)

 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 (910-911)

 "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 (909)

 "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: Lines 112-113 (906-907)

 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 (905)

 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 50: Line 99 (893)

 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 49: Line 84-86 (878-880)

 "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 (877)

 "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 (876)

 "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 (875)

 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.

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 46: Line 35 (829)

 "With more them damned anarchistic foreign-born south of Forty-seventh than you could point a Mannlicher at," chuckled Nate, "sure'd be a few less of em to worry about, wouldn't it?"

* * * * * * * * * *

This is the kind of thing every conservative American who stridently claims they're not racist when accused of being racist would eagerly say in one of their "safe spaces" (a space with a bunch of other white faces, all of whom they automatically believe are as "not racist" as they are). This quote by Nate could easily have been lifted off of right-wing Twitter just this morning, with a few minor substitutions.

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 46: Line 34 (828)

 "How's that, boss?"

* * * * * * * * * *

This is the question more of us should have been asking over the last twenty years to every seemingly coded phrase spoken by a conservative. Get them to state their position as plainly as possible. No more fucking dog whistles, guys. If you're proud of your beliefs and ideas then you should have no qualms stating them plainly!

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 46: Line 33 (827)

 "Well, not that he wouldn't be doing us a favor."

* * * * * * * * * *

I think I've covered this elsewhere but for those who may have missed my responses to nearly everything Nate Privett has said: Nate Privett is a complete and utter dickhead.

We know Nate sees his clients at White City Investigations as the rich and powerful and the jobs he does for them mostly oppressing union behavior. He's a union buster so, of course, he sees the murder of exploited laborers, mostly immigrants, as a tool to help his bottom line. He could probably even make double the money letting Ferdinand hunt Chicago's immigrant population: once from Ferdinand himself and once from the industrialists and capitalists who would see it as union busting at its most extreme and, possibly, most effective. Who's going to risk showing up at a picket line when roving bands of rich gun-wielding Austrians are roaming the streets looking for a little immigrant blood?

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 46: Line 32 (826)

 "Like there ain't enough Hungarians back home to keep him busy?" Lew was wondering.

* * * * * * * * * *

Come on, Lew! Even you know that's not realistic! If Archduke Ferdinand began hunting Hungarians back home in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, it might cause him to be assassinated by Hungarian malcontents. But if he comes to America to hunt them, nobody is going to bat an eye because if there's one thing America has never actually given a shit about, it's immigrants! Even the Statue of Liberty had nothing to do with immigrants when it was gifted to America but about abolishing slavery. It was only later after it became associated with Emma Lazarus's poem, and because it was pretty much the first thing European immigrants saw upon arriving by ship to the United States, that it was thought of as a symbol for America's willingness to accept foreigners.

Imagine that! People hated immigrants but they hated the abolition of slavery even more so they'd rather think of the Statue of Liberty as a symbol welcoming immigrants rather than a symbol of the freedom of Black Americans.