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 By now he could not bear her woundedness—the tears, through some desperate magic, kept gelid at her lower lids, because she would not let them fall, not till he had left her sight.

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This entire Lew Basnight section feels like when Dave Sim decided to go on his Oscar Wilde or Ernest Hemingway tangents and write long sections of Cerebus in the style of the writer with which he was currently obsessed. These descriptions of their loss of love and the terrible destruction of Lew's reputation feel straight out of Middlemarch, Bleak House, or The Age of Innocence (although written later, placed in Wharton's childhood days of the 1870s). These are just such great Victorian romance drama lines: "He could not bear her woundedness," and "she would not let the tears fall, not till he had left her sight." There's more florid descriptions of this heartbreaking interaction than I'm used to in Pynchon. But then I've only ever read three other books by Pynchon, so maybe this is something he loves to do?! How should I know? Re-read the description of my blog where I outright state I don't know enough about anything to be attempting this kind of project!

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 "Stay here in Chicago if you like, it's all the same to me. This neighborhood we're in right now might suit you perfectly, and I know I'll never come here again."

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"This unimaginable space in Chicago that may never have existed before this moment is the perfect place for you, a hallucination," says his wife Truth. Sodomy looks around judging how he might fit in. "I'll never come here again," finishes Truth, rubbing her backside and flinching at the memory of her husband's sins.

Chicago, especially this place neither spouse has seen before, will become the home of a person who doesn't know who he is anymore, maybe never have known at all. And his wife is fine to never see him again, all based on rumor and speculation. Is this tragic? Is this pop culture reality daytime talk show drama? Or is this a re-imagined version of The Age of Innocence? Except instead of May accepting Archer's childish crush on her cousin, Troth has decided she doesn't want to live with a man who is actually in love with Wensleydale.

Is the idea of a neighborhood in Chicago nobody knew existed—or denied existed, more probably—a metaphor for Lew's homosexuality? And the reason Troth will never trod that neighborhood again? She doesn't want to believe it exists and so she'll deny it from this day forward, and her husband as well.

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 "Oh, boy!" cried Darby Suckling, as he leaned over the lifelines to watch the national heartland deeply swung in a whirling blur of green far below, his tow-colored locks streaming in the wind past the gondola like a banner to leeward.

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Darby is only the second character introduced so it might not be that revealing when I say that he's my favorite character so far! The name "Randolph St. Cosmo" makes me think of tucking in my shirt and getting my knuckles rapped by a ruler for not tucking in my shirt like I was supposed to. But the name "Darby Suckling" makes me think of shoe polish and baby pigs! And those things remind me of totally untucked shirts which is a huge part of my life's philosophy.

The term "national heartland" seems like one of those terms that people never really thought much about and used it in such a cavalier way that it grew into a monstrous mutant that now threatens all of our political discussions. The problem is that the definition of heartland is both "the central part of the US" and "the central or most important part of a country." That seems like a mistake, right? It's like if the definition of "genius" was "a super smart person with tons of smarts" and another definition of "genius" was "Grunion Guy." It wouldn't mean I, Grunion Guy, were automatically both definitions just because the second definition defined me. But over time, how could you not simply equate Grunion Guy with a super smart person with tons of smarts? It couldn't be helped! Well, that's what's happened here! A bunch of media jerkos think "the central part of the US" is equivalent to "the most important part of a country" and now we get a never-ending cycle of articles about how important they are to the United States! No wonder some smart mouth came up with the term "flyover states" to replace "the heartland." That guy was a genius! No, it wasn't me! I meant the first definition of genius!

Darby is blond. That might become important later. Or it was just to help flesh out the colorful description of this boy about to fall to his death because he's so excited about visiting the Columbian Exposition. He also might have long hair since it's streaming past the gondola and as long as a banner. But were young boys allowed to have long hair in 1893? I bet it was almost a demand of the Victorian Era to not cut young boys hair until they reached a certain age. That seems like the kind of thing I imagine about the Victorian Era that nobody ever corrects me on because I never discuss my non-researched and totally ignorant vision of that time. Most of what I know about the Victorian Era I learned from The Age of Innocence, Oscar Wilde, and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen.

Never let it be said that I never ever do any research (even if it's me who is always saying that)! Here is a picture I found on a Tripod website which describes the picture as having been taken at exactly the time Darby is hanging halfway over the side of the Inconvenience. The site (which I'm sure has been rigorously researched by top academicians) also states of Victorian and Edwardian times, "Some mothers might wait until a boy was 10 or even 11 before allowing him to have his long curls cutting." So I'm convinced! Darby has super cute long blond hair and his character has advanced even further in my estimation!

Bonus: if you visit that Tripod site, there is a picture of a young Thomas Wolfe with beautiful sausage curls. The caption doesn't expressly state that it's Thomas Wolfe but it looks just like him so I think the implication that it is him must stand.