Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 46: Line 26 (819)

 Lew's ears began to itch.

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Is this the feeling Lew gets when he's about to sidestep reality?!

"Itching ears" has a Biblical meaning but I don't think that's what Pynchon is going for here. To have itching ears, according to The Bible, is to seek out a religious teacher or religious dogma that supports the lifestyle you've already chosen. So a religious teacher who will scratch the itch of your desires, one who will condone the way you're already living.
    Lew's ears seem to itch because he's getting increasingly nervous about what this clearly insane man is suggesting.

Chapter 1: Section 5: Page 43: Line 185 (767)

 His companion introduced himself as Nate Privett, personnel director at White City Investigations, a detective agency.

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I guess I've just been assuming, up until this point, that this guy was Nate Privett. I probably shouldn't do that. I should probably read this as literally as I read The Bible, using only the evidence supported directly by the text! Jumping to conclusions and needing to control people's behavior is what made the story of Onan into some kind of anti-masturbation allegory instead of a commentary on breaking contracts and disobeying your parents.

Chapter 1: Section 5: Page 40: Line 103 (685)

 More than once they were obliged to step out into refuse-filled corridors, negotiate iron ladders, cross dangerous catwalks not visible from the streets, only to reboard the fiendish conveyance at another of its stops, at times traveling not even vertically, until at last reaching a floor with a room somehow cantilevered out in the wind, autumnal today and unremitting, off Lake Michigan.

* * * * * * * * * *

Narrow is the way, and rickety and twisty and dangerous and inconceivable and impossible, which leadeth unto life in a precarious apartment buffeted by strong winds, and few there be that find it without Hershel's help.

Chapter 1: Section 4: Page 32: Line 147 (519)

 "Suffering fools is unavoidable," said Ray Ipsow, "but don't ask me to be 'glad' about it."

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Nobody who is actually suffering fools chooses to be glad about it. But Paul makes the rhetorical argument that the Corinthians must suffer fools gladly, having listened to other anti-Christian arguments and seemingly taken them to heart. So Paul is all, "Look. You obviously have a history of listening to idiots. So what's the harm in listening to me, a self-proclaimed idiot?!" In doing so, he's not suggesting everybody in the world suffer fools gladly. He's suggesting the opposite! He's all, "Stop listening to fools, you idiots! Listen to me and Christ and the church!" Sure, he keeps saying in parenthetical references, "I'm a fool too!" But he doesn't mean it! It's just his way of worming himself through the Corinthians' front door so he can preach the gospel directly into their faces. To suffer fools gladly is to listen to terrible, self-serving, idiotic arguments that in no way improve your life (or the lives of others) through debate. Debate isn't a goal in and of itself! It's a tool and sometimes it's not the right tool. So when some asshat like Charlie Kirk or Ben Shapiro spouts a volcano of belligerent nonsense about somebody refusing to debate them, realize that they're basically screaming, "This person wants to drill a hole but they won't accept my hammer to do it!"

Suffer fools gladly? No thank you, sir. Even Paul, who said it, didn't actually mean it!

Chapter 1: Section 4: Page 32: Line 146 (518)

 He had a careful look around the table, estimating the level of Scriptural awareness.

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Have I mentioned my high school friend Soy Rakelson on this blog yet? Because this is the kind of thing he would have done during a late night game of Warhammer, especially if he were the Game Master. He'd drop a Biblical reference and then nod his head (maybe while rubbing his chin) as he panned around the heathen group at the table, waiting to see if anybody would pick up on it. Then if somebody did reply in a way that showed they understood the reference, he'd say, "Very good, X" where "X" was that person's last name. If it wasn't Roy . . . I'm sorry, I meant Soy! . . . who made the Biblical reference but one of the other ungodly people at the table, he'd be absolutely flabbergasted that they would know anything at all about The Bible. Even though he knew we were all English and Literature majors and what good is an English Lit major without an abundant knowledge of scripture?! You're going to miss 90% of all the references and thematic elements of the text!

Chapter 1: Section 4: Page 32: Line 144-145 (516-517)

 "The Professor's afraid you're going to chase me off with radical talk like that. But I am not that sensitive a soul, I am guided, as ever, by Second Corinthians."

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"radical talk"
In other words, honestly and truthfully giving a conservative well-deserved criticism.

"Second Corinthians"
I'm fairly certain I know which part of Second Corinthians Scarsdale is referencing but let's talk about some of the other aspects of it first.
    First off, what is Second Corinthians? It's a letter to the Corinthians from the Apostle Paul saying, "Look. I think you guys should believe in God. It's just that, you know, Christ died for your sins and, well, I think you're obligated to believe in God because of that. Also, you're miserable, right? So miserable! But if you believe in God, you'll feel glorious! Because you'll be saved from death or something. Because death is eternal and life is not and you don't want to be dead for eternity, do you?! So just believe in God and you'll live forever! And all you have to do is believe everything I tell you to believe and also tell everybody you ever meet to believe me too. I mean to believe Christ. Thank you! I love you, Corinth! You're not as scared and weak as you think! I mean, you are but you won't be if you just ally with Christ and by Christ I mean this new church I'm working on!"
    I'm no theologian so you might want to take all that with a grain of Lot's wife.
    I love how people often remark on a certain book of The Bible as if they base their life's philosophy on it and then it turns out they're a rich American magnate who forgot part of that book says, "Receive us; we have wronged no man, we have corrupted no man, we have defrauded no man." I suppose, like everybody who bases their life on The Bible, they never mean the parts that disagree with their lifestyle. In fact, they're usually so deluded they think they agree with the parts that actually condemn them.
    Paul's line after that piece I just quoted is "I speak not this to condemn you." It's like an editor was reading through his letter and was all, "Hey. This part here. You're saying you are this which suggests maybe they aren't that? Maybe clarify that a bit before you send it?" And Paul was all, "Oh, yeah, um, 'Hey, man! I didn't mean nothing by that. Remember how I said you're in my heart and all? I love you, man, for all your faults and everything which are totally apparent. God loves people with faults and problems! How else am I supposed to convince them their lives have become unmanageable?!"
    Did you know Paul was the first person to say "Sorry not sorry"? 2 Corinthians 7:8: "For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent, though I did repent: for I perceive that the same epistle hath made you sorry, though it were but for a season." So Paul is all, "Sorry I made you so mad with that first letter. But I'm also not sorry because you needed to be mad for a bit to understand this next letter?"
    I'm also fairly certain Scarsdale isn't saying he's guided by 2 Corinthians 8:14 which states, "But by an equality, that now at this time your abundance may be a supply for their want, that their abundance also may be a supply for your want: that there may be equality" because that's Goddamned socialism.
    Maybe I should just get to the part that Scarsdale is obviously referring to since it bolsters his stance of being sensitive to Ray's radical talk. Let's begin again!

"Second Corinthians"
Scarsdale says he lets Second Corinthians be his guide but he doesn't specify which section. That can be taken a lot of ways! But being that Scarsdale Vibe is a cartoon villain who believes that however he lives his life is the proper way to live, justifying it by any means necessary, he is almost certainly speaking of 2 Corinthians 11:19: "For ye suffer fools gladly, seeing ye yourselves are wise." Like just about every person ever, Scarsdale forgoes context for a line he can manipulate to his liking. Of course I can't be sure this is the part of 2 Corinthians he uses as a guide! But then if he uses the entire thing as a guide, it's simply a letter to a bunch of heathens trying to goad them into believing in Christ and letting his church gain a foothold in their country so the church can get richer. For the sake of the ministry, of course! Paul says as much when he's all, "I know I said that thing about sharing your abundance but don't judge our financial abundance because we need it to administer and portion out our spiritual abundance to all of you spiritually lacking half-wits!"
    Scarsdale obviously means to say that he takes no offense from foolish arguments against his lifestyle because Scarsdale is wise enough to know better. But the ironic part of Scarsdale being guided by 2 Corinthians is that Paul makes a grandly sarcastic argument against boasting and the confidence of the wise. He also seems to suggest that earthly abundance should be shared in the same way that spiritual abundance should be. Unless that's just my socialist take and what Paul is really saying is, "Don't worry about being rich. It doesn't matter either way. Rich, poor . . . who cares?! As long as you plant spiritual seeds so that you can reap loads and loads of spiritual fruit! But remember to share that fruit because we need more fruit seeds all over the world so that everybody and their heathen dog can partake of the sweet, sweet flavor of it!"

Chapter 1: Section 3: Page 24: Line 42-43 (327-328)

 "Lord have mercy, last time that happened I ended up in the Cook County jail for a nice long vacation. A tribute to your sharp eyes, young man, and no hard feelings," holding out a ten-dollar banknote.

* * * * * * * * * *

Pynchon sometimes leaves out pertinent detail because he's so mired in the subtext of what he's writing so it's possible that Miles bet on the game. But I don't think so. I'm sure the man is simply offering Miles ten bucks so that Miles doesn't call the cops on what is obviously a scam and not an African divinatory ritual at all. That seems pretty self-explanatory but what else am I going to write about?! A five paragraph digression on how Cook's Country and/or America's Test Kitchen (were these two different shows? The same show? What was going on here?!) were never the same once Christopher "Slenderman" Kimball left to do his own cooking show (which wasn't worth watching either. They truly needed each other)?

Some people might be thinking, "Why would you discuss that PBS show? The guy mentioned 'Cook County', not 'Cook's Country'?" And I can only answer that by mentioning this: when I was doing Lyle's Study Guide for the Literal Interpretation of The Bible for Dumb-Dumbs, I wrote extensively about the television show Lost simply because J.J. Abrams wrote and produced Lost and there was a character in Genesis named Abram.

I suppose I could also write about race relations in America and point out how subservient, apologetic, and polite this man feels he needs to be to a teenaged white boy in an effort to avoid violence and persecution from law enforcement. This Black man points out that for running this game that probably just gets white con men's tables kicked over and then chased away from the neighborhood, he wound up in jail for a long stretch. Then he compliments the kid who could get him in some serious trouble, apologizes ("no hard feelings" is an apology, right?), and then offers him some hush money. A white guy in this situation would probably have just laughed and/or sneered at Miles and told him to get lost.

I've found that people who think minorities expect certain entitlements in our country are already taking for granted those entitlements themselves. Having spent a lot of time in 7-Eleven stores late at night for "business reasons", here's a race-based observation I've made that probably explains what I mean and can probably be expounded upon: white people will come in and ask about day old doughnuts and if they can have them for free while Black people will come in and ask about day old doughnuts at a discount.

People who deny there are two different Americas (at least two!) depending on your race simply aren't observing the world. Their eyes are turned inward, and they just don't care to spend any brain power thinking about anything that doesn't involve and/or benefit themselves. They think people speaking up about systemic bias and oppression are causing trouble because they can't see how the status quo causes so much trouble for people not like them.

But seriously, Christopher Kimball was totally Slenderman, right?

Chapter 1: Section 2: Page 14: Line 58 (163)

 The Jacob's-ladder now came clattering over the side, and upon it, presently, in uncertain descent, Miles, surmounted by a giant sack of soiled laundry.

* * * * * * * * * *

The term "Jacob's-ladder" is the most interesting bit here because it's Biblical. Some people think, "Why do I need to read The Bible when I don't believe in God?" And other people answer, "Do you believe in understanding anything from the Western Canon?" And then those people respond, "Fuck the Western Canon, you Patriarchal Monster!" And then the other people learn to maybe mind their own fucking business.

The literal interpretation of the Jacob's-ladder in this scene is that it's just one of them rope ladders used in sailing ships. But the main metaphorical interpretation is that it's the stairway to Heaven used by angels so that they can come to Earth to wrestle people naked. As we have seen, the Chums have just descended from Heaven and landed near a naked woman. They have not wrestled with her but I bet they want to. Also, Randolph St. Cosmo is probably an angel; the other Chums may be angels or ghosts or just lost boys being cared for by Randolph. So if Randolph and the Chums are angels, the Jacob's-ladder is literal in both of these interpretations!

The third interpretation of Jacobs'-ladder is the description of the suns rays shining down in an ever widening arc. This is an important interpretation because the book is called Against the Day and the day is when the sun is out. Also the chapter title is "The Light Over the Ranges" and the epigraph was a quote by that jazz guy about how everything is always night which is why we need light. It's all building on a theme! And since you'll never really know what a Pynchon book was about (I mean, some people might know! Or think they know! But, come on, do you think you'll be one of them? Be honest!), you should at least try to pay attention to all of the themes!

Miles is also unloading a bunch of the ship's dirty laundry. So in some way, every time the angels land, they need to cleanse the Inconvenience by removing their sins. And there are a lot of them because the dirty laundry sack is giant!

Chapter 1: Section 1: Page 3: Line 1

 Now single up all lines!"

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This is it. The stupid first line of this stupid book that made my brain vomit-scream the idea "You should do a blog where you just write about each individual line of the book!" as I was trying to stop repeatedly playing the old Animaniacs theme song in my head in an effort to remember the lyrics they changed in the new Hulu series. I guess the vacuum that was created sucked in this other terrible thought because my brain has no respect for the amount of time I have to do all the things I already want to do every day. My brain apparently thinks I'm a lazy piece of excrement that needs more projects that I'll never finish not because I abandon them but because the "never finishing" bit is a feature. Here are a few projects I've given myself over the years that I knew I would never be able to finish as soon as I created them:

An online comic based on both Dungeons & Dragons and The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo called Dwarflover. Admittedly, this project has a terminus built into it: the capture of all thirteen ghosts. But the execution was purposefully expansive to give me too much to write about. Eventually the Photoshopping took its toll on me and the project was abandoned after two ghosts (Freddy Kreuger and Acererak) were captured after finishing one dungeon (The Tomb of Horrors). I had the theme and plot of the next dungeon (Dungeonland) figured out in my head with the first chapter written and the second and third chapter basically plotted out in my head. Maybe I'll return to this when I retire.

Reading every holy book (including Dianetics because, I mean, right?) as an areligious person who is mostly unfamiliar with the dogma of the religion and trying to interpret the text as literally as possible. This project was a lot of fun but ultimately abandoned (maybe until I retire from retirement?) after writing 335 pages on the first 45 pages of Genesis. This might still be my favorite project I ever abandoned. It was written in the style of a study guide and included sections like Science vs Faith, Drawing Time, Historical Facts, and Know Thy Enemy. The science versus faith section was always based on some theme in that particular section of The Bible (the subject of the last section I wrote about Joseph in Egypt was "Magicians") and a good amount of the historical facts were actually facts about the television show Lost (this was because I often confused Abram with J.J. Abrams). One entire section was just the first episode of the old Star Trek series inserted and discussed as if it were a chapter of The Bible. It used to be on the Internet (and still might be archived in weird Way Back Machines managed by top hat wearing cows) but I took it down when I thought, "This could be my first book!"

A blog discussing every book DC comics published when they flushed their entire universe and began The New 52. This was just the culmination of a dream I had when I was 12 where I thought, "Wouldn't it be great to be able to buy every single comic DC publishes so I can keep up on the entire story of all their characters?!" The answer turned out to be "No, it's not great. Not at all. Especially when they picked up all of Marvel's worst writers for the project."

Places & Predators, a roleplaying game based on The Game of Life. Technically this isn't exactly a project with "never being able to finish" baked in. I could have completed the basic game and then the "never finished" part would be continually writing modules and building the world. But seeing as how the "never being able to finish" is just a part of my DNA, I kept rewriting the rules. Over and over and over. Ultimately I did put out a finished project based on Cribbage and not The Game of Life. But I did add a character class, Cult Member, and a cult within that class who believe the world they're living in is a pale imitation of the actual world and that world is the original game I created. So I can still force all of my work back into this game! Also, the new game based on cribbage is also just based on the original world so it's not like I've thrown out all the writing I did. It's all still viable! This project actually exists in the real world and you can buy a copy of the basic rules with a starter module on Amazon Kindle!

Can I include "reading Burton's translation of The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night" as a project since I've been reading that three volume monster for over ten years now? No, probably not.

I guess none of that was about this line from Against the Day, was it?

If the first line wasn't Pynchon telling the reader to pay attention to every individual line then I'm wasting my time. Because if every line of Pynchon's text is simply plot related then Pynchon isn't as interesting as I first thought. Also, I would have to learn about singling up lines and whatever that means. I know it has to do with launching a ship (an airship in this case!) but it's easier to jump straight to the possible subtext because that's all speculation that takes place in my head! Learning about the actual meaning of "singling up a line" means having to do outside reading. And who wants to read?! I'm a Writer not a Reader!

Oh, the other reason I decided to do this blog is because I've been complaining recently about my old college Children's Lit professor in my Gravity's Rainbow discussion over on my other blog and how she always tried to get us to write entire essays based on one line from the text. And she was insistent on keeping it out of context of the rest of the novel as much as we could! What was she, crazy?! How do you even do that?! I have no idea because she always marked me down for going too wide on my discussions and not focusing in enough. Maybe I'll finally learn how to do it on this blog!

I will, however, be writing a lot about me because that's all a sociopathic narcissist really knows about.