Chapter 1: Section 7: Page 63: Line 134 (1116)

 For Merle it had been a sort of directionless drift, what Mia Culpepper, who was devoted to astrology, called "void of course," which went on till mid-October, when there was a fire at the Newburgh asylum, where Merle happened to be that night, taking advantage of an inmates' dance to break out Roswell Bounce, who had offended a policeman by snapping his picture just as he emerged from the wrong sporting establishment.

* * * * * * * * * *

"For Merle it had been a sort of directionless drift"
Merle has reached the Gen-X portion of the program. Pynchon really accelerates the run through modernity into postmodernity in this section, a section purported to be about how Merle met Erlys but so far has concentrated on the Michelson-Morley experiment, Blinky Morgan, and the loss of Æther. Perhaps Pynchon's setting up the idea that "love at first sight" is just "discovering a new purpose." Love as the rudder of one's life. At least until Zombini the Mysterious dismantles your boat to leave you drifting in the current.

"Mia Culpepper"
One of the sisters Merle was "courting" at Nelly Lowry's brothel.

"devoted to astrology"
I can't help but read this as a flaw or a negative character trait of Mia Culpepper. But I guess astrology hasn't left her at loose ends or directionless so what do I know? Perhaps loyally believing in nonsense provides one with a more joyous life experience? You don't have to be constantly disappointed and let down by change if you hitch your ride to a belief that can't be disproven. Mia's love of astrology is not mentioned as backing for her coming statement so Pynchon must have placed it here as a referent to her character and mindset. I'm not an earnest person but I'm far less cynical than I once was, preferring to let people simmer in their beliefs without my added snarky commentary (at least in person! My blogs are testament to my lifelong pursuit of being a hater), so maybe I'm less apt to judge Mia as a ditz, more open to see her as optimistic, jovial, and just trying to retain some kind of control over the chaos of daily life.

"void of course"
Just another way of saying "directionless drift" but with the added stinging reference to the recent loss of Æther. While "directionless drift" hints at the quality of Æther filling the universe, "void of course" hints more at a vacuum. It's not that Merle doesn't just know where to go now or what to do; Merle simply has nothing moving or motivating him to even find a direction. He's currently a blank, a cypher. An analogy without a referent.

"which went on till mid-October"
I believe the Michelson-Morley experiment concluded in June or July so Merle's been lost for the entire summer. And he still hasn't met Erlys! Get to the story already!

"there was a fire at the Newburgh asylum, where Merle happened to be that night, taking advantage of an inmates' dance to break out Roswell Bounce"
Even directionless, Merle continues to break his Ætherist companions out of the asylum whenever they've been picked up by the police. I feel like Erlys should be coming into focus soon because the structure of this sentence indicates that Merle was about to find direction due to being at this place at this time. His funk is about to end. And probably not due to saving Roswell Bounce's hide.
    I'm going to ignore the idea of an inmates' dance at an insane asylum. I just don't currently have the bandwidth to imagine what that was like. Although, being that a fire broke out, I'm guessing my first impression that things would not go smoothly at an Insane Asylum Prom wasn't far off.

"Roswell Bounce, who had offended a policeman by snapping his picture just as he emerged from the wrong sporting establishment"
Pynchon has never had any blinders on when it came to what makes police tick. They're corrupt, violent, arrogant bastards who believe no limits to their powers exist other than their own desires. I've often said, "The only weapon you need to provoke a cop to violence is scorn," and here Pynchon gives us an example of the same. Roswell took a photo of a corrupt cop doing corruption and he was tossed in the insane asylum for it. I'm sure he was also served a fairly comprehensive beating as well.

Chapter 1: Section 7: Pages 60-61: Line 78 (1060)

 He had actually glimpsed the flashily turned-out Blinky a couple of times coming and going, as had the police, most likely, because the place was under close surveillance, but attentiveness to duty being negotiable in those days, there were intervals of invisibility for anybody who could afford it.

* * * * * * * * * *

"in those days"
I don't think those three little words have the strength to convince anybody that police were only corrupt five to six years previous to 1893. Perhaps in 2006, when Pynchon wrote this novel, police corruption always seemed slightly worse in the rearview so Pynchon was commenting on that aspect, pointing out at the same time that if people in 1893 felt cops were less corrupt than previous years and people in 2006 feel cops were less corrupt than previous years than that means they've always been corrupt but people just delude themselves into thinking current cops are good people. Of course now, in 2025, we've seen the exact opposite take place year after year. Police just get worse and worse. Obviously they've never been great. A bunch of pig-headed, violent, power-hungry assholes who all think their "gut instinct" is on par with the brains of Albert Einstein.
    Anyway, they were corrupt enough in 1887 to take bribes to look the other way when men came and went from Nelly Lowry's brothel.

"glimpsed the flashily turned-out Blinky a couple of times coming and going, as had the police"
My first thought was the police had seen Blinky Morgan at this establishment before he was wanted for killing a cop which is why they know it's one of his hangouts. But maybe that's me engaging in that whole belief that cops aren't too corrupt. It's not that I don't think cops couldn't be bribed to not stop a cop killer! I just assumed they'd want to beat the shit out of him and murder him more than earn a few bucks. But it makes sense that they'd take the bribe and ignore Blinky's current location since stopping a cop killer is dangerous and hard work and a bribe is easy cash in the hand. And from everything I've ever witnessed, cops are never willing to do the hard work. How anybody actually thinks they're heroic first responders is beyond my comprehension. If anything, they're "First Make Things Worsers".
    My second thought remembered how Merle got to town during the Blinky manhunt which means Blinky has definitely been seen entering Nelly's since then and the cops are being paid to not notice. Also, Blinky's "flashily turned-out" because he robbed a bunch of furs and he's probably at maximum pimp look at the moment.

Chapter 1: Section 7: Page 59: Line 54 (1036)

 They were talking about the Northern Ohio Insane Asylum, a few miles southeast of town, in which currently were lodged some of the more troublesome of the scientific cranks Cleveland these days had been filling up rapidly with, enthusiasts from everywhere in the nation and abroad for that matter, eager to bathe in the radiance of the celebrated Æther-drift experiment in progress out at Case.

**********

"Northern Ohio Insane Asylum"
Pynchon being generous here and explaining one of his references for those weirdos who don't keep the Internet at hand while reading a Pynchon book.

"currently were lodged some of the more troublesome of the scientific cranks"
Holy heck how troublesome can these science fanatics be?! Feels more like maybe a few nerds stood out from the crowd too much and these bully cops decided to give them a brief incarceration instead of a wedgie. I suppose this experiment has become some kind of a spring break for science nerds. Sort of like how at the beginning of the book, the World's Columbian Exposition was spring break for ballooning enthusiasts. That's where the kids met Merle and his penchant for photographing naked ladies!

"eager to bathe in the radiance of the celebrated Æther-drift experiment"
This is a pun. Bathe in the radiance of a light experiment.

"Æther-drift experiment"
The Michelson-Morley Experiment was supposed to prove the existence of Æther through how light moved through it while traveling in different directions. It was theorized that the Æther would drift based on its interaction with the movement of the Earth. This should have caused light to move at differing speeds when moving in perpendicular directions. It did not. But this failed experiment was possibly the beginning of moving the world into special relativity. So that's probably why it's so important to the beginning of this novel. Special relativity will probably be important towards the end of the novel which sucks because I'll finally have to try to understand what all that's about. I'm sure it's more than just "light moves at a constant velocity no matter what which means time has to be the changing variable! Wacky!"

Chapter 1: Section 7: Page 59: Lines 52-53 (1034-1035)

 "Well, let's do a check. Crossed eyes, protruding tongue, Napoleon hat?"

**********

"Crossed eyes, protruding tongue, Napoleon hat?"
This is how neurotypical people actually perceive mentally ill people. Mentally ill people would be surprised to find out this is true but it is. This isn't a cop being a totally ableist prick in 1887! It's just a cop describing how a mentally ill person would look to somebody who wasn't mentally ill. It's just facts, ma'am.

"Napoleon hat"
What was the last generation who understood the shorthand of somebody thinking they're Napoleon meaning they were crazy? Most Gen-Xers probably learned this (like they learned 80% of everything) from Looney Tunes. Was there a cartoon that kept this trope going for Millennials? Did Sponge Bob ever see Squidward with a Napoleon hat? What about the Rugrats? Doug? Rocko? Pete and/or Pete? Being that it's a mental illness called Grandiose Delusion, people today would not think they're Napoleon. They'd be Taylor Swift or Kanye West or Harry Potter. But back in the 1800s, Napoleon was one of the major go-to figures to think you were, if you thought you were historically important.

Chapter 1: Section 7: Page 59: Line 51 (1033)

 "Another candidate for Newburgh here, looks like."

**********

"Newburgh"
Probably an asylum or prison. Looking it up on ClevelandHistorical.org, Newburgh was an asylum, known as the Cleveland State Hospital, Northern Ohio Lunatic Asylum, The Newburgh Asylum, or The Cleveland Asylum for the Insane.

Was that assumption based on my bias of police or the fact that Pynchon just said the police were getting truculent? Would a person who loves cops and be on the side of cops in any situation have thought, "Oh! I bet Newburgh is a nice place to relax with a coffee or tea and calm down. He probably suggested it because Merle was getting so animated and excited discussing the scientific experiment!" Or would they, too, have been all, "Probably a prison or a morgue! And a well-deserved place to stick this uppity liberal intellectual!"

Here's a quick tip for dumb people so they don't expose how dumb they are when somebody assumes they're smart: don't get mad when you don't understand something! Only dumb people feel dumb and angry when somebody else shows how smart they are! Smart people also don't understand stuff but they show curiosity instead of anger when exposed to it! That's free advice from a great big dumby! Don't tell the smarts how dumb I am! *wink*

Chapter 1: Section 7: Page 59: Line 50 (1032)

 Merle went off into a long and confused description of the Michelson-Morley experiment, and his interest in it, which was not shared by the policemen, who began to grow distant, and presently truculent.

**********

"long and confused description of the Michelson-Morley experiment"
I don't think there's any other way to do a description of the experiment, especially in the 1880s. Now we have Wikipedia but that's also a long and confused description, especially to a dumb-dumb like me! It's the experiment that rang the death knell for Æther! It's quite an important moment for Against the Day, especially this first section which is really focusing quite a bit on light and its properties. It's a good overarching metaphor for how science was destroying the world. Not literally! At least not yet! We'll have to wait until the 1940's for that revelation (which would make you think it's covered in Gravity's Rainbow except the only sign of the atomic bomb in that book is a half-obscured newspaper headline). The scientists were actually remaking reality through cutting edge experiments. The world was one way before the Chicago World Fair and another after. Only because that's a festive, grand, and easily pinpointed moment in American culture.

"the policemen, who began to grow distant, and presently truculent"
Look, I didn't spend fifty years of my life observing how police act and not learn a little something about assholes being assholes. I've also noticed that artistic people often have observed these things as well. So is it a surprise to some people that this cop, after only being told about something he can't understand, begins to get angry and eager to fight? Of course not! It's especially not surprising since Thomas Pynchon wrote this! I often wonder what kinds of artistic entertainment Conservatives can actually like. Most artistic and thoughtful people are diametrically opposed to Conservative values. Is this why the only books they can read are by Ayn Rand?

Chapter 1: Section 7: Page 59: Line 49 (1031)

 "Well this is refreshing, usually we get Blinky jokes."

**********

"Blinky jokes"
Blinky Morgan! The guy whose gang stole some furs and wound up killing two police officers across two different arrest attempts! Ha ha!

Although I'm really curious what kind of jokes people were telling to the cops when being stopped and searched. Common people love common and easy jokes so this cop probably heard the same Blinky joke twenty times a day. "Oh! You got me! Got Blinky in my satchel!" Then five other guys stepped out from hiding and shot the officer to death. That's a joke about what happened to one of the officers when they tried to arrest Blinky! What I'm saying is it's not much of a joke even if you are telling it to cops. Seems hurtful!

Chapter 1: Section 7: Page 59: Lines 47-48 (1029-1030)

 "Nothin much. You're sure welcome to look."

**********

Merle pulling his best polite response to avoid getting his ass beat by a cop, all of whom believe their gut instincts are always correct and that beating and possibly killing a regular citizen is justified if the cop's gut has judged that the person the cop has decided to harass has committed the least crime imaginable. To a cop, no crime exists that can't wind up in an instant death penalty if they fucking feel like administering it. It needs to be legal to pelt cops with eggs when citizens see them abusing their power. It also needs to be legal to prosecute them for criminal acts. Enough of this bullshit where the District Attorney rarely ever puts a cop on trial for some heinous violence they've committed because if they do, the cops will retaliate and stop working with the District Attorney as witnesses on other cases and the District Attorney's win percentage will drop and they'll feel humiliated and they won't be able to perform in the bedroom with their spouse anymore.

That didn't have anything to do with the text. If you want some commentary on the text, here you go: "I don't have any commentary on these lines. But what I do have commentary on is how awful people who defend police brutality are. Who the fuck goes around carrying water for cops by instantly believing the cops version because the person they've killed is far too dead to defend themselves? Who are these assholes who will justify police murder by saying the most trite and unintelligent bullshit such as 'They should have complied!' As if being confronted by a cop, whom we know will murder at the drop of a hat which he'll later say he thought was a gun, isn't already scary and confusing before they decide to escalate a simple situation so that they can feel justified using whatever force they want. Cop defenders are the worst people in the world."

Chapter 1: Section 7: Page 59: Line 46 (1028)

 "What's in the wagon, son?"

**********

Typical cop question. Treating everybody as a potential criminal when they're meant to be protecting and serving.

"son?"
An addendum to any question made to somebody you want to feel inferior to you. An easy way to flaunt your perceived power. Good thing that calling them "dad" back sarcastically shows a lack of respect while getting in a subtle "old man" dig. It's also probably reason enough, to the cop, to beat your ass.

Know what else might be seen as disrespectful and thus justify a beating? Having things in your wagon that the cop doesn't understand and flaunting your big smarts! Good luck, Merle!

Chapter 1: Section 7: Page 59: Line 45 (1027)

 Chief Schmitt's bravos in blue were detaining and subjecting to lengthy and mostly aimless questioning anybody whose looks they didn't care much for, which took in a wide piece of the population, including Merle, who was stopped on Rockville Street as he was heading out toward the Case Institute.

**********

Oh, forgive me my last entry. Part of my belief was that the swagger of the police extended in some part to regular civilians hating them a little bit less out of sympathy for the grief of their slain comrade. But the swagger was simply because they had a little more justification to be the ruthless authoritarian pricks that cops have always been and who have always been treated as such until the late 20th Century and early 21st Century when, thanks to sympathetic executive producers of cop television shows and one major terrorist attack which somehow lumped cops into the heroic category of "first responders," brainwashed a huge swathe of the American populace into believing police were not the corrupt assholes everybody always knew they were. Thomas Pynchon, and most other writers of great literature, have never been fooled. Feels like a good time for a Gravity's Rainbow quote, the one where the German cops bust up the Black Market!

"No wonder. The cops go at busting these proceedings the way they must've handled anti-Nazi street actions before the War, moving in, mmm ja, with these flexible clubs, eyes turned to the finest possibilities of threat, smelling of leather, of the wool-armpit rankness of their own fear, jumping little kids three-on-one, shaking down girls, old people, making them take off and shake out even boots and underwear, jabbing and battering in with tireless truncheonwork among the crying kids and screaming women. Beneath the efficiency and glee is nostalgia for the old days. The War must've been lean times for crowd control, murder and mopery was the best you could do, one suspect at a time. But now, with the White Market to be protected, here again are whole streets full of bodies eager for that erste Abreibung, and you can bet the heat are happy with it."

And don't read that and think, "Whatever. Pynchon is just describing Nazis and German police!" Au contraire, mein Freund! This next passage is about American military police and it goes just as hard!

"American voices, country voices, high-pitched and without mercy. He lies freezing, wondering if the bedsprings will give him away. For possibly the first time he is hearing America as it must sound to a non-American. Later he will recall that what surprised him most was the fanaticism, the reliance not just on flat force but on the rightness of what they planned to do . . . he'd been told long ago to expect that sort of thing from Nazis, and especially from Japs—we were the ones who always played fair—but this pair outside the door now are as demoralizing as a close-up of John Wayne (the angle emphasizing how slanted his eyes are, funny you never noticed before) screaming 'BANZAI!'"

I'm not sure about all that John Wayne stuff at the end but then I'm not reading Gravity's Rainbow one line at a time so I'm going to ignore it!

Anyway, as we see here, Pynchon, like all the other intelligent people in America, understands how cops just love to abuse their power!

"Case Institute"
Pynchon meant to write "Case School of Applied Science" but didn't for some reason. Probably due to lack of research ability, the poor sap!

Chapter 1: Section 7: Page 59: Line 44 (1026)

 Detectives swaggered everywhere, their black stiff hats shining like warrior helmets of old.

**********

"Detectives swaggered everywhere"
The movement of one who believes themselves to be an authority figure demanding respect. While usually, almost certainly, thought of as only a drunk nuisance and gossip around town who might peep at your window or go through your garbage, Cleveland detectives have found themselves in a moment where, via pity and daily headlines, the public currently view them with sympathy. One of their own was killed while capturing a dangerous fugitive. Probably usually seen as corrupt and abrasive by most citizens, they are, for as long as the trial remains in the papers, and thanks to Blinky Morgan, celebrities!

"black stiff hats shining"
I'm no fashion historian but I'd suspect these hats were either bowlers or top hats. The fact that they're "shining" and "stiff," and because the detectives are "swaggering," incline me to believe they were wearing top hats for the time being. Perhaps they felt more formal now the death of a brother-in-arms had launched them into a kind of celebrity status during Blinky's trial.

"warrior helmets of old"
The metaphor is blatantly about the hats but more loosely about the detectives themselves. They are currently warriors battling a deadly enemy named Blinky who had downed one of their own. They are full of bravado and machismo and deadly intent. Somebody must pay! And Blinky will eventually be hung after the trial! After which, everybody can go back to either actively hating or not really thinking about law enforcers.

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 48: Line 77 (871)

 Outside they found Trabant Khäutsch ready with a two-horse hack poised for instant departure, and the Archduke's own double-barreled Mannlicher resting nonchalantly but visibly on one shoulder.

* * * * * * * * * *

Obviously the Archduke is known for the violent troubles he starts among his own people. He's the kind of guy you have to pay people to protect him because if he even had any friends, they'd all just let him get his ass kicked rather than have his back. I've mentioned it before because it sometimes needs saying. Friendship and loyalty only go so far. They aren't a free pass to have somebody defend you when you act like a complete asshole. A good friend shrugs and thinks, "You reap what you sow," preferably in a Maine accent while sort of miming Herman Munster. A bad friend thinks, "Oh boy! I get to beat up on some people who are totally within their rights at being angry with the moron I'm backing up!" I guess, in this world, there are more bad friends than good ones.

At least the assassin Khäutsch seems to be on Lew's side in trying to keep violence to a minimum. Otherwise he wouldn't have pulled up just displaying the rifle, he would have tossed it to the Archduke and cheered him on as he went on a shooting spree. Which he'd totally be forgiven for in 1893. Hell, Stand Your Ground Laws being the horrendous thing they are, he'd get away with it today. Get a bunch of people angry at you and then you get to shoot them in the face if they approach you because you can declare that you feared for your life. And white on black murders like this are what cops call "Open and shut stand your ground cases" because they're mostly racist pieces of garbage.

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 48: Line 62 (856)

 "Whatchyou doin, you fool, you can get y'ass killed talking like that, what are you, from England or some shit?"

* * * * * * * * * *

Even though the Archduke is purposefully trying to anger this man by insulting him in the most immature and hostile way, he still realizes, as I noted before I knew he would actually think this way, this guy is a foreigner and, first and foremost, tries to help him out. "You can't act like that in America, buddy." I mean, people can and still do. But we all know they're assholes. And while they probably won't get killed for it, it's likely they'll kill somebody because they feel threatened by anybody not like them and our country has decided that stupid ideals like killing somebody you think was threatening before they kill you is some kind of defense. Actually, it's the perfect defense because the defender is dead and can't defend themselves so I sort of see why the worst assholes in America are for that kind of law. If they assault somebody, they have to face them in court and the jury might be sympathetic to the victim's story. But if they kill that person, they completely control the narrative! And when you're spewing that narrative to a bunch of racist assholes, it's pretty easy to get away with murdering the right people in America. Especially if you're a dumb jerk violent cop.

Chapter 1: Section 6: Page 46: Lines 22-23 (816-817)

 "Y— maybe. I'd have to go look up the figures," Lew trying not to get into eye contact with this customer.

* * * * * * * * * *

Definitely more Hungarians in the meatpacking district than bison in the wild. But I guess that's not Lew's point! He's just trying to extricate himself from the horrid turn this conversation has taken. How do you dissuade royalty from seeking to hunt other human beings?! Probably like this. You pull away, slightly ignore, express awkward discomfort, and create imaginary roadblocks, like looking up figures, to make the entire request seem implausible.

Of course Lew could have also suggested the Archduke join up with the Chicago Police or the Pinkertons if he really wanted to go about killing poor immigrants with impunity and no public backlash.

Chapter 1: Section 4: Page 31: Line 105 (477)

 He carried an ebony stick whose handle was a gold and silver sphere chased so as to represent an accurate and detailed globe of the world, and inside of whose shaft was concealed a spring, piston, and cylinder arrangement for compressing a charge of air to propel a small-caliber shot at any who might offend him.

* * * * * * * * * *

Just more pure evil super villain action here. Scarsdale Vibe sounds more Simon Stagg than Lex Luthor but I wouldn't quibble with somebody choosing to compare him to Lex Luthor. I'd secretly just think, "They just aren't nerd enough to be familiar with Simon Stagg."

Scarsdale Vibe owns a cane that's a miniature version of the world made out of precious metals and secretly hiding a weapon. It's how he sees the world. First off, he owns it. Second, it's only worth how rich it can make him. And lastly, it's his weapon to use as he sees fit. And a weapon not for protection at all! It's explicitly stated that he will use it on anybody who offends him. Imagine that! Imagine living in a time when "taking offense" was satisfactory excuse to commit murder? Oh, excuse me. That was my white privilege speaking out before I fully considered the ramifications of what I was saying. Obviously if you're a Black American, you already understand a world where white people believe they should be able to murder if a Black American slightly offends them in any way. Hell, they don't even have to offend them. The offense and reasons for their right to murder simply has to exist in the mind of the white person for the courts to see the murder as self defense. Every police officer in America understands that if a Black American disrespects them, they have carte blanche to murder that person and the legal system will give them the benefit of the doubt. And in some states, white Americans were so jealous of this freedom to commit murder bestowed upon our law enforcement that they supported Stand Your Ground laws which are ultimately just laws that allow a person to murder any other person (as long as the murderer is white and the victim is Black. They all understand this part of the law implicitly because you rarely see cases of a white person just murdering another white person and claiming Stand Your Ground).

God that phrase "shot at any who might offend him" is just so offensive that I wish I owned a cane like that right now!

Chapter 1: Section 3: Page 24: Line 68 (353)

 "You bring a note from your parents, kid?"

* * * * * * * * * *

This must be flirting because according to nobody giving a thought to Miles and Lindsay wandering around the Fair unaccompanied, nobody in 1893 would question a young person wandering around by themselves. Unless that nobody were a cop and they saw a great chance at roughing up a kid and hauling them into jail for truancy or loitering or any other trumped up charge you can use as an excuse to bully some citizen you laughed about when you took your oath to "protect" them.

This is when the scene in reception ends. The question is left hanging because it wasn't actually meant to be answered. But it was also asked because the reader has been wondering for twenty-five pages now (and, in my case, nearly three months! I'm a slow reader!) where the parents of all of these children are (except for Chick's dad. We know all about that jerk). This is Pychon playing with us, especially after the last sentence in which he spoke of "not being unmischievous." We all want to see that note!

Chapter 1: Section 3: Page 22: Line 21 (306)

 Armed "bouncers," drawn from the ranks of the Chicago police, patrolled the shadows restlessly.

* * * * * * * * * *

You might think the word "bouncers" was in quotes because it was being used euphemistically, as if the police weren't really "bouncers" but more probably "murder enthusiasts." But you'd be slightly wrong (only slightly because police are and always have been "murder enthusiasts"). The reason it's in quotes is because it only lately, in the late 19th century, gained the connotation of being a person who chucks people out of establishments. Apparently it was made popular by Horatio Alger whom we all know as the bootstraps guy.

Pynchon pulls no punches when writing about the brutality and bloodlustiness of police. Time and time again in Gravity's Rainbow, he portrays them as violent thugs more interested in smashing skulls than law and order. And he wasn't alone! Police have had a terrible reputation in America for decades. It's just that there are a certain type of people (we'll call them "racists") who support the police no matter what because they love seeing minorities and poor people beaten and murdered. It makes them feel like their Blu-ray players are safe and secure within their triple-locked and alarmed house inside their fenced neighborhood. Your Blu-ray player can never be too safe, you know!

We all knew in the 60s and 70s that police were brutal scolds who were just hanging around trying to disrupt every good time. But in the 80s, something began to change. We were told, over and over again, that drugs were bad and there was a war on drugs and the only people who could save us from drugs were cops and the DARE program. But this one sentence by Pynchon is way more accurate than all the pro-cop television and cops are your friends Presidential Fitness programs of the 80s (don't try to untangle that statement; it's mostly just me still bristling at the Presidential Fitness program which has nothing to do with policing. For some reason, us fat kids were almost as horrible Conservative specters as crack addicts, welfare mothers, and Willie Horton): Chicago police, armed and ready for trouble, patrol restlessly. They're restless to use their arms!

The lie has always been that people become police out of a sense of duty to protect their community. They become police so they can legally beat and murder people whom they think should be beaten and murdered. Law and order never actually comes into the equation.

Oh yeah! One important aspect of this I initially overlooked was how the police are patrolling the darker, less white area of the Fair. Of course they are. Because it's about intimidation of the powerless. If they patrolled the area full of middle class whites, they couldn't beat whomever they wanted to beat. Middle class white people love police brutality when the right people are targeted but they hate the police even looking at them suspiciously. How dare they!

The Epigraph

 It is always night or we wouldn't need light.

            —Thelonious Monk

* * * * * * * * * *

I'm not even into the meat of the book and it's trying to overpower me with the assumption of things I should know about! Am I going to have to learn jazz to understand it?! I mean, sure, it's a hefty book at over 1000 pages but I still didn't expect to be nearly pinned just after the table of contents! How much should I know about this guy Thelonious Monk?! And why would Pynchon choose a quote by him that boldly proclaims, "There is no day! It's all night, baby!" What am I up against then?!

Thelonious Monk (whose middle name is Sphere (Thomas Pynchon's middle name is Ruggles. Why does everybody else seem to have a cool middle name while mine is basically just Dave or Sally? (I mean, you'd expect somebody named Thelonious Monk to have a pretty cool middle name. But why would Pynchon get Ruggles?! It's not like he's Australian))) is, according to the Internet, an American jazz pianist. I point out that this is information from the Internet because I would have probably just said, "He's some jazz guy." Then everybody who loves jazz would have thrown Internet tomatoes at me and I'd become the disgrace of Buchser Junior High School.

I should probably be more careful about my identity since I'm on the Internet and I've just insulted jazz by not being into it enough. But just calling my junior high school a "junior high school" actually centers me in a quite specific time and place since before that, it was a high school, and after that, it was a middle school. So now people can already pinpoint my age and location if they wanted to throw actual tomatoes at me. Although, it's quite possible I've moved since then! Ha ha! Just try to find me, jerkos!

No, no. Please don't! I apologize!

Anyway, I'm not going to write a book report on Thelonious Monk. Either you know who he is or you can go read Wikipedia. I should probably, at least, read Wikipedia. He might be important to the rest of this novel! And anyway, what good is reading a Pynchon novel if I don't learn more about the stuff he seems to know everything about? Who is this guy? Is he a computer? I bet he's actually a computer!

As for the quote, it's pretty profound, isn't it? I mean, it's always night! Always! Everywhere! And the only reason we can see anything is by producing light. Sometimes we produce light by just sitting still on the face of the Earth and waiting for it to rotate around so the sun gives us some of that precious light. But it's still night if you were to take away the sun! That's a pretty cool way of looking at reality. Sometimes you need somebody like a comedian or an American jazz pianist to come along and sweep your legs so that your entire world view changes from staring at the acting tough scared kid in front of you being screamed at by his lunatic coach to the rafters of the gym where the tournament is being held. Then after you catch your breath (literally in the analogy and figuratively in the reality), you would probably wind up saying something like, "Whoa! I never noticed that before!" And sometimes, you can't ever go back to thinking like you did before!

As for now knowing that everything is always night, you'll probably forget that one. It feels less like a startling revelation and more like when your nerdy friend who probably has Asperger's says, "You mean today," when you find yourself up past midnight playing Dungeons & Dragons and you casually mention what time you have to work tomorrow.

So I decided to read Monk's Wikipedia page and this description of Monk struck me as something maybe Pynchon felt (or feels?) a bit close to:

"Monk was highly regarded by his peers and by some critics, but his records remained poor sellers and his music was still regarded as too "difficult" for more mainstream acceptance."

I wonder if Monk's music also had an inordinate number of references to boners?

Every section of Monk's Wikipedia page seems to end in a confrontation with police. I can't imagine the kind of person who reads that and thinks the police were just doing their job. How are we living with people who still don't understand not just systemic bias and systemic racism but actual boots on the ground racism?! The cops weren't just content to hassle, arrest, and, at times, beat him. They also tried to end his career by taking his New York City Cabaret Card which allowed him to play public venues where alcohol was served. And who except drunk and buzzed people enjoy jazz?!

Oh crap! Here come those Internet tomatoes!

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Postscript: Upon actually thinking about the quote instead of rambling like a drunk toddler, I've decided the quote means that we have to fight. We need light so that we don't succumb to the darkness and despair of the worst people in the world. The light that staves off the night is kindness and knowledge and art and respect and humanity and empathy and compassion. The night is ignorance and fascism and imperialism and oppression and propaganda and bullies. We need the light to rise above chaos and greed and selfishness. If Thelonius Monk and Pynchon (and me!) are the light, people like Ayn Rand and Donald Trump are the night.