Newsboys made up lurid headlines about him, which they shouted all through the civic mobilities morning and evening, making a point of pronouncing his name disrespectfully.
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How does somebody become such a pariah?! Fucking newsboys. The Twitter of 1893. These newsboys just invented the clickbait!
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P.S. the First:
Later, I'll discuss Lew's name as possibly sounding like Lube Ass Night. Apparently I hadn't realized that the Newsboys got there first.
He was denounced in the local newspapers.
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Who hasn't been?!
Those who did claim to remember, all too well, kept giving him sad looks which soon—it being Illinois—soured into what was known as moral horror.
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What is it about Illinois that turns "sad looks" into "moral horror"? Is this one of the reasons the area is known as The Bible Belt? I grew up in California where if we remembered somebody's sin, we'd probably invite them to our next party. I don't believe I ever encountered "moral horror" growing up in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1970s. Oh, but the 1980s changed that. Thanks a lot, Reagan and your demonizing of those infected with HIV and AIDS. But that was less a "moral horror" originating in the Bay Area and more of an American moral horror targeted at our national neighborhood.
"moral horror"
This phrase just intrigues me all the more! What sin did Lew Basnight commit?! Is this what's called a "plot hook"?! Or am I just being titillated by small town gossip?! Either way, I'm all atwitter!
Those who didn't know either still acted puzzled, as if he were sending out rays of iniquity.
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Does he mean those who didn't know the sin but knew Lew was supposed to have sinned? Or does he mean those who don't know at all still act as if Lew is some immoral turdish tongue juggler like Brigadier General Pudding?
I'm just going to assume it's people who know he's supposed to have sinned but don't know what his sin is still treat him as a terrible influence and a gentleman to be avoided. Which was puzzling to them because they couldn't say why he seemed like such a devout pervert. But better to be safe than sorry, especially in the Victorian era. If somebody said Lew committed some unforgivable sin then he's best to be avoided and also looked at as if he just cupped his butthole, farted into it, and shove it in his mouth.
Lew couldn't remember what he'd done, or hadn't done, or even when.
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Pshaw. Some detective!
As to the specifics of this lapse, well, good luck.
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What?! How dare you, Thomas Pynchon! Finally a hint at an adult revelation and you give us the old "Well, you're not going to hear it from me, you horny goat!" First you have the kids pass by a Reindeer Show, then you have Chick and Darby go backstage at a hoochie coochie show but only off-panel and now you hint at some committed sin and refuse to describe it! I'm getting pretty sick of you not titillating me!
I mean, Gravity's Rainbow had boners blasting off higgledy-piggledy and smashing vaginal craters all over London not to mention that disgusting stuff Pudding was into! So I pick up Against the Day thinking, "Pynchon loves sexual metaphor! This is going to be great!" And then it's all Boy's Adventure Novel shenanigans!
I haven't been this blue-balled since reading The Everlasting Story of Nory by Nicholson Baker!
He had just sort of wandered into it, by way of a sin he was supposed once to have committed.
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Oh! Do tell!
This is a crazy sentence about Lew's agency. He's now a detective because he "sort of wandered into it." So he didn't want to be a detective. But he accidentally became one. And how? By way of a sin! Sinning is definitely something you do with agency! Otherwise it's not a sin. You can't sin if you play no active part or bear no intent. So he didn't really "sort of wander" into it, did he? But wait! There's more! The sin is a sin "he was supposed once to have committed." So he didn't sin! It was a misunderstanding. Meaning Lew's loss of agency is doubly redoubled. He's just a big old victim of circumstance and his life is, apparently, wildly out of control!
Now let's get to the sin! Ooh la la!
