I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK: DAN MURPHY-“Drinion” (2013).

I never would have guessed that there would be a song called “Drinion.”  But there it was, on Dan Murphy’s album, Undisclosed Location.  Now, I don’t know anything about Dan Murphy.  In fact, when I looked him up there also seems to be a country music singer named Dan Murphy (or maybe he is the same person?).

Anyhow, Undisclosed Location is mostly jazz piano.  “Drinion” is instrumental (so there’s no clue for me about why it is called this–if it has any connection  to The Pale King or what).  There’s no levitating that I can hear.

I do hear a bit of the “All Things Considered” theme (the jazzy version, naturally), in part of it.

I like jazz piano a bit but I’m not knowledgeable about it at all.  So, this was a fun find, and an enjoyable 6 minutes of jazz.  Thanks Dan.  Can you really be a country singer, too?

[READ: September 8, 2014] Pale Summer Week 9 (Notes & Asides and Bonus chapters)

As has been stated many times, The Pale King was unfinished.  It was assembled by editor Michael Pietsch. Pietsch decided, based on the evidence given to him, what this book would look like.  It’s an unimaginably daunting and thankless task, especially given how many ideas DFW was tinkering with.  The Notes and Asides not only change the book, they change characters, emphasize nonexistent plot lines and basically make it seem like perhaps what we have here is but a small fraction of the overall work (rather than seemingly like a mostly completed book with a few pieces left out).

The final ten pages of the hardcover edition collects these notes and collates them in section by section fashion, with some overall notes about the book included at the end.

Since the notes are just notes, I’m not going to really go into them (otherwise I’ll just be copying the notes), but I would like to stress some that I think are interesting or revealing about what we might have gotten had he finished the book.

 

I find that the § numbers don’t exactly correspond to the ideas presented in a way that I would expect, but maybe he was connecting ideas for later usage.

§7

While the notes suggest a different aspect of Sylvanshine’s personality (which jibes with §7’s introduction of Sylvanshine), there is also some information about Glendenning. That we will never see him or Lehrl, only their advance men.  That proves to be true for Lehrl, but not Glendenning.

§12

This note suggests that Stecyk was brought in to drive examiners crazy (as per Lehrl’s design).  I like this idea based on the earlier portraits of him, and maybe that was originally the case, but Steyck seems to have matured and is now helpful and nice, so it doesn’t work out (except to mess up Dick Tate, of course.  §12 is the brief chapter where Stecyck goes door to door.

§13

The note say footnote 34, but there are only 4 footnotes in the chapter.  The footnote is about a dragon as protector, but doesn’t really seem to tie in to anything.  §13 is the unnamed character with sweating issues section.

§15

Lehrl believes in the occult and has sent Sylvanshine to find the finest GS-7 wigglers to compete against the automated version.  Then, when the automated system does better than them, it will convince the higher-ups to automate the system.  (This would of course mean rewriting Sylvanshine’s entrance).  §15 introduces us to Sylvanshine’s Random Fact Intuition.

§19

It’s the HR guys who get replaced by computers.  [Anyone who has dealt with HR might appreciate this].  §19 is the stuck in an elevator chapter.

§22

‘Irrelevant’ Chris Fogle is only irrelevant when talking about himself–he’s very prescient about other things.  There’s an suggestion that maybe Fogle is the adult version of Steyck.  The most interesting idea here is that Fogle may have a “formula of numbers that permits total concentration.”  He can’t remember the formula, he just happened to read the series of documents that added up to the string of numbers.  The film interviews are an attempt to retrieve this information.  [I find this to be very much in keeping with ideas in DFW novels].  §22 is Fogle’s lengthy section.

§24

This note gives some character information.  Richard Tate is Director of Personnel, and “Ned” Steyck is his Deputy Director.  Tate opposes Lehrl because he can’t have power over people if the people are replaced by machines.  These two run most of the REC because Glendenning is so clouded by idealism that he is ineffectual.   §24 is another David Wallace the “author” section.  This is his lengthy one which ends with him locking eyes with Steck.  The note says that Steyck is compassionate to Wallace because of his skin, and tries to be nice to him.  But Wallace resents this because of its superficiality  Nevertheless, he will exploit Steyck’s kindness.  Also, the car with the Jesus fish belongs to Lane Dean (no real surprise there). Dean has become less fervently Christian since starting at REC, while his wife has gotten more so.

§26

Steyck knows about Blumquist the phantom (§26 is the phantom section).  He has found that Examiners’ numbers go up if Blumquist is in the cube with them –just sitting, not saying anything.  This inspires Steyck to consider doubling up people in their spaces–but how can he introduce this idea to others if it originated with a ghost?

More questions about Steyck here as well.  Is he still super nice as an adult?  Or what happened to him to make him realize that his super-nicesness was sadistic, pathological.  Other people want to feel nice and do things (his mom was actually upset that he did so much for her).  The notes mention the possibility of a college sport (which I can’t see at all) in which he let the other teams win.  But I do like the idea that a referee in black and white (like Fogle’s Jesuit) tells him that decency is very different from pathological generosity.

The note also says that Steyck tells Wallace that if you help a butterfly out of its cocoon, it will be too weak to thrive.

Sylvanshine also has a theory about Blumquist–that the very best Examiners have had some kind of trauma or abandonment in their past.  Blumquist had brutal Fundamentalist parents.  Sylvanshine gets RFI on Blumquist of him with his face to the wall and his back to a mirror.  Blumquist had very high numbers himself.

As mentioned in a previous note, Sylvanshine is looking for excellent examiners to compete against the automated machines.

§30

Reintroduces the idea that Lehrl is pro-techie and is against Glendenning and the District Directors.  Much like the way that Lehrl invented Automated Collection Systems, he also wants to replace humans with computers.   The District Directors don’t want that because they are old school and believe in thw whole IRS as civics believers.  The new guard is more corporate–maximizing revenue and minimize costs.   So ultimately is the IRS going to be a corporate entity or a moral one.

§30 is the Sylvanshine & Reynolds section which talks about Lehrl vs Glendenning.  It questions if Sylvanshine and Reynolds are lovers or just roomies.

This note introduces “Charles Lehrl” which I have to assume is the original name before it became the more fun Mel Errol?

§38

David Wallace believes in upgrading the IRS computer system (because of what happened to him which is explained here) which Steyck wants to preserve the human examiners.  A later note says David Wallace disappears 100 pp. in (that he becomes a creature of the system).  This note intrigues me as I wonder if it simply means the way he did disappear or if there is something more sinister involved.  The one big disappointment to me in this book is that the Wallace story line just ends, I’d love to hear more of it.

§43

There is no bomb (this is the section where everyone hears about the bomb).  It was an accidental explosion of a load or fertilizer.  One of the themes in the book is that something threatens to happens but nothing does.  I’m intrigued by this note: “contest between Drinion + scanner set up.”

There’s a lot more about Drinion in the notes, which I’m glad to hear, as he is such a weirdly fascinating guy.  [For me he echoes Lyle, the Guru on the Towel Dispenser from IJ].

§46

This is the conversation with Rand and Drinion.  The notes her are some minor tweaking –that Rand was in Problem Resolution because her prettiness diffuses angry clients.  Drinion (as an HR guy) actually scored her for them because he is arranging talent.

There’s some back story on Drinion–rumor is he came home as a child to find his whole family gone.  A later note says Drinion is happy–riding through the most intense boredom you’ve ever known bring s bliss on the other side.

After their conversation, Rand become obsessed with him (as a type of savior).

There’s even a hint of a Pt2!  In this one she talks more about how she met her husband.  She felt sorry for him and married him at 19.  She’s always been expecting him to die but he doesn’t so she is trapped and miserable.  She is looking for a savior.  This definitely differs from the story she told, although Drinion seems to have intuited some of this as well.

OTHER NOTES (more comprehensive about the book):

Individual vs being part of a larger thing (ie. paying taxes)

Steyck has spotted some immersives who he wants to bring into the Service.  A boy who can study a statistics textbook for hours on end.  And a security guard who seems to be staring at nothing but actually concentrates on Steyck since he keeps checking him out.   A woman on an assembly line counting loops of twine on a baler.  These are people who are immersed in their jobs.

§ § § § § § § § § § § §

The paperback reissue of the book contains “four previously unpublished scenes.”  There is obviously some controversy about releasing these scenes–just a marketing plot to sell more paperback copies.  It is fair to release them if thy were not in the finished book… even tough the finished book wasn’t decided upon by Wallace himself? Whatever the case, I was able to read them online through the library, so I won’t weigh in on it.

I will say that I was happy to read them, especially the fourth and longest one.  None of them really introduce anything to the story, they are mostly just scenes that set up information without revealing anything.

§+1

This is a short section in which an unnamed CPA (D-4 grade Revenue Agent) talks about the Service as an antidote to selfishness.  [This of course echoes the topics covered in the elevator].  He speaks of the federal government as the people’s heart and the Constitution as our brain.  He says that Shane Drinion taught him a great deal.  And the story he has to tell his Drinion’s story (although he never gets to Drinion’s part).

The anecdote he tells is about how in college he was always so worried about people liking him that he never really thought about whether he liked anyone else.  This made him foolishly shallow which of course meant that nobody would like him anyhow.  It was upon reflection that he realized that we are all at a banquet but starving because he was always looking at his reflection in the soup spoon.

§+2

Drinion also shows up here, making it seem like they really are all trying to find out more about him–that his role is far more central than we get to see in the hardcover.  This unnamed narrator is the exact opposite of the above person.  He is a self described thug.  He is in collections, which is not for the quiet reflective types.  He believes the world is everyone for himself–kill or be killed.  He also has a story about Drinion, (which he never gets to).  He says he won’t tell his own story, but he does summarize all of his thuggishness as a kid (in middle and high school).  He makes a very stark distinction between thugs and psychotics.  Psychotics have no concern for themselves, they only want to inflict pain.  He says psychotics eventually wind up in jail with no memory of how they got there and end up as victims. He was always aware of what he was doing.

He ends the section with “all bureaucracies are microcosms of the world.  As such they are composed of the world’s two types: devourers and food.”  This ties somewhat to §10’s comment that bureaucracy is “the only known parasite larger than the organism on which is subsists.”

He also says that the secret of being a thus is readiness–the ability to act at all times.  No delay, no thought, just action.

§+3

This is a funny section in which Sylvanshine listens to Charles Lehrl tell his life’s story.  They live together [Clearly he would have to rework something in this section since they don’t live together elsewhere].  The beginning of Lehrl’s story bashes Decatur, IL in a most hilarious way.  Peoria takes pride that they are not Decatur  “whose patrician class distinguished itself by chewing gum with their front teeth.”  Lehrl says he grew up in the boonies with only a U-Store-It and a rendering plant in the neighborhood to play around.  The rendering plant was run by an extended family of albinos.  Lehrl’s father was a drunk who spent much of his time “lying on the couch with his arm over his eyes.”

Midway through the section we see that Lehrl actually grew up in Chadwich, a comfortable suburb and that his father was finance officer.  He liked to reminisce about”childhood” before getting ready to go to sleep (this was his “unwinding period”).  Sylvanshine loved to listen to this because Lehrl’s smile made it “paternally clear that what he was saying was not literally true.”  They became friends because they preferred each other’s company to anyone else.  Lehrl was self-destructive in his career, never accepting advancements.   And Sylvanshine was not on the fast track either, but he knew he would be once he passed his CPA and as long as he maintained care of metal minded clarity and precision.

§+4

This final section is much longer and far less “relevant” than the other three.  But it is the kind of section that I love reading from DFW.  In it, characters who presumably would never be seen again are discussing an absurd plan of another charioteer (who is in the room the whole time but stays quiet until the end).  Sylvanshine and Keith Singh are in the lunch room room watching the employees.  Singh doesn’t understand how Sylvanshine is able to feign interest in this nonsense since he, Singh is bored out of his mind.  But Singh seems to believe that Sylvanshi9ne is studying these people trying to glean information from them.  [Which may indeed be the case].

The lunch room is primarily full of turdnagels (G-2s).  There is a a sense of relief and tension in the room.  The biggest group was of turdnagels was from Justine Downer’s section.  The two group leaders were C. (Carol) Pulte [catapult?] and Ken “type of thing” Evashevsky.  Carol wore Elton John glasses and had large red lips (which Singh found attractive).  Pulte is fed up with the turdnagels’ conversation and smiles tiredly st Singh.

The conversation is about T. Horvatter, a heavy kid with an affected bored persona.  His plan is to work super hard and make as much money so that he can take a year off of work entirely to devote himself to a personal project of “watching every last second of television broadcast in the month of May 1986.”

Some other G-2s talking about this plan were Tantillo and Randall, F.A. Runyon (79954), Pethwick, Wakeland (who has a stutter), and G. Sandover (who joins late).  Ken “type of thing” Evashevsky joins in when he finishes eating, adding his own comments (with lots of “type of things” thrown in).  M. Rabwin (78225), who interjects things but is completely ignored.  Two turdnagles who did not speak were M. Hafaf and B Wiegand, (who is staring at the clock on the wall “as if trying to merge with it”).

The entire section is a discussion of Horvatter’s plan–there are twelve channels, which means twelve TVs and VCRs at twelve houses.  Unless he decides to get them all in his own house. The conversation is fluent and funny with overlapping interrupting people offering their opinions.  How long it would take him to watch this (more than a year because he has to sleep and eat).  But what about test patterns, does he have to watch them for hours?  And who is going t change the tapes?  He needs to set up parameters.

During all of this Singh is watching Sylvanshine who had an HR talent of “Fuseless passivity that made him impossible to annoy.”  Singh has no handle on Sylvanshine as a type.

Eventually Singh has to ask Horvatter why.  The answer of course is why did people climb K2.  Because it’s there.  But ultimately what comes out is that Horvatter says “It’s something they don’t expect and didn’t count on.”  They may be broadcasting thing that they don’t want us to see.  What do you do when they offer fifty channels?  It’s not a choice if it drowns you in choices so you can’t meaningfully choose because there’s too many options to choose from.”

Which leads to “You watch one thing, there’s eleven other things you can’t watch…the signal getting lost in the noise…a kind of meta censorship.”

“They make it really boring and statistical and surround it with all these other options that are far more diverting and entertaining and whatnot.”

Horvatter suggests that it’s a kind of rebellion, to which someone responds, “That’s not rebellion.  That’s obscene to suggest that sitting on a couch watching a box is rebellion.”  The discussion is great both for logistics and analysis.   And I love that it ties in somewhat to the whole idea of the Entertainment in IJ as well.

But we end the section with “if it can be done, Horvatter’s the guy to do it.”

§ § § § § § § § § § § §

The end of the paperback includes “questions and topics for discussion: which I’m not going to touch.  Although I will say that I did enjoy reading them and found them to be rather insightful.

§ § § § § § § § § § § §

As for thoughts on the book.  Mostly it just made me sad that we’d never see a finished copy.  There’s so many interesting ideas in it–his take on boredom, his ability to make boredom compelling and the whole concept that working through boredom can bring a kind of bliss is fascinating.

I would love to have read more about the David Wallace character and his identity issues.  And, the entire plot about taking over the Service with computers is fascinating as we are all increasingly automated.  So yes I think this could have been an absolutely stellar book, and may have even topped IJ in length with all of those threads running around.

I do however, consider myself lucky to have at least gotten to read this part.  Still, it’s a huge shame.