Slothrop arrives in Zürich looking for Waxwing's next contact. He finds him but he's just a lead to the next contact whom Slothrop can find in one of three possible cafes peddling the information Slothrop seeks. So Slothrop hunkers down in Zürich for a bit, alternating sitting at each of the three different coffee shops waiting for somebody to come by and give him some information on Jamf or Imipolex G.
Just as Slothrop meets a guy who informs him Jamf is dead but the company he works for, Sandoz, has files on him he can liberate for Slothrop for 500 Swiss Francs, Slothrop's paranoia begins to get the better of him. He's slipped from one of the cast of Asylum Keepers in an Asylum Nut almost as soon as he loses the confidence of his Zoot Suit which he sells for some quick cash. But then he sees a Rolls and remembers "Proverbs for Paranoids, 4:
You hide, they seek." He ducks in an alley, figures They're onto him. He calls the hotel lobby he's staying at, asks if the Englishman in the lobby is still there and *WHAMMO* Englishman on the phone. Now he feels his paranoia has been confirmed, it just begins to escalate. Now he figures They know he knows They're here! Slothrop is quickly spiraling out of control.
Then the sausage of the chapter, simmering in fondue, takes place: Slothrop meets Squalidozzi, the Argentine revolutionary. He recognizes the same paranoid glances, the driving search for some kind of freedom, the need for a life not trapped within Their labyrinth. And they do talk of labyrinths! Of course they do! You can't have a novel most people would classify as postmodern without a nice long labyrinth passage. I mean, we've already discussed the minotaur with good old Pointsman!
Squalidozzi describes what's gone wrong in Argentina by describing how it used to be with the wide open pampas. But now it is all fences and streets and sewers and train tracks and labyrinths. And those are just the physical manifestations of its modern labyrinthine nature. He describes this in an effort to explain to Slothrop why he's come to Germany. Because now that the war is over, the boundaries and borders of the German states have all been blown open. It's like the pampas now! It's a new freedom and Squalidozzi thinks he and his fellow revolutionaries can make something of it from their stolen submarine.
Slothrop's argument against Squalidozzi is barbed wire. Barbed wire stretching out across the open plains, blocking it up with twists and turns of dangerous fencing . . . that's progress! That's a good thing! But Squalidozzi doesn't take this argument seriously, being poorly thought out and crazy. Nobody praises barbed wire except landlords!
"In ordinary times, [Squalidozzi] wants to explain, "the center always wins. Its power grows with time, and that can't be reversed, not by ordinary means. Decentralizing, back toward anarchism, needs extraordinary times . . . this War—this incredible War—just for the moment has wiped out the proliferation of little states that's prevailed in Germany for a thousand years. Wiped it clean. Opened it."
I'm currently reading
Against the Day (One Line at a Time!) and this quote is nearly identical to thematic points I've made about the book. I don't mean identical in that I'm talking about Germany and World War II! But at least thematically consistent! I've noticed, in the first 36 pages of
Against the Day, how much the book is about imperialism. It highlights the structure of the world and how white Western Civilization is the center. "Its power grows with time, and that can't be reversed, not by ordinary means." It's rare the event that can "decentralize it," perhaps driving it "back toward anarchism." In
Against the Day, Pynchon chooses to use the Chicago World's Fair as a microcosm of the world with The White City at the center, surrounded by exhibits from various non-white countries. But each of those country's exhibits which Pynchon chooses to highlight is a reminder of a moment in time when the center was "decentralized." Except maybe the Donkey Show masquerading as a Reindeer Show!
Slothrop offers to help Squalidozzi get a message back to his compatriots in the submarine (currently off the coast of Spain) by delivering it to another agent since Squalidozzi is being watched. In exchange, Squalidozzi pays Slothrop enough to get him his Jamf information and to keep him fed for weeks.
Eventually (after some long bit about college and the clock tower and death manipulating reality to close in around him or some such something . . . it was really confusing!) Slothrop finds himself sleeping atop Jamf's grave in the mountains waiting for the packet of information on Jamf himself. It's on Jamf's grave that Slothrop feels something slip from him, perhaps he comes to terms with his past. Jamf is dead and his Revenant will not be stalking Slothrop. He seems more at ease and perhaps this is why this section of the book is about to end. One part of Slothrop's journey ends here. He has stopped chasing his past.
But then he reads the packet on Jamf and something else begins. Perhaps chasing his future now? The section (which is the penultimate section of the chapter and the last one Slothrop appears in, so basically the end of the chapter for Slothrop) ends on this ominous note:
In the weeks ahead, in those very few moments he'll be allowed to wallow in his past, he may even have time to wish he hadn't read any of it. . . .
Too bad I don't remember enough details to speculate on that bit of worry!
