The Pale King, Ch. 2 continued

I must mention that I made two mistakes before starting this blog, the first being that I read some reviews for the The Pale King before diving in, the second that I read about 150 pages of the novel itself before starting the blog.  My intent for this blog is to have a discussion of impressions and thoughts on a first read through of a book--can we please not call this a book club?  That'd be nice--because, for me anyway, that first read through is where you really get the initial sense of wonder and discovery.  Let us say we are thoughtfully appreciating rather than studying.  So, ah, because I "cheated"--that is read a couple of reviews and got 150 pages in before starting this up--I do have just a tiny bit of foreknowledge, but am trying to plough through the first bit as if I didn't.

The other thing is, as I've already mentioned, The Pale King is quite obviously an unfinished work, so considering things like theme or lietmotif will be an imperfect science, but I think it's still a worthwhile endeavour.

Anyway, on with chapter two, continuing with the Sylvanshine passage.  Notable to this section is the first mention of the Initiative, which will become a driving force for this book.  The Initiative or Spackman Initiative is a overarching change in the approach of the IRS, from a benevolent (mostly) social force to a profit driven entity.  Welcome to the eighties.  We are also introduced to Sylvanshine's roommate Reynolds.  I find it interesting that it is explicitly mentioned that they are roommates but not gay.  The Rome Incident is briefly summarized as bureaucratic disaster resulting in Sylvanshine's booting from that particular office.

As noted in my previous post. the first section of this chapter ends with the plane landing.  A short paragraph of unattributed dialogue breaks up the Sylvanshine passages in this chapter.  I am unaware of what "the fifth effect" is referencing.  Any help on this would be appreciated.

The second section finds the plane on the tarmac and Sylvanshine awaiting his bags.  The chapter concludes with another long sentence and a nervous attack on the part of Sylvanshine, including the line:

"[he] felt again the edge of the shadow of the wing of Total Terror and Disqualification"

Themes of anxiety and depression make themselves felt early and powerfully.

A couple other things I found interesting in this chapter were Sylvanshine's playing with a few words:  "illiteratre", "headache", and "indisposed".  Repeating "illiterate" until it became meaningless, just a sound, blending into the sound of the planes propellers.  Along with this is Sylvanshine noticing the glyphs and semaphores around the plane, put their for legal reasons for the illiterate:  the safety instructions, the cigarette warning, and the oxymoronic hatch instructions.  This combined with

"Reynolds dictum {was] that reality was a fact-pattern the bulk of which was entropic and random. The trick was homing in on which facts were important"

Language is pattern.  The chapter concludes with Sylvanshine on the verge of losing it.