What am I supposed to make of the Counter Force chapter?

Well that's a pretty broad question. Many things. Is there anything in particular you want to discuss? Of course it's a pretty crazy chapter.

>>7324668
I don't know, the long sections of fantastical vignettes threw me off. I sort of see what Pynchon was trying to accomplish with the text becoming more fragmented just as Slothrop in the zone was being split in to pieces so speak. And the novel ending with the crash of the rocket, completing the parabolic trajectory of the "screaming coming across the sky".

There were just some pages towards the end that I could not make sense of even though I didn't have too much trouble with the first 3 sections. Was wondering if anyone else had this experience?

>>7324668
What's the significance of Byron the Bulb?

>>7324684
Yeah that's definitely the intention to disorient. I think we were supposed to see these vignettes from primarily Slothrop's distorted POV, it was a sort of stream of hallucinations and unintentional flashbacks. And even when Slothrop wasn't around in the scene itself, there always seemed to be some Slothropian motif present, like the mouth organ player in Eddie Pensiro's story.

>>7324689
I think Harold Bloom wrote a piece on Byron The Bulb. To me it just seems a kind of hysterical high-note for the book's closed-loop Capitalist systems with planned obsolescence and light-bulb hit men.

I think one of the most significant events of The Counterforce is the fate of The Counterforce itself. Does it find some way to break the Systems of war or expose the great supernatural conspiracy?

No - it pisses on the faces of a low down target's coworkers, it has not even the piss to piss on Pointsman himself. Hard not to see this as a commentary on the Anti-War Counterculture. Even with good intentions it's hard for one to achieve anything more than a blundered attempt at pissing on someone, the target usually being some Boogyman figure like Pointsman was.

>>7324689
Seriously?

worst chapter desu senpai desu sempai smdh

>>7324705
>intended
Nah Pynchon is just shitty at clarity and flow.

>>7324689
Is it just me that links Byron to Slothrob?
Neither can flee from the almighty superiority that controls everything. Byron, just as Slothrob, started with crazy ideas of bringing down the entire system and They who stand above the system. They both want to unravel the truth bet get lost along the way. I don't know, can't see what purpose it would have if it was intended.

>>7325862
totally valid if obvious point
i mean, doesn't that apply to most forces in this book?