p26-56

A bunch of disjointed introductions here.  We start off meeting Merle Rideout, his girl Chevrolette McAdoo, and daughter Dally.  Some mention is made of his wife who ran off with Zombini the Mysterious.  Merle, I believe, plays a larger part later on, but so far he's just another lecherous character.

Professor Heino Vanderjuice and his sidekick Ray Ipsow also land in the fair, and kick up some potential plot and thematic points.  Vanderjuice is in town to meet with Scarsdale Vibe, an industrialist villain of hyperbolic proportion.  The kind of guy who puts on a disguise and rides his own private train.  Scarsdale is interested in getting Vanderjuice to design a device to counter Tesla's device to deliver free power through the air. 

Tesla really was working on a system for free power, although it is not clear if that was happening at the World's Fair.  At the time of the World's Fair, Tesla and Edison were involved in a fight over the fate of electricity.  Houses were just getting wired for electrical power, and Tesla wanted the standard to be AC power, while Edison preferred DC.  The fight between the two became a classic Engineer vs Businessman battle, with Tesla's AC power backed up with real engineering reasons, and Edison probably driven by a desire to not pay for Tesla's patents.  Edison took the fight to the people by shocking an elephant to death to show the dangers of AC power.  The electric chair was also created as part of the same ad campaign.  From what I remember, it was Tesla's show at the World's Fair that convinced the world that AC power was safe enough.

The theme of the individual and the system, one of Pynchon's favorites, is brought up by Ray while Vanderjuice is making his deal with Scarsdale:

"Lately [Vanderjuice]'s been keeping those ideas pretty much to himself, like he's finally learned how much they might be worth.  Seen that happen enough, Lord knows.  This big parade of modern inventions, all spirited march tunes, public going ooh and aah, but someplace lurking just out of sight is always some lawyer or accountant, beating that 2/4 clockwork and running the show.""

Once Vanderjuice's chapter is done, we meet Lew Basnight, a detective working with Nate Privett at White City Investigations.  Lew has a Kafka-esque history, and his work at the detective agency leads him to spying against anarchists.  Anarchy is getting mentioned every other chapter, so I think that's pretty officially a theme now.  The best part of Lew's story is page 45 where he is security for the visiting Archduke Ferdinand, who'd actions make it clear why he was killed.  If I ever say, "Your mama, she plays third base for the Chicago White Stockings?", know that I'm quoting Archduke Ferdinand.

By the end of the section, time gets rushed forward to the end of the World's Fair.  The Chums, landlocked at the fair until the end, seem to have decayed a bit without any adventure to sustain them, but eventually mysterious orders are delivered to them.  Lew also is reassigned to Denver.