Purity in "Goon Squad"

I noticed something while tracking the word "pure" throughout the novel A Visit From the Goon Squad, only once is the word used in reference to a person: "'He's absolutely pure,' he said. 'Untouched.'" (313) The speaker is Bennie, he's discussing the music of Scotty Hausmann with Alex. The word "pure" is only used five times in the novel, six, if you count the title of the chapter that quote is from, "Pure Language." The term "purist" is used twice in this chapter, but I ignored that because I see a difference between being a purist and being pure.

While omitting context, here are times when pure is used as an adjective: "moments of pure exhilaration," (15) "hearing waves of pure, ringing, spooky-sweet sound," (20) "whatever pure perfumed liquid," (182) and "their album is pure genius" (198). In each of these instances, the adjective "pure" is used to describe something not-human. No character is ever called or considered "pure," Egan has written characters absent of purity. Even Lulu, a child character, unnerves people with her stare and it is heavily implied that she is not innocent or pure. Purity only ever references objects or ideas in the novel.

In the one instance where it does refer to a person, it refers to Scotty. This old guy playing music in this weird dystopia-esque future. Bennie considers him pure, maybe because Bennie has known him for so long. This instance of "purity" seems to be in reference to Scotty being a low-fi musician in a high-tech future. It is not typical purity to me. Though, I could be adding outdated religious connotations to the word. In, Egan's intense, tech-filled future, Scotty and his age is purity because he is absent of the tech that seems to dominate the world around him. But this chapter is a bit different from the rest of the novel, it is the only one to stray into a "dark future." So, from here on out, I'm going to focus on when "pure" is used to not describe humans.

I'm still trying to figure out what this means in the scope of the novel. Is Egan implying that everyone is absent of purity? That purity cannot exist within a character? She certainly writes them without purity. I can't think of any character that an argument of "purity" could be made. Young Rolph? His father seems to take any sense of purity away from his son though, but sharing his thoughts on and experiences with women. It's odd, even the child characters lack purity and  I don't think that it's crazy to assume that children are "pure."

As I've said before, "pure" is only used to describe non-human things (minus one example), but it is often experienced. The "pure exhilaration" can be experienced, as well as the "pure, ringing, spooky-sweet sound." The "pure perfumed liquid" is what Jules desires to experience by assaulting Kitty Johnson. Sasha wants to hear The Conduits because she believes "their album is pure genius," and she wants to experience that. So while, purity is absent in the characters, these characters still desire to, or do, experience purity. I don't want to say that I know what Egan is saying with this. I can guess though: from the novel, it seems as if humans lack any sort of inherent purity, but they still crave purity in experiences because they lack purity in themselves. I don't know if that makes any sense, because I'm not sure I necessarily agree with it. I do think that purity can exist in people but I can't think of how to describe that. I supposed presence or absence of purity is a matter of opinion or philosophy.