Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

Chapter 8

2015-10-27T05:14:29Z

Pthomas: /* Page 127 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 107==
'''"a sort of Esalen Institute for lady asskickers [...] the Sisterhood of Kunoichi Attentives"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunoichi Kunoichi] are female ninjas, and serious asskickers:

:Real-life ''kunoichi'' were trained differently than male ''ninja''. Their training focused more on disguise, poisons, and using their gender to an advantage. While they were trained in close combat, they were only to make use of this knowledge when they were caught. They would usually disguise themselves as geisha, prostitutes, entertainers, fortunetellers, and the like to get very close to the enemy. Generally, they would seduce the soon-to-be victim and when they get close enough, they would poison them.

:Kunoichi would hide weapons in their disguise, like poisoned needles in their hair and dirks up their sleeves. They also often would turn a previously harmless item into a weapon. For example, they would learn how to break bones with their wooden shoes, put a hidden blade on their fan, or they would use an umbrella as a momentary shield.

:Their favored weapon was the ''neko-te''. ''Neko-te'' are iron fingernails that would be fastened to the hand by leather straps. They were usually dipped in poison, and the favorite place to slice were the eyes.

Also, a nice satire on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esalen Esalen]-type self-realization outfits. The acronym, SKA, is perhaps a nod to Jamaican pre-reggae pop music from the early 60s, like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Buster Prince Buster], and [http://www.skatalites.com/ the Ska-talites].

'''"Las Hermanas de Nuestra Senora de los Pepinares"''' 
"The Sisters of Our Lady of the Cucumber Patches"

See also "cucumber brandy" at the end of the paragraph. The possible reasons for the popularity of cucumbers in a non-sanctioned convent should be apparent to all but the most improbably pure-minded.

==Page 109==
'''"Can you cook?"''' 
The Head Ninjette's first words to Prairie are not sexist, but a desperate plea made in hope of repairing the sisterhood's food karma, which is badly out of balance. Prairie actually does the job, largely via corny, middle-American preterite classics like spinach casserole and bologna glazed with grape jelly!

==Page 111==
'''"Cream of mushroom soup"''' [[Image:UBI.jpg|thumb|Andy Warhol Print (1968)|right]] 
Universal Binding Ingredient. Great gag, maybe even a true insight (Campbell's cream of mushroom soup being the central, and not-so-secret, ingredient of the ubiquitous, and often despised, "family dish" tuna noodle casserole). All stated in Pynchonian mock-technoese.

UBI is Pynchon's hat-tip to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick Philip K. Dick], an American science fiction writer and author of the novel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubik UBIK]. UBIK is the name of successively different household products, each advertised to solve a different everyday problem and used by the protagonist to stop the deterioration of the universe. Eventually it is revealed that the protagonist is in suspended animation and the products are being sent from the real world to help him. The final chapter takes place in the real world. On the final page a character in the real world discovers a UBIK-style coin from the author (i.e. God). This type of double-twist is typical of Dick.

'''"memorizing the shadows"''' 
Nice touch. Making use of the shadows is a ninja specialty -- supposedly, simulates invisibility to the rest of the world.

==Page 112==
'''"gaga little twits...lookin' for spiritual powers on the cheap. Thinking we'll take 'em through the spiritual car wash, soap away all that road dirt ... everybody hangin' around the Orange Julius next door go 'Wow!'..."''' 
Terrific, angry description/destruction of get-wise-quick spiritual scams.

'''her watch, a multicolored plastic model''' 
A Swatch, perhaps?

==Page 113==
'''"Ohm mah way..."''' 
As a gaffer [film-set electrician], Grampa Hub is given to electrical puns, in this case the unit of resistance.

'''"casseroles beginning to redline"''' 
A clever application of racing slang (redline = engine about to blow up from revving too fast) to cooking (casserole about to burn).

==Page 114==
'''KPFK'''

Second of the Pacifica Foundation's listener-sponsored FM radio stations; began broadcasting 1959. At least until the late Seventies, these totally noncommercial stations provided eclectic music, alternatively sourced news, literary readings, and a unique peacenik/hippie ambiance on shoestring budgets with mostly volunteer labor. Patty Hearst's famous tape was delivered to and first aired by KPFA in Berkeley.

[[Image:sfnewsreel.jpg|thumb|From ''Black Panther / San Francisco State On Strike'' by sf newsreel]]
'''"24fps"''' 
fps = frames per second. Motion picture film is projected at 24 frames per second. The radical filmmaking group seems to be based on a real "revolutionary film collective," sf newsreel -- right down to the lower case letters. It's also a subtle echo of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Luc_Godard Jean-Luc Godard's] famous dictum that "Cinema is truth 24 times a second."

:Not sure about "sf newsreel" (all lowercase). There is [http://www.newsreel.us/ Newsreel] ("Off the Pigs" and other films about the Black Panther Party), founded in 1967 in New York, and it's affiliated collective [[http://www.newsreel.org/ California Newsreel], founded in 1968. Newsreel states:

::In the 67 the FBI started the Counter-intelligence program to try to destroy African Americans, especially the Black Panther Party and the New Left. We worked with Third World groups. We produced various films that these groups could use to tell their stories and to use in organizing in their own communities and workplaces, hopefully serving as catalysis for social change. [http://www.newsreel.us/life.htm]

:Nope, sf newsreel once existed. [http://newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0080 Here] is a link to get two of their films. Although they're in California Newsreel's collection, notice that the films were produced by sf newsreel. The girl in the photo is Angela Davis.

'''"peripheral whiteness...of her mother's ghost..."''' 
Lovely writing. The ensuing discussions of computer ghostliness may or may not have a bearing on the "what is a Thanatoid" question. In addition, consider Pynchon's previous connections with whiteness ([[See Chapter 4#Page 37|note for page 37]]).

==Page 115==
'''"...a sound chip playing the hook from the Everly's..."''' 
The computer notices that Prairie is drifting, and plays the riff from the 50s-60s act, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everly_Brothers Everly Brothers'] "Wake Up Little Susie." Cool! Where can we buy this utility?

Listen to "Wake Up Little Susie" on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMq3fgoJD20 YouTube].

'''Computer says, "Why good night yourself..."''' 
This sudden, right-angle turn into whimsy is a rare false note. In a way it's a relief to know that Pynchon, like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_of_Arabia_%28film%29 ''Lawrence of Arabia''] [1962] "isn't perfect."

'''"Back down in the computer library, in storage, quiescent ones and zeros scattered among millions of others, the two women...continued on their way across the low-lit campus, persisting, recoverable..."''' 
This gorgeous bit of writing provides a sensational transition between Prairie's computer research and the continuation of the flashback. It also leads into one of the flashiest sequences in the book (i.e., one with particularly flashy writing) and continues the binary metaphor initiated two chapters previous.

Pynchon here introduces the idea of time recoverably trapped in a photograph (a major theme in ''Against the Day''). The recovery is first done via Prairie's imagination (echoing her father's imaginings). Then it is continued "in some definable space" via authorial assertion.

'''"double-cross whites"''' 
amphetamine tabs marked by a cross.

==Page 116==
'''"Tetas y Chetas"''' 
Probably something like "tits and ass" in Chicano slang.

'''"ECO stock"''' 
Ektachrome Commercial, a very slow (32 ASA), very fine grain 16mm film stock that was bread and butter for educational and industrial filmmakers. Experimental filmmakers liked it too; it was easy to derange, producing weird images. No longer available.

'''"...she could still begin to smell them, the aftershave, the gunmetal in the sun..."''' 
Street-scene and riot are precisely drawn. These details don't come from a Baedecker. One can't help thinking that Pynchon must have been there. This sequence is beautifully written, and highly sensual thanks to Pynchon's employment of a profusion of smells (including, as the capper, on [[Chapter 8#Page 118|p. 118]], the smell of DL's "pussy excitation.")

'''"the basic stone bowelflash..."''' 
Another example of the anal fear reactions Pynchon seems big on in this work. See also pages [[Chapter 1#Page 10|10]], [[Chapter 4#Page 45|45]], [[Chapter 11#Page 207|207]], [[Chapter 14#Page 299|299]].

'''"Che Zed"''' 
DL's Czech CZ motorcycle.

==Page 117==
'''"drops of separating ketchup and fat..."''' 
Self-satire? We suspect it might be, as indicated by the concluding em-dash as Pynchon restrains himself and makes a conscious (and public) decision to end his detailed description of the flying drops and continue the narrative. ("Sorry, folks!")

In both the original 1990 first edition hardcover (Little, Brown) and in the 2000 Vintage edition there is no "Sorry, folks!", just [dash]"It's the Revolution, girl - can't you feel it?"

==Page 118==
'''"world-class burgers, jukebox solidarity..."''' 
Cool!

'''"the Army now or Huntsville later"'''

Huntsville has been the headquarters of the Texas prison system since the days of the Republic.

==Page 120==
'''"so it couldn't've been Kansas anymore."''' 
This reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_of_Oz_%281939_film%29 ''The Wizard of Oz''] (in which Dorothy says, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto,") is especially clever given DL's not-so-distant departure from Leavenworth, Kansas. Pynchon used this currently fashionable phrase in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''], as well.

==Page 121==
'''"...cutting Moody's orders for Japan..."''' 
This Japanese episode includes a number of gentle take-offs on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_gibson William Gibson], the cyberpunk novelist who borrowed a lot of his schtick from Pynchon. Gibson often writes about Japanese punks and small-time underworld types.

==Page 122==
'''"spheriphagous tulips"''' [[Image:Pachinko.jpg|thumb|1970's Pachinko Machine|right]] 
ball-catchers in a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachinko pachinko game]. Spheriphagous = sphere-eating.

'''"You eat soba?"''' 
soba = Japanese noodles. Noburu's first words to DL really mean, "Can you handle some Japanese identity?"

'''"You buyin'?"''' 
DL's reply is impeccably cool.

'''"Shodan potential"''' 
''Shodan'' = a high degree, or black belt, in the martial arts.

'''"Inoshiro Sensei"''' 
DL's martial arts teacher. Perhaps a nod to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishiro_Honda Ishiro Honda] (1911-1993), the director of ''Godzilla'', ''Rodan'', ''Mothra'', et al.

'''"assukikaa"''' 
Jive Japlish (like Faque French) for "ass kicker."

==Page 123==
'''"water-trade"''' 
In Japanese, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizu_shōbai Mizu shōbai] or the water-trade is a euphemism for the night-time live entertainment industry, often sex-oriented.

'''"like vacationing on another planet and losing her traveler's checks."''' 
This description of DL's puberty and adolescence is fine writing, and a telling insight.

'''"the modernized crash course"''' 
Sensei offers DL the cyberpunk version of the full martial arts program the technique without the spirituality.

==Page 124==
'''"on through suppertime, primetime..."''' 
In the authoritarian world ("the truancy squad was now in her face") TV shapes even the rhythms of the day.

'''embonpoint''' 
chubbiness

'''"a personalized coffee mug wired permanently to his right index finger"''' 
A precisely captured image of a Navy lifer, retired in place. Pynchon must have seen many of these in his short experience in the service.

==Page 126==
'''man in a suit and homburg hat''' 
mobster look [[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|Al Capone in a homburg hat|right]]

'''"''kobun''"''' 
Yakuza retainer; button man; bodyguard. (Gunsel? This [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1922328/kobun page] calls them apprentice gunmen, with a literal meaning of "child status.")

'''"one more view of Edo."''' 
Sounds like a line from a famous ''haiku'', or the title of a painting. Edo is, of course, the old name for Tokyo. Likely a reference to Japanese printmaker [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshige Utagawa Hiroshige's] [http://www.hiroshige.org.uk/hiroshige/100_views_edo/100_views_edo.htm "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo"] (1855-1858).

'''"Yamaguchi-gumi"''' 
one of the major [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza ''Yakuza''] (Japanese organized crime) families.

'''"Relax! Only testing you!"''' 
Here Inoshiro Sensei becomes a cross between Toshiro Mifune and Mr. Natural.

'''"giri"''' 
obligation. Very important in Japanese (and particularly [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza ''Yakuza'']) culture; note that Takeshi's musical cards are called "giri-chits."

==Page 127==
'''"original purity...subverted...once eternal techniques now only one-shot and disposable..."'''

'''"This is for all the rest of us down here with the insects, the ones who don't quite get to make warrior, who...fail to get it right...this is our equalizer, our edge...because we have ancestors and descendants too..."'''

A moving restatement of Pynchon's concern for the preterites, as well as an excellent discourse on the difference between a samurai (the eternal purity of the warrior) and Inoshiro's version of ''ninjitsu'' (the one-shot pragmatism of the assassin, martial arts without Zen).

'''"The Nosepicking of Death"''' 
Funny list of martial moves. ''Gojira no Chimpira'' = The Gangster of Godzilla.

"Chimpira" is Yakuza slang for a low-level or wannabe gangster, derived from a word for penis--in effect, "prick'. To fit the "truly unspeakable" description of this ninja move, I suggest the translation "Godzilla Penis."

==Page 128==
'''"...better just hand [your body] over to those who are qualified, doctors, and lab technicians and by extension coaches, employers, boys with hardons, so forth..."''' 
Pynchon's attitude towards authority is pretty well spelled out in DL's feminist monologue on schoolrooms.

'''"She and Prairie were out taking a break..."''' 
Fabulously smooth cross-fade out of flashbacks back to DL and Prairie talking at SKA.
{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 8

2015-10-27T02:31:07Z

Pthomas: /* Page 113 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 107==
'''"a sort of Esalen Institute for lady asskickers [...] the Sisterhood of Kunoichi Attentives"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunoichi Kunoichi] are female ninjas, and serious asskickers:

:Real-life ''kunoichi'' were trained differently than male ''ninja''. Their training focused more on disguise, poisons, and using their gender to an advantage. While they were trained in close combat, they were only to make use of this knowledge when they were caught. They would usually disguise themselves as geisha, prostitutes, entertainers, fortunetellers, and the like to get very close to the enemy. Generally, they would seduce the soon-to-be victim and when they get close enough, they would poison them.

:Kunoichi would hide weapons in their disguise, like poisoned needles in their hair and dirks up their sleeves. They also often would turn a previously harmless item into a weapon. For example, they would learn how to break bones with their wooden shoes, put a hidden blade on their fan, or they would use an umbrella as a momentary shield.

:Their favored weapon was the ''neko-te''. ''Neko-te'' are iron fingernails that would be fastened to the hand by leather straps. They were usually dipped in poison, and the favorite place to slice were the eyes.

Also, a nice satire on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esalen Esalen]-type self-realization outfits. The acronym, SKA, is perhaps a nod to Jamaican pre-reggae pop music from the early 60s, like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Buster Prince Buster], and [http://www.skatalites.com/ the Ska-talites].

'''"Las Hermanas de Nuestra Senora de los Pepinares"''' 
"The Sisters of Our Lady of the Cucumber Patches"

See also "cucumber brandy" at the end of the paragraph. The possible reasons for the popularity of cucumbers in a non-sanctioned convent should be apparent to all but the most improbably pure-minded.

==Page 109==
'''"Can you cook?"''' 
The Head Ninjette's first words to Prairie are not sexist, but a desperate plea made in hope of repairing the sisterhood's food karma, which is badly out of balance. Prairie actually does the job, largely via corny, middle-American preterite classics like spinach casserole and bologna glazed with grape jelly!

==Page 111==
'''"Cream of mushroom soup"''' [[Image:UBI.jpg|thumb|Andy Warhol Print (1968)|right]] 
Universal Binding Ingredient. Great gag, maybe even a true insight (Campbell's cream of mushroom soup being the central, and not-so-secret, ingredient of the ubiquitous, and often despised, "family dish" tuna noodle casserole). All stated in Pynchonian mock-technoese.

UBI is Pynchon's hat-tip to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick Philip K. Dick], an American science fiction writer and author of the novel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubik UBIK]. UBIK is the name of successively different household products, each advertised to solve a different everyday problem and used by the protagonist to stop the deterioration of the universe. Eventually it is revealed that the protagonist is in suspended animation and the products are being sent from the real world to help him. The final chapter takes place in the real world. On the final page a character in the real world discovers a UBIK-style coin from the author (i.e. God). This type of double-twist is typical of Dick.

'''"memorizing the shadows"''' 
Nice touch. Making use of the shadows is a ninja specialty -- supposedly, simulates invisibility to the rest of the world.

==Page 112==
'''"gaga little twits...lookin' for spiritual powers on the cheap. Thinking we'll take 'em through the spiritual car wash, soap away all that road dirt ... everybody hangin' around the Orange Julius next door go 'Wow!'..."''' 
Terrific, angry description/destruction of get-wise-quick spiritual scams.

'''her watch, a multicolored plastic model''' 
A Swatch, perhaps?

==Page 113==
'''"Ohm mah way..."''' 
As a gaffer [film-set electrician], Grampa Hub is given to electrical puns, in this case the unit of resistance.

'''"casseroles beginning to redline"''' 
A clever application of racing slang (redline = engine about to blow up from revving too fast) to cooking (casserole about to burn).

==Page 114==
'''KPFK'''

Second of the Pacifica Foundation's listener-sponsored FM radio stations; began broadcasting 1959. At least until the late Seventies, these totally noncommercial stations provided eclectic music, alternatively sourced news, literary readings, and a unique peacenik/hippie ambiance on shoestring budgets with mostly volunteer labor. Patty Hearst's famous tape was delivered to and first aired by KPFA in Berkeley.

[[Image:sfnewsreel.jpg|thumb|From ''Black Panther / San Francisco State On Strike'' by sf newsreel]]
'''"24fps"''' 
fps = frames per second. Motion picture film is projected at 24 frames per second. The radical filmmaking group seems to be based on a real "revolutionary film collective," sf newsreel -- right down to the lower case letters. It's also a subtle echo of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Luc_Godard Jean-Luc Godard's] famous dictum that "Cinema is truth 24 times a second."

:Not sure about "sf newsreel" (all lowercase). There is [http://www.newsreel.us/ Newsreel] ("Off the Pigs" and other films about the Black Panther Party), founded in 1967 in New York, and it's affiliated collective [[http://www.newsreel.org/ California Newsreel], founded in 1968. Newsreel states:

::In the 67 the FBI started the Counter-intelligence program to try to destroy African Americans, especially the Black Panther Party and the New Left. We worked with Third World groups. We produced various films that these groups could use to tell their stories and to use in organizing in their own communities and workplaces, hopefully serving as catalysis for social change. [http://www.newsreel.us/life.htm]

:Nope, sf newsreel once existed. [http://newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0080 Here] is a link to get two of their films. Although they're in California Newsreel's collection, notice that the films were produced by sf newsreel. The girl in the photo is Angela Davis.

'''"peripheral whiteness...of her mother's ghost..."''' 
Lovely writing. The ensuing discussions of computer ghostliness may or may not have a bearing on the "what is a Thanatoid" question. In addition, consider Pynchon's previous connections with whiteness ([[See Chapter 4#Page 37|note for page 37]]).

==Page 115==
'''"...a sound chip playing the hook from the Everly's..."''' 
The computer notices that Prairie is drifting, and plays the riff from the 50s-60s act, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everly_Brothers Everly Brothers'] "Wake Up Little Susie." Cool! Where can we buy this utility?

Listen to "Wake Up Little Susie" on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMq3fgoJD20 YouTube].

'''Computer says, "Why good night yourself..."''' 
This sudden, right-angle turn into whimsy is a rare false note. In a way it's a relief to know that Pynchon, like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_of_Arabia_%28film%29 ''Lawrence of Arabia''] [1962] "isn't perfect."

'''"Back down in the computer library, in storage, quiescent ones and zeros scattered among millions of others, the two women...continued on their way across the low-lit campus, persisting, recoverable..."''' 
This gorgeous bit of writing provides a sensational transition between Prairie's computer research and the continuation of the flashback. It also leads into one of the flashiest sequences in the book (i.e., one with particularly flashy writing) and continues the binary metaphor initiated two chapters previous.

Pynchon here introduces the idea of time recoverably trapped in a photograph (a major theme in ''Against the Day''). The recovery is first done via Prairie's imagination (echoing her father's imaginings). Then it is continued "in some definable space" via authorial assertion.

'''"double-cross whites"''' 
amphetamine tabs marked by a cross.

==Page 116==
'''"Tetas y Chetas"''' 
Probably something like "tits and ass" in Chicano slang.

'''"ECO stock"''' 
Ektachrome Commercial, a very slow (32 ASA), very fine grain 16mm film stock that was bread and butter for educational and industrial filmmakers. Experimental filmmakers liked it too; it was easy to derange, producing weird images. No longer available.

'''"...she could still begin to smell them, the aftershave, the gunmetal in the sun..."''' 
Street-scene and riot are precisely drawn. These details don't come from a Baedecker. One can't help thinking that Pynchon must have been there. This sequence is beautifully written, and highly sensual thanks to Pynchon's employment of a profusion of smells (including, as the capper, on [[Chapter 8#Page 118|p. 118]], the smell of DL's "pussy excitation.")

'''"the basic stone bowelflash..."''' 
Another example of the anal fear reactions Pynchon seems big on in this work. See also pages [[Chapter 1#Page 10|10]], [[Chapter 4#Page 45|45]], [[Chapter 11#Page 207|207]], [[Chapter 14#Page 299|299]].

'''"Che Zed"''' 
DL's Czech CZ motorcycle.

==Page 117==
'''"drops of separating ketchup and fat..."''' 
Self-satire? We suspect it might be, as indicated by the concluding em-dash as Pynchon restrains himself and makes a conscious (and public) decision to end his detailed description of the flying drops and continue the narrative. ("Sorry, folks!")

In both the original 1990 first edition hardcover (Little, Brown) and in the 2000 Vintage edition there is no "Sorry, folks!", just [dash]"It's the Revolution, girl - can't you feel it?"

==Page 118==
'''"world-class burgers, jukebox solidarity..."''' 
Cool!

'''"the Army now or Huntsville later"'''

Huntsville has been the headquarters of the Texas prison system since the days of the Republic.

==Page 120==
'''"so it couldn't've been Kansas anymore."''' 
This reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_of_Oz_%281939_film%29 ''The Wizard of Oz''] (in which Dorothy says, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto,") is especially clever given DL's not-so-distant departure from Leavenworth, Kansas. Pynchon used this currently fashionable phrase in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''], as well.

==Page 121==
'''"...cutting Moody's orders for Japan..."''' 
This Japanese episode includes a number of gentle take-offs on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_gibson William Gibson], the cyberpunk novelist who borrowed a lot of his schtick from Pynchon. Gibson often writes about Japanese punks and small-time underworld types.

==Page 122==
'''"spheriphagous tulips"''' [[Image:Pachinko.jpg|thumb|1970's Pachinko Machine|right]] 
ball-catchers in a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachinko pachinko game]. Spheriphagous = sphere-eating.

'''"You eat soba?"''' 
soba = Japanese noodles. Noburu's first words to DL really mean, "Can you handle some Japanese identity?"

'''"You buyin'?"''' 
DL's reply is impeccably cool.

'''"Shodan potential"''' 
''Shodan'' = a high degree, or black belt, in the martial arts.

'''"Inoshiro Sensei"''' 
DL's martial arts teacher. Perhaps a nod to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishiro_Honda Ishiro Honda] (1911-1993), the director of ''Godzilla'', ''Rodan'', ''Mothra'', et al.

'''"assukikaa"''' 
Jive Japlish (like Faque French) for "ass kicker."

==Page 123==
'''"water-trade"''' 
In Japanese, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizu_shōbai Mizu shōbai] or the water-trade is a euphemism for the night-time live entertainment industry, often sex-oriented.

'''"like vacationing on another planet and losing her traveler's checks."''' 
This description of DL's puberty and adolescence is fine writing, and a telling insight.

'''"the modernized crash course"''' 
Sensei offers DL the cyberpunk version of the full martial arts program the technique without the spirituality.

==Page 124==
'''"on through suppertime, primetime..."''' 
In the authoritarian world ("the truancy squad was now in her face") TV shapes even the rhythms of the day.

'''embonpoint''' 
chubbiness

'''"a personalized coffee mug wired permanently to his right index finger"''' 
A precisely captured image of a Navy lifer, retired in place. Pynchon must have seen many of these in his short experience in the service.

==Page 126==
'''man in a suit and homburg hat''' 
mobster look [[Image:Example.jpg|thumb|Al Capone in a homburg hat|right]]

'''"''kobun''"''' 
Yakuza retainer; button man; bodyguard. (Gunsel? This [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1922328/kobun page] calls them apprentice gunmen, with a literal meaning of "child status.")

'''"one more view of Edo."''' 
Sounds like a line from a famous ''haiku'', or the title of a painting. Edo is, of course, the old name for Tokyo. Likely a reference to Japanese printmaker [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshige Utagawa Hiroshige's] [http://www.hiroshige.org.uk/hiroshige/100_views_edo/100_views_edo.htm "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo"] (1855-1858).

'''"Yamaguchi-gumi"''' 
one of the major [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza ''Yakuza''] (Japanese organized crime) families.

'''"Relax! Only testing you!"''' 
Here Inoshiro Sensei becomes a cross between Toshiro Mifune and Mr. Natural.

'''"giri"''' 
obligation. Very important in Japanese (and particularly [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza ''Yakuza'']) culture; note that Takeshi's musical cards are called "giri-chits."

==Page 127==
'''"original purity...subverted...once eternal techniques now only one-shot and disposable..."'''

'''"This is for all the rest of us down here with the insects, the ones who don't quite get to make warrior, who...fail to get it right...this is our equalizer, our edge...because we have ancestors and descendants too..."'''

A moving restatement of Pynchon's concern for the preterites, as well as an excellent discourse on the difference between a samurai (the eternal purity of the warrior) and Inoshiro's version of ''ninjitsu'' (the one-shot pragmatism of the assassin, martial arts without Zen).

'''"The Nosepicking of Death"''' 
Funny list of martial moves. ''Gojira no Chimpira'' = The Gangster of Godzilla.

==Page 128==
'''"...better just hand [your body] over to those who are qualified, doctors, and lab technicians and by extension coaches, employers, boys with hardons, so forth..."''' 
Pynchon's attitude towards authority is pretty well spelled out in DL's feminist monologue on schoolrooms.

'''"She and Prairie were out taking a break..."''' 
Fabulously smooth cross-fade out of flashbacks back to DL and Prairie talking at SKA.
{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 9

2012-06-05T05:48:57Z

Pthomas: /* Page 191 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 130==
'''"Fresson process studio photograph"''' 
Photographic printing process that uses coal to produce paper prints with a unique luminosity and grain. Fresson printing produces an image that is characteristically diffused and subtle, reminiscent of the "pointillism" of Impressionist painting. The image is extremely stable; Fresson printing is considered the most archival of any color procedure in use today.

==Page 131==
'''"If you want real ninja product..."''' 
The whole sequence about hiring an assassin is pure cyberpunk schtick.

'''"The Vibrating Palm"''' 
This may be a subtle reference to the old joke-store "buzzer" or "shocker" -- and resonates nicely with the rubber scampi on the previous page. The Vibrating Palm is an actual - though romanticized - technique in Asian martial arts (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_of_Death Touch of Death]).

'''"YakMaf"''' 
Yakuza/Mafia.

==Page 133==
'''"legendary in the dopers' community"''' 
Olympic Boulevard, in Los Angeles, is a major arterial road stretching from 4th Street on the western end of Santa Monica to East Los Angeles -- farther than Wilshire Boulevard and most other streets. Why is the gas station toilet legendary? And why would DL care anyway? All she needs to do is change into her disguise.

In his 2009 psychedelic noir novel ''Inherent Vice'', Pynchon mentions another legendary restroom near Los Angeles:

:"the notorious Oscar's, right across the border from Tijuana, where the toilets were seething round the clock with junkies new and old who'd just scored in Mexico, put the product inside rubber balloons and swallowed them, then crossed back into the U.S. to vomit them back up again." (p.37)

Because this restroom is right across the border, it's not the "legendary" toilet on Olympic Boulevard.

'''KFWB'''

980 AM in Los Angeles. Went to an all news/talk format in March, 1968.

[[image:dinos.jpg|right|thumb|Cabazon dinosaurs]]'''dinosaurs'''

Just another roadside attraction--life-size plaster dinosaurs on I-10 at Cabazon, California, about ten miles west of Palm Springs.

'''"baby-blue shadows..."''' 
Nice description and a precursor to the color of Frenesi's eyes.

==Page 134==
'''"beige hose, white underwear..."''' 
Pynchon's description of DL's Clark Kent outfits is surprisingly accurate, especially for a male. It's like giving the O-O (see note, [[Chapter_6#Page_79|p. 79]]) to a nice Midwestern girl, circa 1960.

==Page 135==
'''"She wasn't sure right away that being sold into white slavery would turn out to be at all beneficial as a career step..."''' 
The kidnap-and-auction sequence is good, fast-moving storytelling: breathless, tense, gripping, light on flashy effects. This is also familiar cyberpunk territory, especially the interview with Wayvone.

'''Lobelia'''

Another botanical character name.

==Page 136==
'''"older gentlemen with fingertip deficiencies..."''' 
Yakuza who have screwed up, and demonstrated their remorse by cutting off a fingertip.

==Page 139==
'''"Ufa, mi tratt' a pesci in faccia..."''' 
Literally, "Oof, you've thrown a fish in my face!" It's an ominous Sicilian warning meaning, "You've insulted me most unpleasantly, treated me in the worst possible way!"

==Page 141==
'''"I knew it!"''' 
Prairie breaking into the seamless narrative is almost a Brechtian alienation effect. By now the story is moving so strongly that we've totally forgotten the "as-told-to" frame.

'''"How could [Frenesi] have ever gone near somebody like this Brock guy?"''' 
Good question. Pynchon never really answers it -- unless we accept the idea of Frenesi embodying America's fatal fascination with authority.

'''"what-is-reality exercises"''' 
Reminiscent of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick.

'''"Ninja Death Touch calculator"''' 
This joke strikes another false note. The entire sub-plot revolving around the Vibrating Palm is broad comedy, of course, but this smart-ass gag is severely out-of-scale.

==Page 142==
'''"might as well stay home -- watch a Run Run Shaw movie!"''' 
Hong-Kong-based Run-Run Shaw produced the popular (and violent) Bruce Lee karate flicks, also lots of action-packed swords and sorcery adventures (like the ones that clearly inspired a lot of the DL and Takeshi sub-plot).

'''"yellow headlamps of the tech squads..."''' 
The scene in the Footprint is reminiscent of the monolith excavation on the moon in 2001. Also, most of the Japanese dialogue is phrased in Pynchon's unique, sounds-just-like-a-movie style.

Hai! Pynchon usually ends the Japanese characters' lines with exclamation points, so they sound like actors screaming at each other in poorly dubbed Japanese movies. Hai! Or people on meth?

'''"...the shadowy world conglomerate Chipco..."''' 
This imaginary entity (an echo, perhaps of the sinister YoYoDyne Corporation in The Crying of Lot 49) is presumably some Intel-like company whose microprocessor chips are sold world wide. No doubt the chips are designed to keep a covert watch on everything, and report back to Chipco -- similar to Byron the Bulb and his fellow gridmates in Gravity's Rainbow.

'''"gigantic animal footprint"'''[[Image:Godzilla.jpg|thumb|Poster for ''Godzilla'' (1954)|right]] 
Godzilla's size is pretty well known, and this (as we shall see) sauroid footprint is too large to be that of the big G. However, Godzilla is a product of Japanese movie model technology of the fifties, so who knows what the eighties might bring?

In the ''Godzilla'' poster to the right, the face on the lower left is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashi_Shimura Takashi Shimura], Takeshi's namesake (cf. [[Chapter_5#Page_65|page 65 notes]]), who plays the scientist sent to investigate Godzilla-sightings in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla_(1954_film) movie].

'''"Wawazume Life & Non-Life"''' 
Is this a joke? And what kind? Maybe they insure things other than lives. Maybe Thanatoids get "non-life" insurance. Or it could just be a satirically "tactful" Japanese way of referring to death.

It's a joke. They also insure property and liability (zume sounds like "sue me").

==Page 144==
'''"Eastern bloc...South African"''' 
If you turn "RSA", Republic of South Africa, upside down it looks like Cyrillic writing. A political joke.

Hardly. Turned upside down you would get jibberish. If you look at "RSA" in a mirror you would get a (slight) Cyrillic effect. Anyway, Pynchon knows enough Russian (see GR) not to have made this mistake. It is not a political joke, but a geographic joke, if anything.

==Page 143==
'''"By the time...gods of the sky."''' 
Note that this immensely long and complicated sentence takes up more than half the page!

==Page 145==
'''"Singapore Sling"''' 
A frivolous cocktail with a pleasant flavor and a lethal punch: the signature drink of the bar at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, a British colony taken by the Japanese in WWII. Conceivably, Minoru might have been stationed there, and picked up a liking for this tourist syrup.

==Page 146==
'''"Chuck, the world's most invisible robot"''' 
Like the fastest draw in the West. Want to see it again?

'''"some planet-wide struggle had been going on for years"''' 
More Pynchonian paranoia.

'''"the Himalayan caper"''' 
Story is written in mock Le Carre shorthand. Here (as elsewhere) Pynchon penetrates to the essence of a genre and gives us a few masterly strokes that evoke the same effect as an entire novel by a lesser writer.

'''"Semtex"''' 
For many years, Semtex has been the plastic explosive of choice for sophisticated aircraft bombers and other terrorists.

'''"pirate ships of the stratosphere"''' 
Presumably, they mount attacks like the one on the Kahuna flight.

==Page 147==
'''"Kutsushita-san!"''' 
lit. "Mr. Socks!"

'''"We called you the Kid."''' 
As in, "I never did the Kenosha Kid?" (See Gravity's Rainbow, p. 60.)

'''"disco music coming out the club doors"''' 
Cyberpunk atmosphere.

==Page 148==
'''"The Yak Doc Workshop"''' 
This may be a riff on Doc Yak, a comic book character.

Or Yakusa Documents.

'''"Takeshi...saw Vond...and thought...it was himself..."''' 
Vond and Takeshi look alike. Does this, as they say, signify? Takeshi as anti-Vond? It's hard to imagine a dark Japanese and a light Caucasian looking alike, but anyway, there's one for each of the tomatoes: an adjuster (insurance or karma, ma'am?) for DL, and a badass for Frenesi.

I guess that's the joke.

'''"''gaijin''"''' 
Japanese for foreigner, stranger, outsider.

==Page 149==
'''"Found a cab"''' 
Once again Prairie startles us by breaking into the gripping flashback narrative, but this time the present-tense Takeshi breaks in with her, having just arrived at the SKA retreat. Very cinematic. Takeshi moves instantaneously from past to present, a double-exposure match-dissolve effect.

'''"Moe!"'''[[Image:ThreeStooges.jpg|thumb|The Three Stooges|right]] 
The first of several references to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_stooges The Three Stooges], a nothing-if-not-preterite comedy trio specializing in crude, cruel slapstick.

'''"fingering its smooth rigid contours"''' 
The mock-porno is cute.

==Page 151==
'''"I couldn't see shit."''' 
DL mistakes Takeshi for Vond because of her fuzzy contact lenses. This mistaken-identity riff is worthy of Shakespeare at his most far-fetched and funny.

'''"Eeoo!"''' 
Flash! Pynchon's ear fails! This just isn't as close to the Valspeak expression of disgust as we expect from our boy. The transliteration needs a little more "u" or something.

Totally disagree with above, for what it's worth. "Eeoo" is perfect, as "oo" automatically brings about "too" sound. Also looks much better than anything with a "u" would.

==Page 152==
'''"Takeshi with a softoff..."'''

Opposite of a hardon.

==Page 153==
'''"Fuckin' Vond. He's the Roadrunner."''' 
Yes, he is.

'''Kunoichi Retreat''' 
see [[Chapter_8#Page 107|page 107]]

==Page 154==
'''"Licensed DOM's"''' 
Doctor of Medicine?

Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Cf. page 176

Also, in S&M slang, a male dominant.

==Page 155==
'''"Ninjette Coffee Mess"''' 
Navspeak. In the military, particularly the Navy, coffee mess is a little area where the coffee maker, cups, etc. are kept.

==Page 156==
'''"dorai kuriiningu"''' 
"dry cleaning" More Jive Japlish.

'''"perchloroethylene"''' 
A highly toxic chemical often used for cleaning movie film.

'''"croaker"''' 
A company doctor ([http://books.google.com/books?id=4YfsEgHLjboC&pg=PA514&lpg=PA514&dq=croaker+company+doctor&source=bl&ots=7JQCJ2j_2g&sig=OXn9PZtc22j-wLKaVNKHEld_Z0g&hl=en&ei=kRbATq-uPKTRiAKo0cSQAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=croaker%20company%20doctor&f=false def]).

==Page 157==
'''"Not a bar, Fumimota-san."''' 
Silly joke, nicely placed.

==Page 158==
'''"Evoex"''' 
The etymology of this new tranquilizer is clearly from the bacchanalian ejaculation (and crossword puzzle word) "evoe!"

==Page 159==
'''"Michiko Yomama"''' 
A nasty pun, based on the black insult, "Yo' mama!" Let your guard down for a second, and the guy slips in one of these every time.

==Page 160==
'''"Nukey"''' 
Orgasm and atomic detonation meet in one of Pynchon's most awful/wonderful puns (nuke = nookey).

'''sleep ... shave''' 
Meth-logic. Also a parody of the movie situation where a character must stay awake to live.

The classic film-noir [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.O.A._(1950_film) ''DOA''], where a man is given a slow-acting poison and must find his own murderer, is also relevant to this chapter.

==Page 161==
'''"technically dead"''' 
Since Takeshi lives without fear, this makes him a perfect samurai, and echoes the idea on p. 29 about how a samurai is always prepared to die.

==Page 162==
'''"Just Like a William Powell"''' 
Echoes "Like a Meat Loaf" (p. 363), and, of course, Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues."

Movie references in the song:

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thin_Man_(film) ''The Thin Man'']
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lassie_Come_Home ''Lassie Come Home'']
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarzan_Finds_a_Son! ''Tarzan Finds a Son!'']

Also, Flatfoot Floogie refers to the 1938 [http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-musicians/gaillard-slim-biography Slim Gaillard] song [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Foot_Floogie_(with_a_Floy_Floy) ''Flatfoot Floogie with a Floy, Floy''] (original recording on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFVeJ4wHWdQ YouTube]). The use of "real McCoy" may be entirely innocent, or a reference to the television show [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_McCoys ''The Real McCoys''].

==Page 163==
'''"Which reminds me, about your PX bill..."''' 
If you had any doubts about the samurai/ninjette subplot being for laughs, this page should convince you.

==Page 164==
'''"Puncutron"''' 
An imaginary therapeutic device whose name suggests an infernal combination of eastern medicine (acupuncture) and high-energy western technology (cyclotron). There's a bit of "punk" in there, too.

'''"Detractors included...managed to keep."''' 
A silly sentence, written in painful mock-German syntax for no discernible reason.

'''"Taiwanese Healthy Brain Aerobics"''' 
More foolishness, this time mixed with music. The selection of tapes for Puncutron listening includes The All-Regimental Bagpipes play Prime Time Favorites (the Tube again!), and perhaps Pynchon's best judgmental title: The Chipmunks Sing Marvin Hamlisch.

==Page 166==
'''Jaime Sommers''' 
Jaime Sommers is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bionic_Woman Bionic Woman].

'''Eve and her sister, Lilith''' 
According to an ancient legend, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith Lilith] was not Eve's sister but was Adam's first wife. But Lilith haunts many different fables, traditions, stories in many different cultures.

Lilith is the eponym for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith_Fair Lilith Fair], a music festival (1997-1999) of only female artists.

Rochelle is using "sister" in the feminist sense, as in "Sisters are doing it for themselves".

This is also interesting in the context that this is one of the only stories the reader gets in regard to what secrets/stories/philosophies are possibly taught at the Kunoichi Retreat. What seems clear is that over the years, they are more interested in making money than spiritually healing folks, so this is a nice tidbit, probably used to hook women into this Ninjette Retreat, and facilitate a mainline into their pocketbooks. Here used in a comical, and opposite way, re: Takeshi/DL.

Actually, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunoichi Kunoichi] Retreat is a parody of the many Zen retreats in Northern California, such as the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Gulch_Farm Green Gulch Farm]. People pay to stay there and do manual farming labor to chill-out. In Pynchon's parody, the retreat is feminist and faintly BDSM. As Pynchon points out on page 107, they had to seek "cash flow" in order to avoid the financial fate of their predecessors, but there's no indication that they've given up their principles (whatever they are) entirely. See also [[Chapter_8#Page 107|page 107]].

'''"...men convinced us that we were the natural administrators of this thing 'morality'..."''' 
Sister Rochelle's feminist Eden parable suggests an interesting modern scenario: Frenesi = Eve, DL = Lilith, Vond = Serpent. This would help explain Frenesi/America's irresistible attraction for the authoritarian Vond.

'''Oscar Goldman''' 
Oscar Goldman is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bionic_Woman Bionic Woman]'s boss.

==Page 167==
'''"The Ordeal of the Thousand Broadway Show Tunes"''' 
Transcendental malarkey.

'''"YOUR MAMA EATS, how can we resist?"''' 
Aggro dining.

==Page 169==
'''"Cheapsat"''' 
Preterite communications personified.

==Page 170==
'''"Like Death, Only Different."''' 
While this is a nice definition of the "oid" suffix, it begs the question of exactly what Thanatoid's are.

'''"But we watch a lot of Tube"''' 
Thanatoids watch lots of TV, trying to advance further into the condition of death. This makes them Reaganite kids? Couch potatoes? Embittered hippies? Everyone in America? Anyway, advancing further into the condition of death is only a restatement of the law of entropy, which may mean that everyone in the universe is a Thanatoid.

People watching television in a darkened room look dead. They are immobile, and their faces have a blue tinge from the light of the TV screen.

At first Pynchon makes it sound like a lifestyle, similar to Goths. The name of a public Goth dance party in Berkeley was "Not Dead Yet". But gradually he makes himself clearer...

==Page 171==
'''"checking the edges of the frame."''' 
Does this mean Takeshi's in a film? Or is Pynchon just grabbing a handy cinema term?

The latter.

'''"go the opposite way! Back to life!"''' 
This anti-entropic movement makes Takeshi a great hero, a symbol of intelligence (the only truly anti-entropic entity), the life force. Cf. [[Chapter_9#Page_148|page 148]]

==Page 172==
'''"Shade"''' 
(as in Shade Creek) = ghost.

One can become invisible in the shadows.

'''"thick fluids in flexible containers"''' 
i.e., scumbags

'''"The Woodbine Motel"''' 
Harks back, perchance, to the 1870's, the Union Pacific railroad scandal, and the Credit Mobilier. When one party was asked, under oath, where the money was, he replied that it had "gone where the woodbine twineth."

Pynchon, just as Fisk in the above quote, is most likely referring to the song [http://www.musicofyesterday.com/sheetmusic/G/Gone_Where_The_Woodbine_Twineth.php ''Gone Where the Woodbine Twineth''], an elegy for dead Civil War soldiers. It was written by Apsley Street, a pseudonym of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apsley_Street Septimus Winner], a 19th Century songwriter who was arrested for treason. Also, let's not forget the scary episode of ''The Alfred Hitchcock Hour'' called [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0394103/ ''Where the Woodbine Twineth''].

'''"The Zero Inn"''' 
Very thanatoid, preterite and Zoyd-like. Also another zero.

Also, "zero in" = to acquire a target, to adjust one's aim.

==Page 173==
'''Thanatoids are "victims of karmic imbalances unanswered blows, unredeemed suffering..."''' 
So are the Thanatoids victims of the Seventies? Or another version of the preterites in Gravity's Rainbow? Maybe they're just over-determined ghosts of some sort. This description is similar to the kind of thing that psychics talk about when they're trying to make your poltergeists go away; it's the unresolved baggage that keeps the ghosties on the move, and out of wherever they belong. Remember, too, that Shade Creek is "a psychic jumping-off town" where the Thanatoids wait "for the data necessary to pursue their needs and aims (i.e., ghostlike revenge) among the still living..." ([[#Page 171|p. 171]])

'''"... they're ghosts."''' 
Here Pynchon flat-out tells you what the Thanatoids are.

'''"Although the streets were irregular and steeply pitched..."''' 
The description is an attempt to capture the effect of an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._C._Escher M.C. Escher] drawing or perhaps the Expressionist sets in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caligari ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari''] [1920].

==Page 174==
'''Thanatoids are injured by "what was done to them."''' 
Here they seem like left-over hippies, Vietnam vets, America's victims. Preterites who want revenge.

'''"The amount of memory on a chip doubles every year and a half!"''' 
Sounds like a variant on Moore's Law, that the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law

'''"In traditional karmic adjustment ..."''' 
The Thanatoids are a combination of Christian purgatory (where souls wait before proceeding to heaven), and European folkloric poltergeists (which haunt a particular location where they have been wronged, until they see that their injury is avenged). Takeshi offers these Western ghosts the Eastern idea of karma, roughly, supernatural justice over multiple reincarnations. But this is America, so Takeshi's hustle is to offer Modern Karmic Adjustment, which speeds-up the process by avoiding the cycles of birth-death-reincarnation. If this fails, there's always the reincarnation route.

Since this is all a parody of California Zen and the Human Potential Movement, the question is do the Thanatoids actually need to be avenged, or only to feel avenged, i.e. to be at peace, in order to advance to the next level of Death? Does watching television dramas where revenge is achieved and justice triumphs dissipate their righteous anger, lead to inaction, and further their advance into Death?

==Page 175==
'''"Karmic adjustment"''' 
Well, yes, it's a nice progression from insurance adjustment, but what does Takeshi actually do? Prairie is still wondering on page 192, and DL never lets on. In any case, it looks like these Thanatoids are dead California yuppies; a resource to be exploited by preterite tradesmen.

Offered only as speculation: Perhaps Takeshi and DL take real-world, physical action against those by whom their Thanatoid clients were wronged, thus "clearing the books." Considering DL's ninjette training, this could include inflicting major trauma or even death. Don't believe it, myself.

'''"interesting work with airplanes"''' 
So, during World War II Takeshi was a kamikaze hence the same Takeshi who's in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow'']! (See Viking edition, [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_674-700 page 690]) This brings up an interesting, though peripheral issue: As a Kamikaze, Takeshi flew a Zero. A-and there's a reference on [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_663-673 page 672] (of ''GR'') to "Zeros bearing comrades away," reminding us of those human lives as binary code in God's PC. As noted, there are lots of other "zero" reverences (that's a pun, not a typo) in ''Vineland''.

==Page 176==
'''"Domo komarimashita!"''' 
Japanese for "Thanks a lot!" or "You're welcome."

==Page 178==
'''"Interpersonal Programming and the Problem Towee"''' 
Pynchon definitely has an attitude on this kind of California stuff. He also seems to have a grudge against Mercedes drivers.

'''"Sounds like the team I bet on last week."''' 
Vato gets to make the bad pun this time. This is a great montage of the growing relationship between Vato, Blood, Takeshi, and DL.

==Page 179==
'''"Vato wanted it to be a sitcom."''' 
Another example of how deeply TV has invaded our thoughts.

==Page 180==
'''"I'm Chip! I'm Dale!"''' 
A sly comparison of chipmunks: Disney's cartoonic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_%27n_Dale Chip 'n Dale] v. Bagdasarian's sonic Alvin, Simon, and Theodore ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chipmunks "Alvin and the Chipmunks"]).

==Page 181==
'''"a cement lounge deep within the Long Binh complex"''' 
So Vato and Blood either worked at, or were incarcerated in, the Long Binh military prison. Cf. [[Chapter_6#Page_87|page 87]].

==Page 185==

'''"less light on it than the space I'm in"''' 

Here Vato and Blood are having an "argument about light" - see p. 201

Also, it's a paranoid flashback from past combat in Vietnam.

==Page 186==
'''"octogenarihexation"''' 
86'd = thrown out, usually in reference to a drinking establishment. Is it a coincidence that this occurs on page 186? [[Chapter_15#Page_342|See also 43'd, p.342...]]

'''"Yuroks"''' 
The native American Yurok tribe lives along the lower 36 miles of the Klamath River, and along the California coast from Wilson Creek to Trinidad Bay. This may provide a clue to the location of Vineland County. Being Indians, the Yuroks are, naturally, preterite in the Pynchon universe. The woge (note lower case) seem to be Yurok thanatoids, therefore ultra-preterite.

==Page 187==
'''"Bernard Herrmann"''' 
The famous film composer, whose credits include, among many other great picture soundtracks, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock's] classics [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho_%281960_film%29 ''Psycho''] [1960] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo_%28film%29 ''Vertigo''] [1958].

Listen to Bernard Herrmann's music from ''Psycho'' on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDtJUSYoLDE&feature=related YouTube].

'''"A Toyota in the treetops"''' 
Is this a tip of the hat to the boat in the tree in Marquez's famous novel of magic realism, ''One Hundred Years of Solitude''?

As surreal as it may seem, in California cars frequently drive off of mountain roads and fall into canyons. They are pulled out using teams of tow trucks. But they usually crush the trees beneath.

'''"...vanish unaccountably between Shade Creek and the V & B pound, as Thanatoid units...had been known to do..."''' 
Vanishing Thanatoid cars may push the envelope of fantasy a bit too far. And yet, and yet... They wind up in the tops of trees, you see. It's kind of like 'toon cars: 'toons can drive real cars, real people can drive 'toon cars. Plus, it sets up (much later) the disappearance of Vond's ride in Chapter 15.

==Page 188==
'''''Sate''..."''' 
A totally abrupt scene-change to Takeshi's, a literary jump cut.

"''Sate''..." is italicized, as if Japanese [Takeshi speaking]. ''Sate'' is an introductory interjection, like "well", "now", or "then" in an English sentence.

'''"Weed Atman"''' 
Another great name. Weed = marijuana. And [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weed,_California Weed] is a city in Northern California. Also perhaps, an echo of Steven Weed, abandoned boyfriend of heiress Patty Hearst, which raises a very faint reverberation of Frenesi as Patty-in-reverse. Atman = Hindu for breath, the principle of life, the World Soul.

Cf [[Chapter_11#Page_206| page 206]] for more on Weed's name.

'''"Prairie was hearing this, in her turn, from DL..."''' 
Prairie breaks into the narrative, bouncing us unexpectedly back to the present. These abrupt break-ins by Prairie are fun.

==Page 189==
'''"Variety Loaves...not, as once supposed, safely dead but no, only, queerly, sleeping..."''' 
Thanatoid lunch meat!

==Page 190==
'''"Me gotta go"''' 
A line from Richard Berry's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louie_Louie "Louie Louie"], made famous by the Kingsmen.

==Page 191==
'''"FFAR"''' 
Folding Fin Aircraft Rocket Launcher, a rather nasty device attached to Apache helicopters around about the time Pynchon was writing Vineland.

'''"Kick Out the Jambs"''' 
Definitely a reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MC_5 the MC 5] tune "Kick Out the Jams." But is "jambs" a typo or a pun?

Definitely a pun, and a genius one. Thoughts of ninjas, or FBI, or whoever, kicking doors in. Also, apt that the MC5 were affiliated with the far left, anti-establishment, counterculture, etc.

Listen on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM6nasmkg7A YouTube].

The JAMs, or Justified Ancients of Mummu, are one of the anarchist factions in Robert Anton Wilson's ''Illuninatus! Trilogy'' (1975). On pp. 127-8 [Dell Trade Paperback edition], the JAMs are expelled from the Illuminati by a faction founded by Cecil Rhodes, who carry signs reading "Kick out the JAMs!" On p. 123 is the line "D.E.A.T.H.--Don't Ever Antagonize The Horn. Does Pynchon know?"

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 1

2012-06-05T02:53:06Z

Pthomas: /* Page 10 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Jacket Flap==
Read ''Vineland's'' original book jacket flap [[Vineland_Jacket_Flap_Copy|here]].

'''"less than harmonic convergence"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_Convergence Harmonic Convergence] was a planetary alignment occurring in 1987 that was heralded by New Age astrologers as ushering-in an age of peace, rather than war, as a prelude to the Mayan "end of history" in 2012.

==Page 3==

[[image:creeping-fig.jpg|right|thumb|175px|caption|Creeping Fig (''Ficus pumila'')]]'''"Later than usual one summer morning in 1984, Zoyd Wheeler drifted awake in sunlight through a creeping fig that hung in the window, with a squadron of blue jays stomping around on the roof."''' 
Nice prolepsis going on in this opening sentence which subtly telegraphs ''Vineland'' themes. The pacific experience of drifting awake and Zoyd would definitely be drifting in filtered sunlight one summer morning is contrasted by the foreshadowings of threats creeping figs (a highly invasive plant) connecting to federal prosecutor Brock Vond who is referred to throughout as a "creep" and a "megacreep," notably on pp. [[Chapter_8#Page 108|108]], [[Chapter_9#Page 141|141]] and [[Chapter_9#Page 189|189]]. And those "squadrons of blue jays stomping around..." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Jay blue jays] are scavengers and considered "adaptable, aggressive and omnivorous"; they also have a reputation as raiders of other birds' nests, stealing eggs, chicks [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Jay]. In ''Vineland'' these blue jays will morph into squadrons of "private vigilantes" in blue planes, on [[Chapter_12#Page 221|p. 221]]. And, natch, there's that ominous Orwellian year of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four 1984]. Of course, the reference to a "vine" in the novel's opening sentence, even if it's creeping, is ''appropo''. Finally, the color blue figures prominently in ''Vineland'', and particularly Frenesi's blue eyes. [[Blue in Vineland|Read more about the color blue in ''Vineland''...]]

It's also worth noting how this book begins, as does [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/index.php?title=Main_Page ''Gravity's Rainbow''], with a protagonist waking from a portentous dream, with light percolating in.

'''"Zoyd Wheeler"''' 
Rhymes with void, shares Z with Zuniga. Zoyd's last name perhaps references Wheeler Hall at University of California at Berkeley, at the epicenter of student unrest in the 60s.

The suffix -oid is like -ish; think humanoid, freakazoid, etc. So Zoyd is Z-ish. What comes to mind about Z? It's the last letter of the alphabet, so Zoyd is near the bottom. "Boyd" might be a good name for the heroic, hard-charging hero of an adventure or detective story, but not Zoyd. What else? Getting Z's means sleeping, so perhaps Zoyd is sleepy. Z is the first letter of zero, and the one-zero dichotomy shows up often in ''Vineland''. Finally, remember Z for Zorro and the leftish 1960's political film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(film) Z]

'''blue jays'''
[[image:Jays.jpg|thumb|right|Jays]]
The blue jay [''Cyanocitta cristata''] does not range west of the Rocky Mountains. The birds Zoyd hears are Stellar's jays [''C. stellari''], with dark heads and a more uniformly blue body.

'''"mental disability check"''' 
This instantly identifies Zoyd as a sixties character with a sixties scam. In the late sixties, Bay Area actor/writer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Coyote Peter Coyote] (b. 1941) wrote and performed a then-popular song called "ATD" celebrating the coolness of getting onto ATD (Aid to the Totally Disabled) for feigned mental problems to avoid having to work at some evil-collaborative (i.e., straight) job. The trick, of course, was convincing your caseworker that you were a nut. Zoyd's annual window-dive is a comic version of a now-classic ritual-scam turned into a media circus (as are most remains of the sixties). Given the importance of the Tube in Vineland, it's no accident that what was originally a private act of financial desperation has become a filler on TV news (complete with a fake window). Of course, as it turns out, this particular scam is not Zoyd's idea.

'''Prairie''' 
Zoyd's daughter would likely be Prairie Wheeler, thus her name might connect to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_wheel Tibetan Prayer Wheel], a mechanical device used as an equivalent to the recitation of a mantra. The prayer wheel consists of a hollow metal cylinder, often beautifully embossed, mounted on a rod and containing a consecrated paper bearing a mantra. Each turn of the wheel by hand is considered equivalent to orally reciting the prayer. Variants to the handheld prayer wheel are large cylinders that can be set in motion by hand or attached to windmills or waterwheels and thus kept in continuous motion.

Note that [http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=415 Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park] is up around where the fictional town of Vineland is supposed to exist.

'''"country music was playing out of somebody's truck radio"''' 
Good Mendocino atmosphere throughout; clearly, Pynchon has been there.

'''"Count Chocula"''' 
An actual cereal that made its first appears in 1971, along with another monster-themed offering from General Mills, Franken Berry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Chocula Wikipedia]

'''Thapsia'''

Plant genus including ''Thapsia garganica''; roots used medicinally as a purgative, diuretic, and emetic. Contact with the sap can cause intense itching and blisters.

'''Channel 86'''

86 = to remove, take out, discard. During Prohibition, a popular NY speakeasy called Chumley's had an entrance at 86 Bedford Street. Customers generally used a more discreet entrance accessed through a neighboring courtyard, and this was the entrance used by the police when staging a raid. When warned of an impending raid, the bartender would shout, "86, everybody!", meaning that patrons should quickly exit through the safer, public entrance.

<div id="frootloops">'''"Froot Loops again"'''</div>
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Froot_Loops Froot Loops] is a brand of breakfast cereal introduced by Kellogg's in 1963. A stoner favorite, they appear in [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=F#frootloops Inherent Vice] too.

'''"Nestle's Quik"''' 
A chocolate flavoring for milk mix that was developed in the U.S. by 1948. It was introduced in Europe in 1950 as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nesquik Nesquik] and that name was adapted in the U.S. in 1999.

'''"Cucumber Lounge"''' 
A phallic name, for sure. And cucumbers are one of Humboldt County's major crops, right up there with marijuana.

'''"the Log Jam in Del Norte"''' 
And another phallic club name playing off the county's logging industry.

Del Norte County in Northern California - so Pynchon has sharply indicated both the date and the location of the action.

==Page 4==
'''"elegant little...chain saw, about the size of a Mini-Mac"''' 
Mini-Mac = the Mac-10 machine pistol of US make. Zoyd's lady-like chainsaw goes well with his drag costume, and the effeminate clientele (drinking "kiwi mimosas.") It also makes a nice almost-rhyme with Sheriff Willis Chunko's gold-handled chainsaw on [[Chapter 15#Page 373|page 373]].

==Page 6==
'''"orientational vibes"''' 
Great satire on gay men who like to dress like lumberjacks, possibly inspired by the Monty Python song, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lumberjack_Song_(Monty_Python) "I am a Lumberjack and I'm OK"]. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zey8567bcg Watch the video...]

==Page 7==
'''"Six Rivers Conference"''' 
To the south of the eerie and mysterious Seventh River? ([[Chapter 4#Page 49|See p. 49.]])

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Rivers_National_Forest Six Rivers National Forest] is a U.S. National Forest located in the northwestern corner of California, with a U.S. Mail address in Eureka, CA. The Six Rivers Youth Football Conference is also headquartered in Eureka.

'''"nacreous pretty saw"''' 
Referring to the mother-of-pearl grips on "Cheryl's" chainsaw.

'''"hotshot PI lawyers"''' 
PI = Normally short for personal injury, but here perhaps purchase of information, as noted on [[Chapter 3#Page 24|p. 24]].

:The context definitely suggests Personal Injury, not Purchase of Information. "these are all folks now who like to sue..." and PI lawsuits are what they're bringing.

'''"George Lucas and all his crew"''' 
The forest sequences of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars Star Wars] sequel were shot in the area.

'''transfenestration'''

The act of passing [jumping] through a window. Defenestration is the act of throwing something [or someone] out of a window.

==Page 8==
'''...say there Lemay!''' 
General "Bomb them back to the Stone Age!" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Lemay Curtis Lemay] ?

'''His partner, Van Meter, was calling from the Cucumber Lounge...''' 
The name is likely a tip of the hat to Solomon Lee Van Meter, Jr. (1888-1937) who's brilliant idea was to invent a parachute that was strapped onto the pilot instead of attached to the plane itself, as early parachutes were. He also invented the quick-release mechanism called the ripcord. His patents were granted in 1916. From the [http://www.ket.org/trips/aviation/vanmeter.htm Aviation Museum of Kentucky website]

Or mebbe to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_Van_Meter Homer Van Meter], gunman and right hand man for John Dillinger, filmically portrayed by the likes of Elisha Cook, Jr., (1957) and Harry Dean Stanton (1973). The best line from the Wikipedia page linked above has it that "There are conflicting accounts of Van Meter's personality, although all agree that he was an inveterate clown and prankster."

Or perhaps [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_morrison Van Morrison], a singer popular in the sixties (and beyond).

'''Vineland County''' 
[[Image:Ncounties.jpg|thumb|Northern California Counties|right]]
There is no Vineland County on the California map. Pynchon appears to have created Vineland County from parts of Mendocino, Humboldt, and Del Norte Counties. However, on page 43 of ''Inherent Vice'', Pynchon writes "Scott had been playing with a local group known as the Corvairs, till half of them decided to join the northward migration of those years up to Humboldt, Vineland, and Del Norte". This leaves out Mendocino, which was part of the "hippie migration", and best fits the name Vineland, since it's the only one of the three that's been a major grape producer in the past. Jump to [[Chapter_14#Page_317|page 317]] for more evidence that Vineland lies on the border between Humboldt and Del Norte Counties.

==Page 9==
'''"cop vehicles...playing the 'Jeopardy' theme on their sirens."''' 
The first of many TV show / theme song references, this one to the popular game show [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeopardy Jeopardy!] which began airing on March 30, 1964.

'''"unrelenting...bickering...[caused by] unquiet ghosts"''' 
A pre-hint of the Thanatoids?

==Page 10==
'''"one of those gotta-shit throbs of fear."''' 
An apt description, if you've ever felt it. Pynchon seems big on these visceral fear reactions; see also [[Chapter 4#Page 45|p. 45]] ("intestinal pangs of fear"), [[Chapter 8#Page 116|p. 116]] ("stone bowelflash"), [[Chapter 11#Page 207|p. 207]] ("a throb of fear went right up his asshole"), [[Chapter 14#Page 299|p. 299]] ("rectal spasms of fear,") and elsewhere.

'''Zoyd’s longtime pursuer, DEA field agent Hector Zuñiga''' 
To hector is to harass. Pynchon often alludes to opera in his work, and in Georges Bizet's French opéra comique, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen ''Carmen''] (1875), there is the character Zuniga (''without'' the tilde), an officer who arrests the beautiful gypsy Carmen after she is involved in a fight with another woman at the cigarette factory where they work. [http://classicalmusic.about.com/od/opera/qt/carmensynopsis.htm Synopsis]

'''"Dream on, Zoyd."''' 
Pynchon seems to be using the authorial voice with slightly higher profile than previously, speaking directly to characters (and readers) with comments like this.

'''"Hector stood over by the toilets pretending to play a Zaxxon machine..."''' 
Zaxxon is a 1982 arcade game developed by Ikegami Tsushinki and released by Sega. The game gives the player the experience of flying a fighter craft through a fortress while shooting at enemy entities (missiles, enemy gunfire, etc.). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaxxon Wikipedia]

'''"Wayvone"''' 
The name may be a play on "rave on," but it's also been suggested that it might derive from huevon, a Spanish word meaning egg, but also referring to a testicle -- hence someone with "big balls." (Pynchon did live in Mexico for a while...) In any case, Wayvone is also a remittance man, someone who gets paid a small but regular amount of money to stay out of trouble in some far-away place. Pynchon seems fond of the type -- there are several in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''V.''] and [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''], and the latter even has a remittance horse (named Snake). Is it pronounced "wavy one"?

In Chicano slang, a lazy man ["heavy balls" making activity difficult or distasteful].

[[image:double-sole-shoes-cerruti.jpg|thumb|200px|Double-sole shoes & mid-80s Cerruit suit]]'''"Ralph Jr. was all dolled up in a Cerruti suit, white shirt with cuff links, touch them you die double soled shoes from someplace off-shore, the works."''' 
Cerruti suits have been around since the 1950s, a symbol of prestige and excellence in men's suits. Italian designer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nino_Cerruti Nino Cerruti] (b. 1930) is the creator of the line, which continues to this day (as does Mr. Cerruti). In the 1980s, Wayvone's look was fashionable with the greed-is-good Wall Street crowd.

The expensive foreign suit and shoes (inappropriate for rural Northern California), the Italian designer, the oblique reference to his father's City occupation, his perhaps-Italian name (way-voh-nee, rhyming with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajones cojone] or maybe [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_capone Capone], a Capone-of-the-Waves i.e. a California Capone?) all stereotype him as a Mafioso.

==Page 12==
'''"technical virgin"''' 
Meaning Zoyd has more-or-less resisted Zuniga's attempt to "turn" him into an informer/betrayer. The sexual metaphor prefigures many references to Frenesi's pussy (which she blames for driving her far beyond this stage).

'''"Wheel of Fortune"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_of_Fortune_(U.S._syndicated_game_show) Wheel of Fortune] is an American Tube game show, hosted by Pat Sajak and Vanna White. It is the longest-running syndicated game show in American television history.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 15

2011-12-31T04:24:02Z

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{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 323==
'''"pasture... meadows"''' 
Traditionally [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinland Vinland] was translated as "wine-land", then in more recent times as "pasture-, meadow-land". This kinda seems like a "booyah" moment in the novel, as the first visions/possible version of the family reunion (see pages 232 & 246) have to do with an "impossible hillside" and a "wineland", whereas now when we begin the reality version, it is actually a "pasture-, meadow-land".

'''"Soon toasters and toaster ovens, wood fires, RV kitchen microwaves--just-made coffee"'''" 
This bit, as well as the bar-b-queing later in the chapter, is a signature Pynchon passage; in spite of all the chaos and conflict in whichever book, humanity is anchored by big, communal feeds. See the infamous Banana Breakfast in "Gravity's Rainbow", the State Picnic (p. 1047) in "Against the Day." It's a great opportunity for Pynchon to make his lists, and while some critics have complained that his characters lack humanity, these picnics/parties are usually so evocative and warm it extends to and encompasses the individuals involved.

'''"branching invisible fractals of smell"'''[[Image:Fractal.png|thumb|Julia Set, a Fractal|right]] 
The fractal is a fairly recent (and fashionable) mathematical concept. The property that makes a thing fractal is that it looks the same at any scale -- self-similarity over scale. For this to be true, the fractal object must be made of pieces that look like tiny versions of the whole, and these pieces must be made of similar looking, littler pieces...on to infinity. (The notion of "complications that might go on forever," [[#Page 381|p. 381]], is very Pynchonesque.) Computer graphics programs based on this principle can create complexities that increase as long as you care to wait. Pynchon's use of "fractal" here draws a great word-picture of crinkly, cartoon-like aroma waves tickling noses of all sizes. He's obviously been keeping up with his reading. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractals Wikipedia on Fractals...]

'''"Los Sombras"''' 
Spanish for "the shadows." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_shadows The Shadows] were an early-60s/pre-FabFour British instrumental quartet who were also the backing group for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Richard Cliff Richard]. They are apparently still working to this day.

==Page 324==
'''"Octomaniacs"''' 
players of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_eights crazy eights] card game.

'''"...portable TV sets bootlegged onto the cable..."''' 
Even the leftist/purist Traverse/Beckers are addicted to the Tube. Maybe that's how come they let Vond and his fascists take over.

==Page 325==
'''"Tokkata & Fuji"''' 
A pun on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toccata_and_Fugue_in_D_minor%2C_BWV_565 Toccata and Fugue]. Toccata (from Italian toccare, "to touch") is a virtuoso piece of classical music for a keyboard instrument or plucked string instrument featuring sections of virtuosic passagework, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer. A fugue is a type of contrapuntal composition or technique of composition for a fixed number of parts, normally referred to as "voices", irrespective of whether the work is vocal or instrumental.

'''"Bach's 'Wachet Auf'... one of the best tunes ever to come out of Europe"''' 
It's Resurrection Day! And weirdly enough, this does wake up the Thanatoids. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wachet_auf'' Wachet Auf''] (German: "Sleepers Awake") is a cantata written in 1731 by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach Johann Sebastian Bach].

The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Ten_Virgins associated Biblical text] refers not to Resurrection Day, but to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Coming_of_Christ Second Coming of Christ], i.e. the day of reckoning or Last Judgement. This is the final chapter of ''Vineland''.

'''"What was a Thanatoid, at the end of the long dread day, but memory?"''' 
The answer at last. Sort of.

Possibly trapped in the memories of what "could have been"?

'''"timing adapted to the rigors of a disco percussion track"''' 
Listen to a cheesy electronic rendition of "Wachet Auf" on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msNi7Rj0WnQ YouTube].

'''"able to make the bluest Thanatoid believe, however briefly, in resurrection, they woke, the Thanatoids woke"''' 

It seems that this is where the "possibility of the future" and "memory" collide into reality, which brings Weed's death as the focal point? Is it now that Weed (once one of their own) and his death has atoned the Thanatoids? Now that the "real" reunion has begun in real space-time? See pgs 246 & 232-233. What if we see Rex and Weed's dialogue on 232-233 as some celluloid, Tubal alternate version of what "could have happened"? Possibly a dream that Prairie had after hearing the facts and seeing the 24fps films? A dream that somehow these "sleepers" had access to???? But once the dream is "over" (reality happens) they can awake? My mind just exploded.

'''"the peculiar band between 6200 and 7000 KHZ"''' 
Why peculiar? The FCC has designated the frequencies 6200-7000 KHz for "various fixed and mobile services; maritime and aeronautical." Pirate radio (unlicensed broadcasting of FM radio, AM radio, or shortwave signals over a significant coverage area that could be picked up by listeners. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio]) broadcasts between the shortwave frequencies of 6300 and 7000 KHZ. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio_in_North_America Wikipedia]:
:In the USA pirate radio is frequently, but not always associated with anarchism which considers governmental spectrum regulatory schemes as favoring the interests of large corporations. Therefore, some anarchists consider pirate radio transmissions to be a challenge to that authority.

'''"false cities of gold"''' 
Pynchon playfully compares these mythical malls to the seven cities of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quivira_and_Cíbola Cibola], which kept [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_V%C3%A1squez_de_Coronado Coronado] on the run so long.

==Page 326==
'''"The Noir Center Mall"''' 
The shops are puns on famous [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_noir film noir] titles: "Bubble Indemnity" = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Indemnity_(film) ''Double Indemnity'']; "Lounge Good Buy" = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Goodbye_(film) ''The Long Goodbye'']; "Mall Tease Flacon" = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maltese_Falcon_(1941_film) ''The Maltese Falcon'']; "The Lady 'n' the Lox" = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_in_the_lake ''Lady In the Lake''].

[[Image:BradburyBuilding.jpg|thumb|Inside the Bradbury Building|right]]'''"Bradbury Building"''' 
In addition to film noir, the famous [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradbury_building Bradbury Building] appears in the cyberpunk film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner ''Blade Runner''] and is mentioned in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_735-760#Page_752 ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. Built in 1893, the building, which contains a central courtyard with skylight, indeed resembles a shopping mall, although it's actually still an office building.

==Page 327==
'''"Che, you're rilly evil"''' 
The relationship between Prairie and Che echoes that of Frenesi and DL.

'''"Brent Musberger"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brent_Musburger Brent Musburger] (b. 1939) (the name is misspelled in ''Vineland'') is a TV sportscaster, most famous throughout the 1970s and '80s as the face and voice of CBS Sports. His signature phrase was "YOU are looking LIVE!!! at...(insert city or venue name here)" This was always delivered with maximum enthusiasm, no matter the event. When CBS let him go it created something of a media splash; he quickly resurfaced at ABC. He relates to the next line, and Pynchon's theme about people who are observers rather than makers of reality.

==Page 328==
'''"Maybellene"''' 
What's the joke here? Maybelline eye makeup? Or the chase element in [http://www.chuckberry.com/ Chuck Berry's] song? Probably all of the above, plus a Pynchonian takeoff on Muzak (the "oboe-and-string rendition.") Although a good rockin' tune, Berry's "Maybellene" doesn't have much of a melody, so the idea of an instrumental version, particularly for oboe and strings, seems absurd. See also "New Age mindbarf" on [[#Page 330|p. 330]]. [ [http://www.chuckberry.com/music/lyrics/maybellene.htm Lyrics to ''Maybellene''...] ]

==Page 329==
'''"agoramania"''' 
shopping frenzy.

From what I can find, it means a mania or craving for public/open spaces.

'''"some with runny noses..."''' 
Another "hidden poem."

==Page 330==
'''"New Age mindbarf"''' 
Pynchon's opinion of the New Age Movement which trended toward the spiritual, the organic and the Politically Correct, and spawned mostly trite philosophies and trite music.

==Page 331==
'''"Times she liked to flirt, times she was out to hurt,..."''' 
Minipoem.

==Page 332==
'''"It's like they's programmed for it or somethin'"''' 
Fleur's comment on why gentlemen prefer black and red underwear on "bad girls" is reminiscent of Pirate Prentiss' involuntary, ejaculatory response to a certain photo, delivered to him via V2, in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

'''"Night and Blood"''' 
Echoes of Katje and Pudding in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_226-236#Page_232 ''Gravity's Rainbow'' - p.232-233]: "She waits for him...white body and black uniform-of-the-night.... Lipstick...prevails like blood.... She is naked now, except for a long sable cape and black boots with court heels. Her only jewelry is a silver ring with an artificial ruby...an arrogant gout of blood..."

==Page 333==
'''"Inpo mode"''' 
Inpo is the Ninjitsu Art of Hiding.

'''"Juvenile Hall badasses"''' 
More badasses.

'''"conical black heaps smoked, glowed, flared here and there into visible fire"''' 
The scene in which Vond burns the 24fps footage is quite horrible -- and extremely important. By destroying 24fps' records of the Sixties, he clears the way for his rewritten fascist version. With no evidence to prove him wrong, who would dare to argue with "official" history?

==Page 334==
'''"a restored Vicky"''' 
Victorian house. The San Francisco Bay Area and surrounding areas has many Victorian-era homes.

'''"not only dropping but also picking up, dribbling and scoring three-pointers..."''' 
Total basketball metaphor for Hector's name dropping.

==Page 337==
'''"Miraculous Medal"''' 
The Miraculous Medal makes an appearance in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=M#miraculous-medal ''Gravity's Rainbow''] and in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Miraculous_Medal ''V.'']

'''"Ernie Triggerman, and his partner, Sid Liftoff"''' 
More cool names.

These are probably a parody of James Nicholson and Samuel Arkoff, founders of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_International_Pictures American International Pictures], which produced teen-oriented low-budget movies throughout the 1950's, 60's and 70's.

'''"bizcochos"''' 
Spanish for "biscuits, cookies."

'''"lizard-skin etui"''' 
Etui = a four letter word made of odd letters, therefore useful to crossword constructors, and meaning "small case." Pynchon does crossword puzzles? Maybe he just loves words.

==Page 338==
'''"arranged for Sid to work off the beef...[by making] an antidrug movie..."''' 
This plea-bargain echoes a real deal cut by ''Godfather'' producer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Evans_%28film_producer%29 Robert Evans] to avoid doing hard time on a cocaine bust. Evans made several anti-drug spots for TV, as promised, but apparently (according to subsequent courtroom testimony) he kept on using the stuff anyway.

'''1811's''' 
Federal civil service code for a criminal investigator.

'''"Roy Ibble"''' 
Yet another cool name.

==Page 339==
'''"sudden monster surge of toilet flushing...and...cold air"''' 
A new Pynchonian fable: Dope paranoia results in Hollywood fog bank.

'''"when he saw the screen go blank... 'From now on, I'm watching you.'"''' 
This section - which carries over to pg. 340 - screams of Big Brother and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four George Orwell's ''1984''], which we are again reminded in this section, is the current year in the novel. Cf. [[Chapter_15#Page_353|page 353]]

==Page 340==
'''"Larry Talbot"''' 
[http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0002574/ Lawrence Talbot], played by Lon Chaney Jr., was the cursed man who changed into the Wolfman in the Universal Studios Wolfman films of the 1940s.

'''"childhood religion... Soto Zen"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soto_Zen Soto Zen] is one of two major Zen Buddhist traditions in Japan. It emphasizes daily practice of meditative "wall-gazing".

==Page 341==

'''"but the warmer temperature brings out more of the flavor, don't you think."''' 

Pretty funny since Bud Light is like one of the most unflavorful beers of all time. Yes, a lot of complex beers (esp. darker beers, Belgian beers, etc.) are better enjoyed at warmer temps, but definitely not Bud Light!

==Page 342==
'''"Sounds real natural to me."''' 
A math joke. 2.71828 is "e," the root of the series of "natural" logarithms.

'''"43'd"''' 
half of 86'd. (See "octogenarihexation" on [[Chapter 9#Page 186|p. 186]].) Being 43'd is like being a little pregnant.

==Page 343==
'''Song: "Es Posible."''' 
Music-biz schtick at the end makes it even funnier. Also hilarious: the pre-Castro Cuban theme park, Holiday For Fascists.

==Page 344==
'''"board fading"''' 
fading slowly and smoothly, as if via a volume slider on a recording studio control board.

==Page 345==
'''"her 59 cents on the male dollar..."''' 
Female/male income inequality.

'''"Tubal fantasies...pushing their propaganda message that cops-are-only-human...turning agents of government repression into sympathetic heroes. Nobody thought it was peculiar anymore, no more than the routine violations of constitutional rights...now absorbed into...American expectations."''' 
Good points, all, but isn't it a bit out of character for Frenesi the Betrayer, the biggest cop lover in the novel, to be fronting these thoughts for Pynchon? What's happening here, we think, is that Pynchon is starting to set up Frenesi for her rehabilitation as part of the big Happy Ending.

==Page 346==
'''"the Meese Police"''' 
Reagan's DOJ (Department of Justice) head, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Meese Edwin Meese].

==Page 347==
'''"Mad Dog Vond"''' 
Echoes [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey_Bogart Humphrey Bogart] as Mad Dog Roy Earle in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Sierra_%28film%29 ''High Sierra'']. But Vond really is crazy.

'''"Since '81, kids were coming in all on their own askin about careers..."''' 
Too true, too sad, and it undercuts the Happy Ending rather seriously (at least as a pointer to the real world.)

==Page 348==
'''"in the movie of his life story"''' 
A not-quite-made-up film.

==Page 349==
'''Vond is "waitin' for somethin'."''' 
OK, but what? Reluctantly we must point out that none of Pynchon's many explanations bear close examination. (See footnote to the plot synopsis, Chapter 4.)

Cf. [[Chapter_15#Page_353|page 353]] for a possible explanation of what Vond is waiting for.

==Page 350==
'''"Perez Prado"''' 
Cuban bandleader, "King of the Mambo."

'''"the pink slip to his heart"''' 
A pink slip is a title of ownership for a car. Before the days of automobile titles, the portion of a California car registration that conveyed ownership was colored pink. Hence the brag in the Beach Boys' "Little Deuce Coupe" about "I got the pink slip, daddy!" (meaning, "I'm holding the paperwork required to stake the LDC on a streetlight drag race, so whatchu waitin' for, dude?")

==Page 351==
'''"Pretend there's a frame around [your parents], pretend they're a show you're watching..."''' 
Once again, TV is America's common reference point.

'''"'Uh-oh,' said Frenesi."''' 
Frenesi refuses to cross the airport picket line. This is a bit on the too-little-too-late side for a professional class-traitor, but it's also quite believable.

==Page 352==
[[Image:ThreeStooges.jpg|thumb|The Three Stooges|right]]'''"the bowl haircut, etc."''' 
Another reference to The Three Stooges ... Moe's bowl haircut. Cf. [[Chapter_9#Page_149|page 149]]

'''"all 'em deeply personal li'l ones and zeros got changed to somebody else's"''' 
Roy Ibble, Flash's former handler, explains the computer file deletions, and carries on Pynchon's binary metaphor.

==Page 353==
'''"Please, no more..."''' 
Ibble crumbles in the face of Flash's anger. This is the only the first in a series of auspicious (but highly improbable) turns of the plot. The Hollywood Happy Ending is beginning.

'''"REX-84"''' 
Short for Reagan's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_84 Readiness Exercise 1984], a plan by the United States federal government to test their ability to detain large numbers of American citizens in case of massive civil unrest or national emergency.

Applying "paranoid logic" to the information in the above-mentioned Wikipedia article, let us suppose that Oliver North, one of the designers of the REX 84 readiness exercise, intended that it be used, exercise in name only, in conjunction with a US invasion of Nicaragua to oust the Sandinista government, which he opposed in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Contra Iran-Contra Affair]. This corresponds with DL's prediction on page 264-265 and Hector's intuition on page 339-340. Furthermore, let's pretend that REX 84 takes place at the time described in the novel, late summer of 1984, instead of the spring of 1984, as Wikipedia states. This will go a long way in explaining some of the action in the 1984 parts of the novel.

==Page 354==
'''"...Midol America..."''' 
Another low Pynchon pun ("middle-America") referring to the popular brand of menstrual medicine.

'''"...the destined losers whose only redemption would have to come through their usefulness to the State law-enforcement apparatus, which was calling itself 'America,' though somebody must have known better."''' 
This describes Frenesi and Flash, though it could also describe the larger preterite population of the novel. "...law enforcement apparatus...calling itself America..." underscores Pynchon's cold fury at the process via which Frenesi/America falls for the lies of the fascists.

==Page 355==
'''"Triglyph Productions"''' 
Triglyph = three (you-name-em) letters, like ABC, NBC, CBS, etc.

'''"Panaflex"'''[[Image:Panaflex.jpg|thumb|Panaflex 35mm Movie Camera|right]] 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panaflex Panaflex] was an innovative 35mm studio camera, made by Panavision, Inc. It's the world standard, used for everything from wide-screen epics to deodorant commercials. It makes a nice contrast with all the "underground" Arris and Auricons.

'''"The Bryant Gumbel Story"''' 
TV personality of the same generation as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brent_Musburger Brent Musburger]. Gumbel began as a sportscaster, then became a "Today Show" host, and is now doing sports on HBO.

==Page 356==
'''"...one slip of the tongue..."''' 
Arguably the worst joke in any of Pynchon's novels. Gross!

'''"How to get an Italian Woman Pregnant."''' 
Three versions of this joke:

:'''Q:''' How do you get an Italian woman pregnant? '''A:''' And they say the Italians are stupid!

:'''Q:''' How do you get an Italian woman pregnant? '''A:''' Fuck her.

:'''Q:''' How do you get an Italian woman pregnant? '''A:''' Come in her shoes and the flies will do the rest!

==Page 358==
'''"Starting with a small used trailer..."''' 
This brief flashback telling the story of Zoyd's house includes a typically Pynchon-esque fable about "prehistoric" (and mythical) 5/8-inch plumbing fittings.

'''"full scale kvetchathon"''' 
''kvetch'' = Yiddish for complaint. Hence, a kvetchathon is a marathon bitch session among Van Meter's legendarily bickering family.

'''"kit conversions"''' 
The parts required to convert legal, semi-automatic rifles to full (and illegal) automatic operation are often available in kit form. The kits themselves are not illegal, but they become illegal if installed in non-registered weapons.

==Page 359==
'''"Antinomian"''' 
One who holds that moral law is not binding on Christians. Therefore, as mentioned below, "They believe whatever they do, it's cool with Jesus..." Perhaps Antinomianism is the really extreme flavor of preterite and elect doctrine. So extreme, in fact, that in most circles it's a heresy.

'''"Mrs. Grundy"''' 
A character from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Morton_(playwright) Thomas Morton’s] play 'Speed the Plough' (1798). She is the personification of the tyranny of conventional propriety and is mentioned by various authors from Dickens to Joyce.

'''"motocross"''' 
A cycle race over rough terrain, often desert. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motocross Wikipedia]

'''"May your life be full of lawyers"''' 
Supposedly, the "heavy-dutiest" Mexican curse.

==Page 360==
'''Zoyd's lawyer's voice "suggested Saturday morning more than prime time"''' 
That is, it reminded one of a cartoon character. Lessee, would it be a Smurf or a chipmunk?

'''"What about 'innocent until proven guilty'?" "That was another planet, think they used to call it America, long time ago, before the gutting of the Fourth Amendment. You were automatically guilty the minute they found that marijuana growing on your land."''' 
Pynchon is obviously deeply pissed by this shit (as well he might be); it makes a powerful point in his argument that Big Brother and the Fascists have won. "Another planet" echoes the allegorical conversation between Zoyd and Vond on p. 300.

'''"Y-You mean...life isn't Vegas?"''' 
A very funny line, though (in context) rather ominous as well.

==Page 361==
'''"Musso and Frank's"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musso_%26_Frank_Grill Musso & Frank Grill] is a famous old-time Hollywood restaurant, established in 1919.

'''"the Grand Canyon"''' 
A lot of detail is packed into a few sentences. Looks like Pynchon has been there, too.

'''"Tex Wiener"''' 
Actor Tex Weiner was on ''General Hospital'' with Sally Kirkland. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Hospital ''General Hospital''] is the longest-running ABC Daytime American soap opera broadcast on the American Broadcasting Company television network

'''"...fooled once again by the uniform..."''' 
So Frenesi comes by her weakness for sadistic uniformed cops genetically, via Sasha? Or is this something about how opposites need and create each other?

'''"Weww -- it's oow rubbish i'n'i'?"''' 
Well, it's all rubbish, isn't it? Pynchon's fabulous ear again.

==Page 362==
'''"off the scale"''' 
Techno rap, meaning too great to measure, pins the meter, etc.

'''"Naugahyde"''' 
An artificial material designed to resemble leather, made from fabric coated with rubber or vinyl resin.

'''"red-and-gold-flocked"''' 
Flocking is powdered wool or cloth sprinkled onto material (here, wallpaper) producing a raised pattern.

'''"Did they scream?"''' 
A cheap, if effective, trick: Pynchon switches POV (narrators) in mid-scene, giving the tale to producer Sid, and twists the knife by making him playfully reluctant to part with details, so Zuniga has to beg.

'''"Too bad we can't use it."''' 
Christ! Have we been watching Zuniga's damn movie all this time? Directed by Frenesi???

'''"Kissing a young pale melon, under a golden pregnant lollapalooza of a moon."''' 
Sasha's dream is sweet and surreal, but it seems insufficiently motivated. Would she really forgive Frenesi so easily?

==Page 363==
'''"Holocaust Pixels.'''" 
Cool name for a rock band -- and another TV reference. ([[Chapter 12#Page_226|See note, p. 226.]])

Song: "Like a Meat Loaf." 
Great song! Also the Return of the Thanatoid Lunch Meat. Also an echo of Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues."

'''The Thanatoids are "acting rowdier than DL or Takeshi had ever seen them."''' 
The only reverberation of the big flap that sent the karmic adjustment duo racing off for Shade Creek in the last episode. The Happy Ending rolls on.

==Page 364==
'''"...just a couple o' clicks..."''' 
Clicks = kilometers.

'''"Bardo"''' 
Bardo is the after-death realm in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_book_of_the_dead ''Tibetan Book of the Dead'']. The trick is to avoid rebirth, but most people fuck up and let themselves be trapped in a new life. Weed tells of looking for a just-fertilized egg in which to be reborn, "seeking out men and women in the act of sex...in a...smoke-tarnished district of sex shows and porno theaters." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_Brothers The Mitchell Brothers] atmosphere is cute. In Tibet a lama keeps whispering the instructions in your dead ear so you don't make these little boo-boos ("couldn't find 'em, time ran out"). Pynchon implies that it's those with "too much still on [their minds]," i.e., unfinished business, that can't quite get permanently dead.

==Page 365==
'''"But what if I am the payback? If your account is zeroed out at last?"''' 
Weed's response to Prairie's offer is a little inconclusive, but note the zero.

'''"Thanatoids dream, though not always when we think we do--"''' 
Weed's dream is extremely powerful and the image is quite writerly. Is the coroner he's looking for "to reveal to the world at last my murder, my murderers" really Pynchon? Are the "companions" who keep trying to find this coroner the readers of Vineland? Faithful hippies? Those who refuse to buy the rewritten version of the Sixties? All of the above? Prairie says it's DL & Takeshi, Weed thinks maybe it's his parents. It might even be the Pisk sisters.

==Page 366==
'''"It was all for love... It was political... A rebel cop... The orders of a repressive regime..."''' 
Pynchon seems aware that his readers (the "companions") may be confused.

'''"Sometimes I think it could be my parents"''' 
Recall ([[Chapter_11#Page_206|page 206 notes]]) that Weed is based partly on Pynchon himself. ''Vineland's'' dedication is "For my mother and father". So this passage could be Pynchon speaking of or to his own parents.

'''"higher justice"''' 
God, karma, Karmic Adjusters, or Emersonism (cf. [[Chapter_15#Page_369|page 369]]), as opposed to the Department of Justice.

'''Prairie and Weed "soon to become an item"''' 
This is the real happy ending, suggesting that young kids may seek out the truth about the Sixties. (And not just the clothes!)

'''"Prairie would show him secrets of pachinko..."''' 
But how did she learn them? From DL? Pachinko is a Japanese gaming device used for amusement and prizes and is related to pinball machines. Although originally strictly mechanical, modern pachinko machines are a cross between a pinball machine and a video slot machine. Cf. [[Chapter_8#Page_122|page 122]].

==Page 367==
'''"the Traverse-Becker wingding"''' 
Nice image, suggesting the continuity of the Left although making it a picnic is surely some dark irony. (At least it's not a dinner party.)

'''"Octomaniacs"''' 
again, players of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_eights crazy eights].

'''"the Mother situation"''' 
Nice cinematic touch, superimposing Frenesi and the Mother of Doom (the Queen of Spades).

'''"with Sasha was a woman about forty, who had been a girl in a movie..."''' 
The reunion of Prairie and Frenesi, which has motivated Prairie, and haunted Frenesi, throughout most of the book, is tossed off distressingly quickly, but with at least this one great line.

'''"Commere lemme check those dimples, yes there, they are..."''' 
Sasha's agonizing grandma act is way out of character. We hope! Still, "it's her way of trying to help" ([[#Page 368|p. 368]]).

==Page 368==
You'd think Pynchon would devote a little more ink to the reunion of Frenesi and Prairie, but in fact Frenesi seems to be in the process of fading out here (much as Vond will do in a few pages).

==Page 369==
'''"pasta dishes and grilled tofu contributed by younger elements"''' 
Hello, Becker/Traverse yuppies!

'''"Secret retributions are always restoring the level..."''' 
This marvelous quote from Emerson is deeply optimistic, and goes a long way toward buying off the Happy Ending. Contrasts nicely with Lombroso's "misoneism," the negative feedback loop by which society resists change.

It also provides a counter to the Orwellian (in Pynchon's view) Department of Justice that sponsors Brock Vond and CAMP, as well as a counterpoint to the Eastern idea of karma.

'''"Ask Crocker 'Bud' Scantling"''' 
The Happy Ending continues, as we learn of Crocker 'Bud' Scantling's karmic payoff under the wheels of a chip truck.

==Page 370==
'''"Lux Unlimited"''' 
A lux is a unit of luminosity equal to 1 candela sterradian per square meter. Drop that into your next bar room argument. 

Lux is Latin for light. "Fiat Lux", or "Let there be light", is the motto of the University of California.

'''"Take care of your dead, or they'll take care of you."''' 
Confirmation of what the Thanatoids really are ([[#Page 325|see p. 325]]). Also a nice restatement of Santayana's famous quote about "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it (or retake the course)."

'''"Say, Jim"''' 
The title of this made-up half-hour sitcom (a black version of ''Star Trek'') is a reference both to Bones' habitual conversational opening to Captain James Kirk, and to Afro-American slang in which "Jim" is an all-purpose (and generally negative, being short for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws "Jim Crow"]) form of address. This is also another digital gag (white becoming black = zero becoming one).

It also reflects the cultural change in mass entertainment that happened between the sixties and the eighties.

'''"Zoyd and Flash went off looking for beer"''' 
Flash surfaces. No point, really, except for the overall reconciliation Pynchon is forcing on the book.

'''"Robert Musil"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Musil Robert Musil] was an Austrian novelist (1880-1942), whose Proustian style was marked by subtle psychological analysis. His works include ''Young Torless'' and ''The Man Without Qualities''.

''Young Torless'' mixes homoerotic sadism with philosophical discussions of imaginary numbers, so it is relevant to ''Against the Day''. ''The Man Without Qualities'' is a thinly disguised portrait of Walter Rathenau, who is invoked several times in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. So Pynchon is poking fun at himself.

==Page 371==
'''"...talking back to the tube..."''' 
The Beckers and Traverses are politically hip, shown by their talking back, and their suspicion that the "prefascist twilight" is really just "the light...coming from millions of Tubes all showing the same bright colored shadows..." TV as the true opiate of the masses -- or, as the NY commies used to say, "de messes."

==Page 372==
Zoyd feels sorry for Flash, the "unfortunate sucker" who's still with Frenesi; he sees "the need behind the desperado lamps" (eyes). Nice phrase, nice rendition of the healing power of time and distance, and a sweet way to take leave of Zoyd, who seems to have found some peaceful place to rest at least for the moment.

==Page 373==
'''"Minute the tube got hold of you folks, that was it..."''' 
The kid (who speaks for Pynchon, of course) is right. It's funny how so few of us saw the future, fought the Tube. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan McLuhan] was right too, but we only thought we knew what he was talking about.

'''"gold-handled chainsaw"''' 
Sheriff Willis Chunko's celebrated anti-pot weapon takes us full circle from/to Zoyd's ladylike purse-sized model in [[Chapter 1|Chapter 1]].

'''"monster Mopars dialed and eager"''' 
Mopar = the parts division of Chrysler Motors = (here) engines. Dialed = souped up. This is at least the second "dialed" reference in Vineland. It's hot-rod talk, and means more or less the same as the now old-fashioned "blue-printed." The dials refer to a machinist's dial indicators, used to bring once-stock engines into more-than-perfect condition and tune.

==Page 374==
'''"speeding after moonset"''' 
Like in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunder_Road ''Thunder Road''] [1958], the great [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mitchum Robert Mitchum] bootlegging thriller.

'''"quaquaversal beard"''' 
"Quaquaversal" is a geological term meaning "turned or pointing in every direction." It's a good description for a wiry beard.

'''"...go find [Vond] and cancel his series for him..."''' 
Another TV referent.

'''"found it easier now to make out...her own...face"''' 
Now that Prairie has met Frenesi she can see her own face more clearly in Zoyd's. That is, she's not Vond's daughter. More Happy Ending.

==Page 375==
'''"...down out of [the helicopter], hooked by harness and cable to the mother ship above, came Brock Vond..."''' Is Vond's deus ex machina appearance to Prairie a dream? It could be; she was asleep. Then again, "Brock, whom his colleagues were calling 'Death From Slightly Above,' had been out [practicing]." And remember the Madwoman In the Attic ([[Chapter 13#Page 274|p. 274]]).

Pynchon tells you it's not a dream: "The beat ... woke her" and on the next page "she came fully awake".

'''"Death From Slightly Above"''' 
"Mors Ab Alto" or "Death from Above" is the motto of the US 7th Strategic Bomber Wing ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7th_Bomb_Wing Wikipedia]). In the late 1960's and early 1970's they were famous for the "carpet bombing" of Vietnam. Brock Vond flies somewhat lower.

'''"Huey slicks"'''[[Image:UH-1.jpg|thumb|UH-1 Huey Slick|right]] 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UH-1_Iroquois UH-1 Iroquois helicopter] was first designated HU-1 (for "Helicopter, Utility" in backwards Army nomenclature) which led to its nickname "Huey". Although Hueys have been used in a wide variety of roles worldwide, they are closely associated with the Vietnam War, where they were heavily employed. The "slick" version of the Huey lacked external weapons pods, and was mainly used for evacuation and troop transport.

'''"more recaps on this subject than Mark C. Bloome"''' 
Bloome was the owner of a chain of popular tire stores in southern California, the Mark C. Bloome Tire Company.

'''"The original plan had been to go in..., come down vertical, grab her, and winch back up and out--"''' 
Why does Vond want to abduct Prairie? Lust? Pure evil? This is never adequately explained. There's a bit of chat in [[Chapter 14]] discussing Vond's interest in Prairie, but it's not developed any further.

==Page 376==
'''"The key is rapture."''' 
Earlier Vond explained the disappearance of the CotS students the same way. ([[Chapter 12#Page 248|See note, p. 248.]]) Also, it is Frenesi's rapture (or "frenzy") over being dominated that enables Vond to have his way with her.

The Rapture occurs along with the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Coming_of_Christ Second Coming of Christ], telegraphed to the Thanatoids on [[Chapter_15#Page_325|page 325]].

'''"Her tits, master--"''' 
Roscoe becomes Dwight Frye, Vampire Vond's Renfield. ("Rats, master, you promised me rats...")

'''Vond glows "unusually white."''' 
More evidence that he's a vampire. (A-and remember, he sleeps with his eyes open!)

Vampires, although deathly pale, don't glow white. They are afraid of light. But ''Angels'' ...

This is Vond's aura of invincibility, as seen on [[Chapter_13#Page_272|page 272]]. He has powered-up his primary weapon.

'''...can't be my father...Preparation H.'''[[Image:PreparationH.jpg|thumb|Preparation H|right]] 
She isn't Frenesi's clone, she has Zoyd's blood in her too. Vond paralyzes her for a second, but she can't be dominated as easily as Frenesi. In the Rapture, only believers are hoisted to heaven. Prairie doesn't believe in Vond's invincibility. And of course, Pynchon breaks the spell with another ass joke.

'''"Some white male far away must have wakened from a dream."''' 
Reagan? Meese? Nixon? The white male God of the Calvinists?

'''"Brock...now being winched back up..."''' 
Film running backward through the projector. The image is great, but there's something troublesome here. If the novel represents the real world (as we must assume it does, or it would be no more than an empty divertissement), what "real" event in 1984 informs Vond's withdrawal and defeat?

Here is a guess. Suppose REX 84 is taken to be a roundup of dissenters prior to a possible invasion of Nicaragua (cf. [[Chapter_15#Page_353|pg. 353 notes]]). It's late summer 1984 in the novel, so let's guess the Traverse-Becker picnic is always held on Labor Day, falling on September 3 in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984 1984]. On September 4, 1984 the Sandinista Front won the Nicaraguan election, considered fair by most international observers. An invasion was no longer possible.

==Page 377==
'''"Asshole, they're all together, one surgical strike..."''' 
Vond is ready to wipe out everyone Frenesi, Flash, Zoyd, Justin, maybe even Prairie just as (presumably) he wiped their computer files earlier.

'''"...[Vond] was gone, following his penis--"''' 
A reprise of the lyrics from "Like a Meat Loaf" ([[Chapter_15#Page 364|p. 364]]): "Well we followed our dicks just a couple o' clicks...")

'''Alexi appears in the clearing, carrying "an old acoustic guitar with Cyrillic stenciling on it, as if he'd been prepared to use it as a weapon."''' 
Like American political folkie [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Guthrie Woody Guthrie's] guitar, on which the folksinger wrote "This machine kills fascists."

'''"The Movie at Nine"''' 
Pynchon gets into a great male-folksy description of a basketball movie the most developed of any of his synthetic made-for-TV flicks. An elect white team (the Celtics) Vs. a preterite black team (the Lakers). Obviously Pynchon is a Lakers fan. It's a story of great courage, and it sets up Vato and Blood for their "rescue" of the newly Thanatoidized Vond. Vond's car disappears (the way thanatoid vehicles do), and we get a Yurok tale by Vato, implying that by coming to Vineland Brock got too close to the land of the dead (Shade Creek). Maybe that's what woke the Thanatoids up? But by then, V&B Tow is conducting Vond across the River Styxx.

For more on the political/sociological subtext of the Celtics-Lakers rivalry, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakers–Celtics_rivalry#Magic_and_Larry Wikipedia]. The game depicted is probably game 7 of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_NBA_Finals 1984 NBA Finals]. Since the game took place on June 12, Pynchon sticks to ''Vineland's'' themes and its late-summer timeline by including the game as a made-for-TV movie.

Pynchon uses Lakers games to anchor his timeline in [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Real_Time_and_Narrative_Time_in_Inherent_Vice ''Inherent Vice''].

==Page 378==
'''"Time to lock and load, Blood."''' 
Lock and load = ArmySpeak for "saddle up." Specifically, it means lock on the safety of your firearm and load a live round into the chamber, leaving the weapon armed and ready to fire but safe to carry. (The standard 'Nam response was "Cocked and locked!" meaning "Ready when you are.")

'''"It had been an unusual sort of car..."''' 
Vond's chopper turns into an (underpowered) car, which then disappears itself. Vond's power is fading out and he is too. Cool image, but same problem as above. Did Vond (that is, the totalitarian power freaks he fronts for) fade out in 1984? And if not, isn't it a cheat that he does so in the novel?

==Page 380==
'''"crankless"''' 
That is, without amphetamines.

==Page 381==
'''"...she and Takeshi finally renegotiated the no-sex clause..."''' 
Happy Ending continues. "Whooee!" says DL.

'''"a fractal halo of complications"''' 

Typical Pynchon light-and-color show -- and the second use of the "fractal" buzzword. (It occurs on [[#Page 323|page 323]], as well.) Are neural networks next?

==Page 382==
'''"an inkjet printer moved along the the meridians of his naked skin"''' 
Here, the Puncutron seems like Kafka's torture/execution machine from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_penal_colony ''In the Penal Colony''], but in reverse.

In acupuncture, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meridian_(Chinese_medicine) meridians] are channels in the body through which life-energy flows.

A template for instructing the "teen novices, all in white gi with trainee armbands" in acupuncture was being rendered unto Takeshi's body.

'''"an ivory fescue"''' 
Fescue = a teacher's pointer of high quality.

'''"When the Earth was still a paradise, long, long ago..."''' 
Sister Rochelle's allegory about Hell and Earth may explain a bit about Thanatoids, if you wish to read it that way.

Or perhaps an optimistic view of the end of the Cold War in the Third World, as seen by Pynchon in 1990.

==Page 383==
'''"faceless predators"''' 
This paragraph reads like Pynchon checked his outline, noticed two loose ends (the Kahuna hijack and the monster-stomped laboratory) and tied them up as quickly and crudely as possible. Sloppy work.

'''"despite every Karmic Adjustment resource brought to bear so far"''' 
This provides another motivation for DL & Takeshi's "business" venture.

'''"the night of no white diamonds or even chicken crank"''' 
Chicken crank = the speed Takeshi has been trying to score in the form of chicken feed. There are a number of other references to Takeshi's habitual speed use, not the least of which is his epic journey eastward to the SKA and Puncutron.

'''"the foreign magician and his blond tomato assistant"''' 
Takeshi and DL, of course.

==Page 384==
'''"Russian Johnny B. Goode"''' 
No happy-ending complete without Chuck Berry! Or does he mean "Back In the USSR?" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_B._Goode "Johnny B. Goode"] is a seminal 1958 rock and roll song by Chuck Berry, ranked by ''Rolling Stone'' as the seventh greatest song ever on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. [http://www.lyricsdepot.com/chuck-berry/johnny-b-goode.html Lyrics...] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ofD9t_sULM YouTube]

'''"You can come back...take me any place..."''' 
Prairie longs for Vond to come back and abuse her. It must be her genetic predilection for the uniform. Or, perhaps the desire to find out what was heavy enough to make her mom split. It's a bit sick, but maybe Pynchon knows his characters (and the human character) better than we do. ("Every woman adores a fascist / The boot in the face, the brute / Brute heart of a brute like you." "Daddy," [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_plath Sylvia Plath]) In any case, Pynchon "saves" it by having Desmond return. When it comes to preterite, what can out-pret a girl's dog?

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Chapter 15

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==Page 323==
'''"pasture... meadows"''' 
Traditionally [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinland Vinland] was translated as "wine-land", then in more recent times as "pasture-, meadow-land". This kinda seems like a "booyah" moment in the novel, as the first visions/possible version of the family reunion (see pages 232 & 246) have to do with an "impossible hillside" and a "wineland", whereas now when we begin the reality version, it is actually a "pasture-, meadow-land".

'''"Soon toasters and toaster ovens, wood fires, RV kitchen microwaves--just-made coffee"'''" 
This bit, as well as the bar-b-queing later in the chapter, is a signature Pynchon passage; in spite of all the chaos and conflict in whichever book, humanity is anchored by big, communal feeds. See the infamous Banana Breakfast in "Gravity's Rainbow", the State Picnic (p. 1047) in "Against the Day." It's a great opportunity for Pynchon to make his lists, and while some critics have complained that his characters lack humanity, these picnics/parties are usually so evocative and warm it extends to and encompasses the individuals involved.

'''"branching invisible fractals of smell"'''[[Image:Fractal.png|thumb|Julia Set, a Fractal|right]] 
The fractal is a fairly recent (and fashionable) mathematical concept. The property that makes a thing fractal is that it looks the same at any scale -- self-similarity over scale. For this to be true, the fractal object must be made of pieces that look like tiny versions of the whole, and these pieces must be made of similar looking, littler pieces...on to infinity. (The notion of "complications that might go on forever," [[#Page 381|p. 381]], is very Pynchonesque.) Computer graphics programs based on this principle can create complexities that increase as long as you care to wait. Pynchon's use of "fractal" here draws a great word-picture of crinkly, cartoon-like aroma waves tickling noses of all sizes. He's obviously been keeping up with his reading. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractals Wikipedia on Fractals...]

'''"Los Sombras"''' 
Spanish for "the shadows." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_shadows The Shadows] were an early-60s/pre-FabFour British instrumental quartet who were also the backing group for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Richard Cliff Richard]. They are apparently still working to this day.

==Page 324==
'''"Octomaniacs"''' 
players of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_eights crazy eights] card game.

'''"...portable TV sets bootlegged onto the cable..."''' 
Even the leftist/purist Traverse/Beckers are addicted to the Tube. Maybe that's how come they let Vond and his fascists take over.

==Page 325==
'''"Tokkata & Fuji"''' 
A pun on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toccata_and_Fugue_in_D_minor%2C_BWV_565 Toccata and Fugue]. Toccata (from Italian toccare, "to touch") is a virtuoso piece of classical music for a keyboard instrument or plucked string instrument featuring sections of virtuosic passagework, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer. A fugue is a type of contrapuntal composition or technique of composition for a fixed number of parts, normally referred to as "voices", irrespective of whether the work is vocal or instrumental.

'''"Bach's 'Wachet Auf'... one of the best tunes ever to come out of Europe"''' 
It's Resurrection Day! And weirdly enough, this does wake up the Thanatoids. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wachet_auf'' Wachet Auf''] (German: "Sleepers Awake") is a cantata written in 1731 by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach Johann Sebastian Bach].

The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Ten_Virgins associated Biblical text] refers not to Resurrection Day, but to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Coming_of_Christ Second Coming of Christ], i.e. the day of reckoning or Last Judgement. This is the final chapter of ''Vineland''.

'''"What was a Thanatoid, at the end of the long dread day, but memory?"''' 
The answer at last. Sort of.

Possibly trapped in the memories of what "could have been"?

'''"timing adapted to the rigors of a disco percussion track"''' 
Listen to a cheesy electronic rendition of "Wachet Auf" on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msNi7Rj0WnQ YouTube].

'''"able to make the bluest Thanatoid believe, however briefly, in resurrection, they woke, the Thanatoids woke"''' 

It seems that this is where the "possibility of the future" and "memory" collide into reality, which brings Weed's death as the focal point? Is it now that Weed (once one of their own) and his death has atoned the Thanatoids? Now that the "real" reunion has begun in real space-time? See pgs 246 & 232-233. What if we see Rex and Weed's dialogue on 232-233 as some celluloid, Tubal alternate version of what "could have happened"? Possibly a dream that Prairie had after hearing the facts and seeing the 24fps films? A dream that somehow these "sleepers" had access to???? But once the dream is "over" (reality happens) they can awake? My mind just exploded.

'''"the peculiar band between 6200 and 7000 KHZ"''' 
Why peculiar? The FCC has designated the frequencies 6200-7000 KHz for "various fixed and mobile services; maritime and aeronautical." Pirate radio (unlicensed broadcasting of FM radio, AM radio, or shortwave signals over a significant coverage area that could be picked up by listeners. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio]) broadcasts between the shortwave frequencies of 6300 and 7000 KHZ. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio_in_North_America Wikipedia]:
:In the USA pirate radio is frequently, but not always associated with anarchism which considers governmental spectrum regulatory schemes as favoring the interests of large corporations. Therefore, some anarchists consider pirate radio transmissions to be a challenge to that authority.

'''"false cities of gold"''' 
Pynchon playfully compares these mythical malls to the seven cities of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quivira_and_Cíbola Cibola], which kept [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_V%C3%A1squez_de_Coronado Coronado] on the run so long.

==Page 326==
'''"The Noir Center Mall"''' 
The shops are puns on famous [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_noir film noir] titles: "Bubble Indemnity" = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Indemnity_(film) ''Double Indemnity'']; "Lounge Good Buy" = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Goodbye_(film) ''The Long Goodbye'']; "Mall Tease Flacon" = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maltese_Falcon_(1941_film) ''The Maltese Falcon'']; "The Lady 'n' the Lox" = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_in_the_lake ''Lady In the Lake''].

[[Image:BradburyBuilding.jpg|thumb|Inside the Bradbury Building|right]]'''"Bradbury Building"''' 
In addition to film noir, the famous [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradbury_building Bradbury Building] appears in the cyberpunk film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner ''Blade Runner''] and is mentioned in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_735-760#Page_752 ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. Built in 1893, the building, which contains a central courtyard with skylight, indeed resembles a shopping mall, although it's actually still an office building.

==Page 327==
'''"Che, you're rilly evil"''' 
The relationship between Prairie and Che echoes that of Frenesi and DL.

'''"Brent Musberger"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brent_Musburger Brent Musburger] (b. 1939) (the name is misspelled in ''Vineland'') is a TV sportscaster, most famous throughout the 1970s and '80s as the face and voice of CBS Sports. His signature phrase was "YOU are looking LIVE!!! at...(insert city or venue name here)" This was always delivered with maximum enthusiasm, no matter the event. When CBS let him go it created something of a media splash; he quickly resurfaced at ABC. He relates to the next line, and Pynchon's theme about people who are observers rather than makers of reality.

==Page 328==
'''"Maybellene"''' 
What's the joke here? Maybelline eye makeup? Or the chase element in [http://www.chuckberry.com/ Chuck Berry's] song? Probably all of the above, plus a Pynchonian takeoff on Muzak (the "oboe-and-string rendition.") Although a good rockin' tune, Berry's "Maybellene" doesn't have much of a melody, so the idea of an instrumental version, particularly for oboe and strings, seems absurd. See also "New Age mindbarf" on [[#Page 330|p. 330]]. [ [http://www.chuckberry.com/music/lyrics/maybellene.htm Lyrics to ''Maybellene''...] ]

==Page 329==
'''"agoramania"''' 
shopping frenzy.

From what I can find, it means a mania or craving for public/open spaces.

'''"some with runny noses..."''' 
Another "hidden poem."

==Page 330==
'''"New Age mindbarf"''' 
Pynchon's opinion of the New Age Movement which trended toward the spiritual, the organic and the Politically Correct, and spawned mostly trite philosophies and trite music.

==Page 331==
'''"Times she liked to flirt, times she was out to hurt,..."''' 
Minipoem.

==Page 332==
'''"It's like they's programmed for it or somethin'"''' 
Fleur's comment on why gentlemen prefer black and red underwear on "bad girls" is reminiscent of Pirate Prentiss' involuntary, ejaculatory response to a certain photo, delivered to him via V2, in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

'''"Night and Blood"''' 
Echoes of Katje and Pudding in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_226-236#Page_232 ''Gravity's Rainbow'' - p.232-233]: "She waits for him...white body and black uniform-of-the-night.... Lipstick...prevails like blood.... She is naked now, except for a long sable cape and black boots with court heels. Her only jewelry is a silver ring with an artificial ruby...an arrogant gout of blood..."

==Page 333==
'''"Inpo mode"''' 
Inpo is the Ninjitsu Art of Hiding.

'''"Juvenile Hall badasses"''' 
More badasses.

'''"conical black heaps smoked, glowed, flared here and there into visible fire"''' 
The scene in which Vond burns the 24fps footage is quite horrible -- and extremely important. By destroying 24fps' records of the Sixties, he clears the way for his rewritten fascist version. With no evidence to prove him wrong, who would dare to argue with "official" history?

==Page 334==
'''"a restored Vicky"''' 
Victorian house. The San Francisco Bay Area and surrounding areas has many Victorian-era homes.

'''"not only dropping but also picking up, dribbling and scoring three-pointers..."''' 
Total basketball metaphor for Hector's name dropping.

==Page 337==
'''"Miraculous Medal"''' 
The Miraculous Medal makes an appearance in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=M#miraculous-medal ''Gravity's Rainbow''] and in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Miraculous_Medal ''V.'']

'''"Ernie Triggerman, and his partner, Sid Liftoff"''' 
More cool names.

These are probably a parody of James Nicholson and Samuel Arkoff, founders of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_International_Pictures American International Pictures], which produced teen-oriented low-budget movies throughout the 1950's, 60's and 70's.

'''"bizcochos"''' 
Spanish for "biscuits, cookies."

'''"lizard-skin etui"''' 
Etui = a four letter word made of odd letters, therefore useful to crossword constructors, and meaning "small case." Pynchon does crossword puzzles? Maybe he just loves words.

==Page 338==
'''"arranged for Sid to work off the beef...[by making] an antidrug movie..."''' 
This plea-bargain echoes a real deal cut by ''Godfather'' producer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Evans_%28film_producer%29 Robert Evans] to avoid doing hard time on a cocaine bust. Evans made several anti-drug spots for TV, as promised, but apparently (according to subsequent courtroom testimony) he kept on using the stuff anyway.

'''1811's''' 
Federal civil service code for a criminal investigator.

'''"Roy Ibble"''' 
Yet another cool name.

==Page 339==
'''"sudden monster surge of toilet flushing...and...cold air"''' 
A new Pynchonian fable: Dope paranoia results in Hollywood fog bank.

'''"when he saw the screen go blank... 'From now on, I'm watching you.'"''' 
This section - which carries over to pg. 340 - screams of Big Brother and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four George Orwell's ''1984''], which we are again reminded in this section, is the current year in the novel. Cf. [[Chapter_15#Page_353|page 353]]

==Page 340==
'''"Larry Talbot"''' 
[http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0002574/ Lawrence Talbot], played by Lon Chaney Jr., was the cursed man who changed into the Wolfman in the Universal Studios Wolfman films of the 1940s.

'''"childhood religion... Soto Zen"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soto_Zen Soto Zen] is one of two major Zen Buddhist traditions in Japan. It emphasizes daily practice of meditative "wall-gazing".

==Page 341==

'''"but the warmer temperature brings out more of the flavor, don't you think."''' 

Pretty funny since Bud Light is like one of the most unflavorful beers of all time. Yes, a lot of complex beers (esp. darker beers, Belgian beers, etc.) are better enjoyed at warmer temps, but definitely not Bud Light!

==Page 342==
'''"Sounds real natural to me."''' 
A math joke. 2.71828 is "e," the root of the series of "natural" logarithms.

'''"43'd"''' 
half of 86'd. (See "octogenarihexation" on [[Chapter 9#Page 186|p. 186]].) Being 43'd is like being a little pregnant.

==Page 343==
'''Song: "Es Posible."''' 
Music-biz schtick at the end makes it even funnier. Also hilarious: the pre-Castro Cuban theme park, Holiday For Fascists.

==Page 344==
'''"board fading"''' 
fading slowly and smoothly, as if via a volume slider on a recording studio control board.

==Page 345==
'''"Tubal fantasies...pushing their propaganda message that cops-are-only-human...turning agents of government repression into sympathetic heroes. Nobody thought it was peculiar anymore, no more than the routine violations of constitutional rights...now absorbed into...American expectations."''' 
Good points, all, but isn't it a bit out of character for Frenesi the Betrayer, the biggest cop lover in the novel, to be fronting these thoughts for Pynchon? What's happening here, we think, is that Pynchon is starting to set up Frenesi for her rehabilitation as part of the big Happy Ending.

==Page 346==
'''"the Meese Police"''' 
Reagan's DOJ (Department of Justice) head, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Meese Edwin Meese].

==Page 347==
'''"Mad Dog Vond"''' 
Echoes [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey_Bogart Humphrey Bogart] as Mad Dog Roy Earle in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Sierra_%28film%29 ''High Sierra'']. But Vond really is crazy.

'''"Since '81, kids were coming in all on their own askin about careers..."''' 
Too true, too sad, and it undercuts the Happy Ending rather seriously (at least as a pointer to the real world.)

==Page 348==
'''"in the movie of his life story"''' 
A not-quite-made-up film.

==Page 349==
'''Vond is "waitin' for somethin'."''' 
OK, but what? Reluctantly we must point out that none of Pynchon's many explanations bear close examination. (See footnote to the plot synopsis, Chapter 4.)

Cf. [[Chapter_15#Page_353|page 353]] for a possible explanation of what Vond is waiting for.

==Page 350==
'''"Perez Prado"''' 
Cuban bandleader, "King of the Mambo."

'''"the pink slip to his heart"''' 
A pink slip is a title of ownership for a car. Before the days of automobile titles, the portion of a California car registration that conveyed ownership was colored pink. Hence the brag in the Beach Boys' "Little Deuce Coupe" about "I got the pink slip, daddy!" (meaning, "I'm holding the paperwork required to stake the LDC on a streetlight drag race, so whatchu waitin' for, dude?")

==Page 351==
'''"Pretend there's a frame around [your parents], pretend they're a show you're watching..."''' 
Once again, TV is America's common reference point.

'''"'Uh-oh,' said Frenesi."''' 
Frenesi refuses to cross the airport picket line. This is a bit on the too-little-too-late side for a professional class-traitor, but it's also quite believable.

==Page 352==
[[Image:ThreeStooges.jpg|thumb|The Three Stooges|right]]'''"the bowl haircut, etc."''' 
Another reference to The Three Stooges ... Moe's bowl haircut. Cf. [[Chapter_9#Page_149|page 149]]

'''"all 'em deeply personal li'l ones and zeros got changed to somebody else's"''' 
Roy Ibble, Flash's former handler, explains the computer file deletions, and carries on Pynchon's binary metaphor.

==Page 353==
'''"Please, no more..."''' 
Ibble crumbles in the face of Flash's anger. This is the only the first in a series of auspicious (but highly improbable) turns of the plot. The Hollywood Happy Ending is beginning.

'''"REX-84"''' 
Short for Reagan's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_84 Readiness Exercise 1984], a plan by the United States federal government to test their ability to detain large numbers of American citizens in case of massive civil unrest or national emergency.

Applying "paranoid logic" to the information in the above-mentioned Wikipedia article, let us suppose that Oliver North, one of the designers of the REX 84 readiness exercise, intended that it be used, exercise in name only, in conjunction with a US invasion of Nicaragua to oust the Sandinista government, which he opposed in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Contra Iran-Contra Affair]. This corresponds with DL's prediction on page 264-265 and Hector's intuition on page 339-340. Furthermore, let's pretend that REX 84 takes place at the time described in the novel, late summer of 1984, instead of the spring of 1984, as Wikipedia states. This will go a long way in explaining some of the action in the 1984 parts of the novel.

==Page 354==
'''"...Midol America..."''' 
Another low Pynchon pun ("middle-America") referring to the popular brand of menstrual medicine.

'''"...the destined losers whose only redemption would have to come through their usefulness to the State law-enforcement apparatus, which was calling itself 'America,' though somebody must have known better."''' 
This describes Frenesi and Flash, though it could also describe the larger preterite population of the novel. "...law enforcement apparatus...calling itself America..." underscores Pynchon's cold fury at the process via which Frenesi/America falls for the lies of the fascists.

==Page 355==
'''"Triglyph Productions"''' 
Triglyph = three (you-name-em) letters, like ABC, NBC, CBS, etc.

'''"Panaflex"'''[[Image:Panaflex.jpg|thumb|Panaflex 35mm Movie Camera|right]] 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panaflex Panaflex] was an innovative 35mm studio camera, made by Panavision, Inc. It's the world standard, used for everything from wide-screen epics to deodorant commercials. It makes a nice contrast with all the "underground" Arris and Auricons.

'''"The Bryant Gumbel Story"''' 
TV personality of the same generation as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brent_Musburger Brent Musburger]. Gumbel began as a sportscaster, then became a "Today Show" host, and is now doing sports on HBO.

==Page 356==
'''"...one slip of the tongue..."''' 
Arguably the worst joke in any of Pynchon's novels. Gross!

'''"How to get an Italian Woman Pregnant."''' 
Three versions of this joke:

:'''Q:''' How do you get an Italian woman pregnant? '''A:''' And they say the Italians are stupid!

:'''Q:''' How do you get an Italian woman pregnant? '''A:''' Fuck her.

:'''Q:''' How do you get an Italian woman pregnant? '''A:''' Come in her shoes and the flies will do the rest!

==Page 358==
'''"Starting with a small used trailer..."''' 
This brief flashback telling the story of Zoyd's house includes a typically Pynchon-esque fable about "prehistoric" (and mythical) 5/8-inch plumbing fittings.

'''"full scale kvetchathon"''' 
''kvetch'' = Yiddish for complaint. Hence, a kvetchathon is a marathon bitch session among Van Meter's legendarily bickering family.

'''"kit conversions"''' 
The parts required to convert legal, semi-automatic rifles to full (and illegal) automatic operation are often available in kit form. The kits themselves are not illegal, but they become illegal if installed in non-registered weapons.

==Page 359==
'''"Antinomian"''' 
One who holds that moral law is not binding on Christians. Therefore, as mentioned below, "They believe whatever they do, it's cool with Jesus..." Perhaps Antinomianism is the really extreme flavor of preterite and elect doctrine. So extreme, in fact, that in most circles it's a heresy.

'''"Mrs. Grundy"''' 
A character from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Morton_(playwright) Thomas Morton’s] play 'Speed the Plough' (1798). She is the personification of the tyranny of conventional propriety and is mentioned by various authors from Dickens to Joyce.

'''"motocross"''' 
A cycle race over rough terrain, often desert. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motocross Wikipedia]

'''"May your life be full of lawyers"''' 
Supposedly, the "heavy-dutiest" Mexican curse.

==Page 360==
'''Zoyd's lawyer's voice "suggested Saturday morning more than prime time"''' 
That is, it reminded one of a cartoon character. Lessee, would it be a Smurf or a chipmunk?

'''"What about 'innocent until proven guilty'?" "That was another planet, think they used to call it America, long time ago, before the gutting of the Fourth Amendment. You were automatically guilty the minute they found that marijuana growing on your land."''' 
Pynchon is obviously deeply pissed by this shit (as well he might be); it makes a powerful point in his argument that Big Brother and the Fascists have won. "Another planet" echoes the allegorical conversation between Zoyd and Vond on p. 300.

'''"Y-You mean...life isn't Vegas?"''' 
A very funny line, though (in context) rather ominous as well.

==Page 361==
'''"Musso and Frank's"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musso_%26_Frank_Grill Musso & Frank Grill] is a famous old-time Hollywood restaurant, established in 1919.

'''"the Grand Canyon"''' 
A lot of detail is packed into a few sentences. Looks like Pynchon has been there, too.

'''"Tex Wiener"''' 
Actor Tex Weiner was on ''General Hospital'' with Sally Kirkland. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Hospital ''General Hospital''] is the longest-running ABC Daytime American soap opera broadcast on the American Broadcasting Company television network

'''"...fooled once again by the uniform..."''' 
So Frenesi comes by her weakness for sadistic uniformed cops genetically, via Sasha? Or is this something about how opposites need and create each other?

'''"Weww -- it's oow rubbish i'n'i'?"''' 
Well, it's all rubbish, isn't it? Pynchon's fabulous ear again.

==Page 362==
'''"off the scale"''' 
Techno rap, meaning too great to measure, pins the meter, etc.

'''"Naugahyde"''' 
An artificial material designed to resemble leather, made from fabric coated with rubber or vinyl resin.

'''"red-and-gold-flocked"''' 
Flocking is powdered wool or cloth sprinkled onto material (here, wallpaper) producing a raised pattern.

'''"Did they scream?"''' 
A cheap, if effective, trick: Pynchon switches POV (narrators) in mid-scene, giving the tale to producer Sid, and twists the knife by making him playfully reluctant to part with details, so Zuniga has to beg.

'''"Too bad we can't use it."''' 
Christ! Have we been watching Zuniga's damn movie all this time? Directed by Frenesi???

'''"Kissing a young pale melon, under a golden pregnant lollapalooza of a moon."''' 
Sasha's dream is sweet and surreal, but it seems insufficiently motivated. Would she really forgive Frenesi so easily?

==Page 363==
'''"Holocaust Pixels.'''" 
Cool name for a rock band -- and another TV reference. ([[Chapter 12#Page_226|See note, p. 226.]])

Song: "Like a Meat Loaf." 
Great song! Also the Return of the Thanatoid Lunch Meat. Also an echo of Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues."

'''The Thanatoids are "acting rowdier than DL or Takeshi had ever seen them."''' 
The only reverberation of the big flap that sent the karmic adjustment duo racing off for Shade Creek in the last episode. The Happy Ending rolls on.

==Page 364==
'''"...just a couple o' clicks..."''' 
Clicks = kilometers.

'''"Bardo"''' 
Bardo is the after-death realm in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_book_of_the_dead ''Tibetan Book of the Dead'']. The trick is to avoid rebirth, but most people fuck up and let themselves be trapped in a new life. Weed tells of looking for a just-fertilized egg in which to be reborn, "seeking out men and women in the act of sex...in a...smoke-tarnished district of sex shows and porno theaters." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_Brothers The Mitchell Brothers] atmosphere is cute. In Tibet a lama keeps whispering the instructions in your dead ear so you don't make these little boo-boos ("couldn't find 'em, time ran out"). Pynchon implies that it's those with "too much still on [their minds]," i.e., unfinished business, that can't quite get permanently dead.

==Page 365==
'''"But what if I am the payback? If your account is zeroed out at last?"''' 
Weed's response to Prairie's offer is a little inconclusive, but note the zero.

'''"Thanatoids dream, though not always when we think we do--"''' 
Weed's dream is extremely powerful and the image is quite writerly. Is the coroner he's looking for "to reveal to the world at last my murder, my murderers" really Pynchon? Are the "companions" who keep trying to find this coroner the readers of Vineland? Faithful hippies? Those who refuse to buy the rewritten version of the Sixties? All of the above? Prairie says it's DL & Takeshi, Weed thinks maybe it's his parents. It might even be the Pisk sisters.

==Page 366==
'''"It was all for love... It was political... A rebel cop... The orders of a repressive regime..."''' 
Pynchon seems aware that his readers (the "companions") may be confused.

'''"Sometimes I think it could be my parents"''' 
Recall ([[Chapter_11#Page_206|page 206 notes]]) that Weed is based partly on Pynchon himself. ''Vineland's'' dedication is "For my mother and father". So this passage could be Pynchon speaking of or to his own parents.

'''"higher justice"''' 
God, karma, Karmic Adjusters, or Emersonism (cf. [[Chapter_15#Page_369|page 369]]), as opposed to the Department of Justice.

'''Prairie and Weed "soon to become an item"''' 
This is the real happy ending, suggesting that young kids may seek out the truth about the Sixties. (And not just the clothes!)

'''"Prairie would show him secrets of pachinko..."''' 
But how did she learn them? From DL? Pachinko is a Japanese gaming device used for amusement and prizes and is related to pinball machines. Although originally strictly mechanical, modern pachinko machines are a cross between a pinball machine and a video slot machine. Cf. [[Chapter_8#Page_122|page 122]].

==Page 367==
'''"the Traverse-Becker wingding"''' 
Nice image, suggesting the continuity of the Left although making it a picnic is surely some dark irony. (At least it's not a dinner party.)

'''"Octomaniacs"''' 
again, players of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_eights crazy eights].

'''"the Mother situation"''' 
Nice cinematic touch, superimposing Frenesi and the Mother of Doom (the Queen of Spades).

'''"with Sasha was a woman about forty, who had been a girl in a movie..."''' 
The reunion of Prairie and Frenesi, which has motivated Prairie, and haunted Frenesi, throughout most of the book, is tossed off distressingly quickly, but with at least this one great line.

'''"Commere lemme check those dimples, yes there, they are..."''' 
Sasha's agonizing grandma act is way out of character. We hope! Still, "it's her way of trying to help" ([[#Page 368|p. 368]]).

==Page 368==
You'd think Pynchon would devote a little more ink to the reunion of Frenesi and Prairie, but in fact Frenesi seems to be in the process of fading out here (much as Vond will do in a few pages).

==Page 369==
'''"pasta dishes and grilled tofu contributed by younger elements"''' 
Hello, Becker/Traverse yuppies!

'''"Secret retributions are always restoring the level..."''' 
This marvelous quote from Emerson is deeply optimistic, and goes a long way toward buying off the Happy Ending. Contrasts nicely with Lombroso's "misoneism," the negative feedback loop by which society resists change.

It also provides a counter to the Orwellian (in Pynchon's view) Department of Justice that sponsors Brock Vond and CAMP, as well as a counterpoint to the Eastern idea of karma.

'''"Ask Crocker 'Bud' Scantling"''' 
The Happy Ending continues, as we learn of Crocker 'Bud' Scantling's karmic payoff under the wheels of a chip truck.

==Page 370==
'''"Lux Unlimited"''' 
A lux is a unit of luminosity equal to 1 candela sterradian per square meter. Drop that into your next bar room argument. 

Lux is Latin for light. "Fiat Lux", or "Let there be light", is the motto of the University of California.

'''"Take care of your dead, or they'll take care of you."''' 
Confirmation of what the Thanatoids really are ([[#Page 325|see p. 325]]). Also a nice restatement of Santayana's famous quote about "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it (or retake the course)."

'''"Say, Jim"''' 
The title of this made-up half-hour sitcom (a black version of ''Star Trek'') is a reference both to Bones' habitual conversational opening to Captain James Kirk, and to Afro-American slang in which "Jim" is an all-purpose (and generally negative, being short for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws "Jim Crow"]) form of address. This is also another digital gag (white becoming black = zero becoming one).

It also reflects the cultural change in mass entertainment that happened between the sixties and the eighties.

'''"Zoyd and Flash went off looking for beer"''' 
Flash surfaces. No point, really, except for the overall reconciliation Pynchon is forcing on the book.

'''"Robert Musil"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Musil Robert Musil] was an Austrian novelist (1880-1942), whose Proustian style was marked by subtle psychological analysis. His works include ''Young Torless'' and ''The Man Without Qualities''.

''Young Torless'' mixes homoerotic sadism with philosophical discussions of imaginary numbers, so it is relevant to ''Against the Day''. ''The Man Without Qualities'' is a thinly disguised portrait of Walter Rathenau, who is invoked several times in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. So Pynchon is poking fun at himself.

==Page 371==
'''"...talking back to the tube..."''' 
The Beckers and Traverses are politically hip, shown by their talking back, and their suspicion that the "prefascist twilight" is really just "the light...coming from millions of Tubes all showing the same bright colored shadows..." TV as the true opiate of the masses -- or, as the NY commies used to say, "de messes."

==Page 372==
Zoyd feels sorry for Flash, the "unfortunate sucker" who's still with Frenesi; he sees "the need behind the desperado lamps" (eyes). Nice phrase, nice rendition of the healing power of time and distance, and a sweet way to take leave of Zoyd, who seems to have found some peaceful place to rest at least for the moment.

==Page 373==
'''"Minute the tube got hold of you folks, that was it..."''' 
The kid (who speaks for Pynchon, of course) is right. It's funny how so few of us saw the future, fought the Tube. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan McLuhan] was right too, but we only thought we knew what he was talking about.

'''"gold-handled chainsaw"''' 
Sheriff Willis Chunko's celebrated anti-pot weapon takes us full circle from/to Zoyd's ladylike purse-sized model in [[Chapter 1|Chapter 1]].

'''"monster Mopars dialed and eager"''' 
Mopar = the parts division of Chrysler Motors = (here) engines. Dialed = souped up. This is at least the second "dialed" reference in Vineland. It's hot-rod talk, and means more or less the same as the now old-fashioned "blue-printed." The dials refer to a machinist's dial indicators, used to bring once-stock engines into more-than-perfect condition and tune.

==Page 374==
'''"speeding after moonset"''' 
Like in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunder_Road ''Thunder Road''] [1958], the great [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mitchum Robert Mitchum] bootlegging thriller.

'''"quaquaversal beard"''' 
"Quaquaversal" is a geological term meaning "turned or pointing in every direction." It's a good description for a wiry beard.

'''"...go find [Vond] and cancel his series for him..."''' 
Another TV referent.

'''"found it easier now to make out...her own...face"''' 
Now that Prairie has met Frenesi she can see her own face more clearly in Zoyd's. That is, she's not Vond's daughter. More Happy Ending.

==Page 375==
'''"...down out of [the helicopter], hooked by harness and cable to the mother ship above, came Brock Vond..."''' Is Vond's deus ex machina appearance to Prairie a dream? It could be; she was asleep. Then again, "Brock, whom his colleagues were calling 'Death From Slightly Above,' had been out [practicing]." And remember the Madwoman In the Attic ([[Chapter 13#Page 274|p. 274]]).

Pynchon tells you it's not a dream: "The beat ... woke her" and on the next page "she came fully awake".

'''"Death From Slightly Above"''' 
"Mors Ab Alto" or "Death from Above" is the motto of the US 7th Strategic Bomber Wing ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7th_Bomb_Wing Wikipedia]). In the late 1960's and early 1970's they were famous for the "carpet bombing" of Vietnam. Brock Vond flies somewhat lower.

'''"Huey slicks"'''[[Image:UH-1.jpg|thumb|UH-1 Huey Slick|right]] 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UH-1_Iroquois UH-1 Iroquois helicopter] was first designated HU-1 (for "Helicopter, Utility" in backwards Army nomenclature) which led to its nickname "Huey". Although Hueys have been used in a wide variety of roles worldwide, they are closely associated with the Vietnam War, where they were heavily employed. The "slick" version of the Huey lacked external weapons pods, and was mainly used for evacuation and troop transport.

'''"more recaps on this subject than Mark C. Bloome"''' 
Bloome was the owner of a chain of popular tire stores in southern California, the Mark C. Bloome Tire Company.

'''"The original plan had been to go in..., come down vertical, grab her, and winch back up and out--"''' 
Why does Vond want to abduct Prairie? Lust? Pure evil? This is never adequately explained. There's a bit of chat in [[Chapter 14]] discussing Vond's interest in Prairie, but it's not developed any further.

==Page 376==
'''"The key is rapture."''' 
Earlier Vond explained the disappearance of the CotS students the same way. ([[Chapter 12#Page 248|See note, p. 248.]]) Also, it is Frenesi's rapture (or "frenzy") over being dominated that enables Vond to have his way with her.

The Rapture occurs along with the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Coming_of_Christ Second Coming of Christ], telegraphed to the Thanatoids on [[Chapter_15#Page_325|page 325]].

'''"Her tits, master--"''' 
Roscoe becomes Dwight Frye, Vampire Vond's Renfield. ("Rats, master, you promised me rats...")

'''Vond glows "unusually white."''' 
More evidence that he's a vampire. (A-and remember, he sleeps with his eyes open!)

Vampires, although deathly pale, don't glow white. They are afraid of light. But ''Angels'' ...

This is Vond's aura of invincibility, as seen on [[Chapter_13#Page_272|page 272]]. He has powered-up his primary weapon.

'''...can't be my father...Preparation H.'''[[Image:PreparationH.jpg|thumb|Preparation H|right]] 
She isn't Frenesi's clone, she has Zoyd's blood in her too. Vond paralyzes her for a second, but she can't be dominated as easily as Frenesi. In the Rapture, only believers are hoisted to heaven. Prairie doesn't believe in Vond's invincibility. And of course, Pynchon breaks the spell with another ass joke.

'''"Some white male far away must have wakened from a dream."''' 
Reagan? Meese? Nixon? The white male God of the Calvinists?

'''"Brock...now being winched back up..."''' 
Film running backward through the projector. The image is great, but there's something troublesome here. If the novel represents the real world (as we must assume it does, or it would be no more than an empty divertissement), what "real" event in 1984 informs Vond's withdrawal and defeat?

Here is a guess. Suppose REX 84 is taken to be a roundup of dissenters prior to a possible invasion of Nicaragua (cf. [[Chapter_15#Page_353|pg. 353 notes]]). It's late summer 1984 in the novel, so let's guess the Traverse-Becker picnic is always held on Labor Day, falling on September 3 in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984 1984]. On September 4, 1984 the Sandinista Front won the Nicaraguan election, considered fair by most international observers. An invasion was no longer possible.

==Page 377==
'''"Asshole, they're all together, one surgical strike..."''' 
Vond is ready to wipe out everyone Frenesi, Flash, Zoyd, Justin, maybe even Prairie just as (presumably) he wiped their computer files earlier.

'''"...[Vond] was gone, following his penis--"''' 
A reprise of the lyrics from "Like a Meat Loaf" ([[Chapter_15#Page 364|p. 364]]): "Well we followed our dicks just a couple o' clicks...")

'''Alexi appears in the clearing, carrying "an old acoustic guitar with Cyrillic stenciling on it, as if he'd been prepared to use it as a weapon."''' 
Like American political folkie [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Guthrie Woody Guthrie's] guitar, on which the folksinger wrote "This machine kills fascists."

'''"The Movie at Nine"''' 
Pynchon gets into a great male-folksy description of a basketball movie the most developed of any of his synthetic made-for-TV flicks. An elect white team (the Celtics) Vs. a preterite black team (the Lakers). Obviously Pynchon is a Lakers fan. It's a story of great courage, and it sets up Vato and Blood for their "rescue" of the newly Thanatoidized Vond. Vond's car disappears (the way thanatoid vehicles do), and we get a Yurok tale by Vato, implying that by coming to Vineland Brock got too close to the land of the dead (Shade Creek). Maybe that's what woke the Thanatoids up? But by then, V&B Tow is conducting Vond across the River Styxx.

For more on the political/sociological subtext of the Celtics-Lakers rivalry, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakers–Celtics_rivalry#Magic_and_Larry Wikipedia]. The game depicted is probably game 7 of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_NBA_Finals 1984 NBA Finals]. Since the game took place on June 12, Pynchon sticks to ''Vineland's'' themes and its late-summer timeline by including the game as a made-for-TV movie.

Pynchon uses Lakers games to anchor his timeline in [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Real_Time_and_Narrative_Time_in_Inherent_Vice ''Inherent Vice''].

==Page 378==
'''"Time to lock and load, Blood."''' 
Lock and load = ArmySpeak for "saddle up." Specifically, it means lock on the safety of your firearm and load a live round into the chamber, leaving the weapon armed and ready to fire but safe to carry. (The standard 'Nam response was "Cocked and locked!" meaning "Ready when you are.")

'''"It had been an unusual sort of car..."''' 
Vond's chopper turns into an (underpowered) car, which then disappears itself. Vond's power is fading out and he is too. Cool image, but same problem as above. Did Vond (that is, the totalitarian power freaks he fronts for) fade out in 1984? And if not, isn't it a cheat that he does so in the novel?

==Page 380==
'''"crankless"''' 
That is, without amphetamines.

==Page 381==
'''"...she and Takeshi finally renegotiated the no-sex clause..."''' 
Happy Ending continues. "Whooee!" says DL.

'''"a fractal halo of complications"''' 

Typical Pynchon light-and-color show -- and the second use of the "fractal" buzzword. (It occurs on [[#Page 323|page 323]], as well.) Are neural networks next?

==Page 382==
'''"an inkjet printer moved along the the meridians of his naked skin"''' 
Here, the Puncutron seems like Kafka's torture/execution machine from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_penal_colony ''In the Penal Colony''], but in reverse.

In acupuncture, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meridian_(Chinese_medicine) meridians] are channels in the body through which life-energy flows.

A template for instructing the "teen novices, all in white gi with trainee armbands" in acupuncture was being rendered unto Takeshi's body.

'''"an ivory fescue"''' 
Fescue = a teacher's pointer of high quality.

'''"When the Earth was still a paradise, long, long ago..."''' 
Sister Rochelle's allegory about Hell and Earth may explain a bit about Thanatoids, if you wish to read it that way.

Or perhaps an optimistic view of the end of the Cold War in the Third World, as seen by Pynchon in 1990.

==Page 383==
'''"faceless predators"''' 
This paragraph reads like Pynchon checked his outline, noticed two loose ends (the Kahuna hijack and the monster-stomped laboratory) and tied them up as quickly and crudely as possible. Sloppy work.

'''"despite every Karmic Adjustment resource brought to bear so far"''' 
This provides another motivation for DL & Takeshi's "business" venture.

'''"the night of no white diamonds or even chicken crank"''' 
Chicken crank = the speed Takeshi has been trying to score in the form of chicken feed. There are a number of other references to Takeshi's habitual speed use, not the least of which is his epic journey eastward to the SKA and Puncutron.

'''"the foreign magician and his blond tomato assistant"''' 
Takeshi and DL, of course.

==Page 384==
'''"Russian Johnny B. Goode"''' 
No happy-ending complete without Chuck Berry! Or does he mean "Back In the USSR?" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_B._Goode "Johnny B. Goode"] is a seminal 1958 rock and roll song by Chuck Berry, ranked by ''Rolling Stone'' as the seventh greatest song ever on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. [http://www.lyricsdepot.com/chuck-berry/johnny-b-goode.html Lyrics...] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ofD9t_sULM YouTube]

'''"You can come back...take me any place..."''' 
Prairie longs for Vond to come back and abuse her. It must be her genetic predilection for the uniform. Or, perhaps the desire to find out what was heavy enough to make her mom split. It's a bit sick, but maybe Pynchon knows his characters (and the human character) better than we do. ("Every woman adores a fascist / The boot in the face, the brute / Brute heart of a brute like you." "Daddy," [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_plath Sylvia Plath]) In any case, Pynchon "saves" it by having Desmond return. When it comes to preterite, what can out-pret a girl's dog?

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 15

2011-12-31T04:16:11Z

Pthomas: /* Page 330 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 323==
'''"pasture... meadows"''' 
Traditionally [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinland Vinland] was translated as "wine-land", then in more recent times as "pasture-, meadow-land". This kinda seems like a "booyah" moment in the novel, as the first visions/possible version of the family reunion (see pages 232 & 246) have to do with an "impossible hillside" and a "wineland", whereas now when we begin the reality version, it is actually a "pasture-, meadow-land".

'''"Soon toasters and toaster ovens, wood fires, RV kitchen microwaves--just-made coffee"'''" 
This bit, as well as the bar-b-queing later in the chapter, is a signature Pynchon passage; in spite of all the chaos and conflict in whichever book, humanity is anchored by big, communal feeds. See the infamous Banana Breakfast in "Gravity's Rainbow", the State Picnic (p. 1047) in "Against the Day." It's a great opportunity for Pynchon to make his lists, and while some critics have complained that his characters lack humanity, these picnics/parties are usually so evocative and warm it extends to and encompasses the individuals involved.

'''"branching invisible fractals of smell"'''[[Image:Fractal.png|thumb|Julia Set, a Fractal|right]] 
The fractal is a fairly recent (and fashionable) mathematical concept. The property that makes a thing fractal is that it looks the same at any scale -- self-similarity over scale. For this to be true, the fractal object must be made of pieces that look like tiny versions of the whole, and these pieces must be made of similar looking, littler pieces...on to infinity. (The notion of "complications that might go on forever," [[#Page 381|p. 381]], is very Pynchonesque.) Computer graphics programs based on this principle can create complexities that increase as long as you care to wait. Pynchon's use of "fractal" here draws a great word-picture of crinkly, cartoon-like aroma waves tickling noses of all sizes. He's obviously been keeping up with his reading. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractals Wikipedia on Fractals...]

'''"Los Sombras"''' 
Spanish for "the shadows." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_shadows The Shadows] were an early-60s/pre-FabFour British instrumental quartet who were also the backing group for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Richard Cliff Richard]. They are apparently still working to this day.

==Page 324==
'''"Octomaniacs"''' 
players of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_eights crazy eights] card game.

'''"...portable TV sets bootlegged onto the cable..."''' 
Even the leftist/purist Traverse/Beckers are addicted to the Tube. Maybe that's how come they let Vond and his fascists take over.

==Page 325==
'''"Tokkata & Fuji"''' 
A pun on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toccata_and_Fugue_in_D_minor%2C_BWV_565 Toccata and Fugue]. Toccata (from Italian toccare, "to touch") is a virtuoso piece of classical music for a keyboard instrument or plucked string instrument featuring sections of virtuosic passagework, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer. A fugue is a type of contrapuntal composition or technique of composition for a fixed number of parts, normally referred to as "voices", irrespective of whether the work is vocal or instrumental.

'''"Bach's 'Wachet Auf'... one of the best tunes ever to come out of Europe"''' 
It's Resurrection Day! And weirdly enough, this does wake up the Thanatoids. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wachet_auf'' Wachet Auf''] (German: "Sleepers Awake") is a cantata written in 1731 by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach Johann Sebastian Bach].

The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Ten_Virgins associated Biblical text] refers not to Resurrection Day, but to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Coming_of_Christ Second Coming of Christ], i.e. the day of reckoning or Last Judgement. This is the final chapter of ''Vineland''.

'''"What was a Thanatoid, at the end of the long dread day, but memory?"''' 
The answer at last. Sort of.

Possibly trapped in the memories of what "could have been"?

'''"timing adapted to the rigors of a disco percussion track"''' 
Listen to a cheesy electronic rendition of "Wachet Auf" on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msNi7Rj0WnQ YouTube].

'''"able to make the bluest Thanatoid believe, however briefly, in resurrection, they woke, the Thanatoids woke"''' 

It seems that this is where the "possibility of the future" and "memory" collide into reality, which brings Weed's death as the focal point? Is it now that Weed (once one of their own) and his death has atoned the Thanatoids? Now that the "real" reunion has begun in real space-time? See pgs 246 & 232-233. What if we see Rex and Weed's dialogue on 232-233 as some celluloid, Tubal alternate version of what "could have happened"? Possibly a dream that Prairie had after hearing the facts and seeing the 24fps films? A dream that somehow these "sleepers" had access to???? But once the dream is "over" (reality happens) they can awake? My mind just exploded.

'''"the peculiar band between 6200 and 7000 KHZ"''' 
Why peculiar? The FCC has designated the frequencies 6200-7000 KHz for "various fixed and mobile services; maritime and aeronautical." Pirate radio (unlicensed broadcasting of FM radio, AM radio, or shortwave signals over a significant coverage area that could be picked up by listeners. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio]) broadcasts between the shortwave frequencies of 6300 and 7000 KHZ. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio_in_North_America Wikipedia]:
:In the USA pirate radio is frequently, but not always associated with anarchism which considers governmental spectrum regulatory schemes as favoring the interests of large corporations. Therefore, some anarchists consider pirate radio transmissions to be a challenge to that authority.

'''"false cities of gold"''' 
Pynchon playfully compares these mythical malls to the seven cities of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quivira_and_Cíbola Cibola], which kept [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_V%C3%A1squez_de_Coronado Coronado] on the run so long.

==Page 326==
'''"The Noir Center Mall"''' 
The shops are puns on famous [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_noir film noir] titles: "Bubble Indemnity" = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Indemnity_(film) ''Double Indemnity'']; "Lounge Good Buy" = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Goodbye_(film) ''The Long Goodbye'']; "Mall Tease Flacon" = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maltese_Falcon_(1941_film) ''The Maltese Falcon'']; "The Lady 'n' the Lox" = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_in_the_lake ''Lady In the Lake''].

[[Image:BradburyBuilding.jpg|thumb|Inside the Bradbury Building|right]]'''"Bradbury Building"''' 
In addition to film noir, the famous [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradbury_building Bradbury Building] appears in the cyberpunk film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner ''Blade Runner''] and is mentioned in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_735-760#Page_752 ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. Built in 1893, the building, which contains a central courtyard with skylight, indeed resembles a shopping mall, although it's actually still an office building.

==Page 327==
'''"Che, you're rilly evil"''' 
The relationship between Prairie and Che echoes that of Frenesi and DL.

'''"Brent Musberger"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brent_Musburger Brent Musburger] (b. 1939) (the name is misspelled in ''Vineland'') is a TV sportscaster, most famous throughout the 1970s and '80s as the face and voice of CBS Sports. His signature phrase was "YOU are looking LIVE!!! at...(insert city or venue name here)" This was always delivered with maximum enthusiasm, no matter the event. When CBS let him go it created something of a media splash; he quickly resurfaced at ABC. He relates to the next line, and Pynchon's theme about people who are observers rather than makers of reality.

==Page 328==
'''"Maybellene"''' 
What's the joke here? Maybelline eye makeup? Or the chase element in [http://www.chuckberry.com/ Chuck Berry's] song? Probably all of the above, plus a Pynchonian takeoff on Muzak (the "oboe-and-string rendition.") Although a good rockin' tune, Berry's "Maybellene" doesn't have much of a melody, so the idea of an instrumental version, particularly for oboe and strings, seems absurd. See also "New Age mindbarf" on [[#Page 330|p. 330]]. [ [http://www.chuckberry.com/music/lyrics/maybellene.htm Lyrics to ''Maybellene''...] ]

==Page 329==
'''"agoramania"''' 
shopping frenzy.

From what I can find, it means a mania or craving for public/open spaces.

'''"some with runny noses..."''' 
Another "hidden poem."

==Page 330==
'''"New Age mindbarf"''' 
Pynchon's opinion of the New Age Movement which trended toward the spiritual, the organic and the Politically Correct, and spawned mostly trite philosophies and trite music.

==Page 331==
'''"Times she liked to flirt, times she was out to hurt,..."''' 
Minipoem.

==Page 332==
'''"It's like they's programmed for it or somethin'"''' 
Fleur's comment on why gentlemen prefer black and red underwear on "bad girls" is reminiscent of Pirate Prentiss' involuntary, ejaculatory response to a certain photo, delivered to him via V2, in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

'''"Night and Blood"''' 
Echoes of Katje and Pudding in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_226-236#Page_232 ''Gravity's Rainbow'' - p.232-233]: "She waits for him...white body and black uniform-of-the-night.... Lipstick...prevails like blood.... She is naked now, except for a long sable cape and black boots with court heels. Her only jewelry is a silver ring with an artificial ruby...an arrogant gout of blood..."

==Page 333==
'''"Inpo mode"''' 
Inpo is the Ninjitsu Art of Hiding.

'''"Juvenile Hall badasses"''' 
More badasses.

'''"conical black heaps smoked, glowed, flared here and there into visible fire"''' 
The scene in which Vond burns the 24fps footage is quite horrible -- and extremely important. By destroying 24fps' records of the Sixties, he clears the way for his rewritten fascist version. With no evidence to prove him wrong, who would dare to argue with "official" history?

==Page 334==
'''"a restored Vicky"''' 
Victorian house. The San Francisco Bay Area and surrounding areas has many Victorian-era homes.

'''"not only dropping but also picking up, dribbling and scoring three-pointers..."''' 
Total basketball metaphor for Hector's name dropping.

==Page 337==
'''"Miraculous Medal"''' 
The Miraculous Medal makes an appearance in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=M#miraculous-medal ''Gravity's Rainbow''] and in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Miraculous_Medal ''V.'']

'''"Ernie Triggerman, and his partner, Sid Liftoff"''' 
More cool names.

These are probably a parody of James Nicholson and Samuel Arkoff, founders of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_International_Pictures American International Pictures], which produced teen-oriented low-budget movies throughout the 1950's, 60's and 70's.

'''"bizcochos"''' 
Spanish for "biscuits, cookies."

'''"lizard-skin etui"''' 
Etui = a four letter word made of odd letters, therefore useful to crossword constructors, and meaning "small case." Pynchon does crossword puzzles? Maybe he just loves words.

==Page 338==
'''"arranged for Sid to work off the beef...[by making] an antidrug movie..."''' 
This plea-bargain echoes a real deal cut by ''Godfather'' producer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Evans_%28film_producer%29 Robert Evans] to avoid doing hard time on a cocaine bust. Evans made several anti-drug spots for TV, as promised, but apparently (according to subsequent courtroom testimony) he kept on using the stuff anyway.

'''"Roy Ibble"''' 
Yet another cool name.

==Page 339==
'''"sudden monster surge of toilet flushing...and...cold air"''' 
A new Pynchonian fable: Dope paranoia results in Hollywood fog bank.

'''"when he saw the screen go blank... 'From now on, I'm watching you.'"''' 
This section - which carries over to pg. 340 - screams of Big Brother and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four George Orwell's ''1984''], which we are again reminded in this section, is the current year in the novel. Cf. [[Chapter_15#Page_353|page 353]]

==Page 340==
'''"Larry Talbot"''' 
[http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0002574/ Lawrence Talbot], played by Lon Chaney Jr., was the cursed man who changed into the Wolfman in the Universal Studios Wolfman films of the 1940s.

'''"childhood religion... Soto Zen"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soto_Zen Soto Zen] is one of two major Zen Buddhist traditions in Japan. It emphasizes daily practice of meditative "wall-gazing".

==Page 341==

'''"but the warmer temperature brings out more of the flavor, don't you think."''' 

Pretty funny since Bud Light is like one of the most unflavorful beers of all time. Yes, a lot of complex beers (esp. darker beers, Belgian beers, etc.) are better enjoyed at warmer temps, but definitely not Bud Light!

==Page 342==
'''"Sounds real natural to me."''' 
A math joke. 2.71828 is "e," the root of the series of "natural" logarithms.

'''"43'd"''' 
half of 86'd. (See "octogenarihexation" on [[Chapter 9#Page 186|p. 186]].) Being 43'd is like being a little pregnant.

==Page 343==
'''Song: "Es Posible."''' 
Music-biz schtick at the end makes it even funnier. Also hilarious: the pre-Castro Cuban theme park, Holiday For Fascists.

==Page 344==
'''"board fading"''' 
fading slowly and smoothly, as if via a volume slider on a recording studio control board.

==Page 345==
'''"Tubal fantasies...pushing their propaganda message that cops-are-only-human...turning agents of government repression into sympathetic heroes. Nobody thought it was peculiar anymore, no more than the routine violations of constitutional rights...now absorbed into...American expectations."''' 
Good points, all, but isn't it a bit out of character for Frenesi the Betrayer, the biggest cop lover in the novel, to be fronting these thoughts for Pynchon? What's happening here, we think, is that Pynchon is starting to set up Frenesi for her rehabilitation as part of the big Happy Ending.

==Page 346==
'''"the Meese Police"''' 
Reagan's DOJ (Department of Justice) head, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Meese Edwin Meese].

==Page 347==
'''"Mad Dog Vond"''' 
Echoes [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey_Bogart Humphrey Bogart] as Mad Dog Roy Earle in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Sierra_%28film%29 ''High Sierra'']. But Vond really is crazy.

'''"Since '81, kids were coming in all on their own askin about careers..."''' 
Too true, too sad, and it undercuts the Happy Ending rather seriously (at least as a pointer to the real world.)

==Page 348==
'''"in the movie of his life story"''' 
A not-quite-made-up film.

==Page 349==
'''Vond is "waitin' for somethin'."''' 
OK, but what? Reluctantly we must point out that none of Pynchon's many explanations bear close examination. (See footnote to the plot synopsis, Chapter 4.)

Cf. [[Chapter_15#Page_353|page 353]] for a possible explanation of what Vond is waiting for.

==Page 350==
'''"Perez Prado"''' 
Cuban bandleader, "King of the Mambo."

'''"the pink slip to his heart"''' 
A pink slip is a title of ownership for a car. Before the days of automobile titles, the portion of a California car registration that conveyed ownership was colored pink. Hence the brag in the Beach Boys' "Little Deuce Coupe" about "I got the pink slip, daddy!" (meaning, "I'm holding the paperwork required to stake the LDC on a streetlight drag race, so whatchu waitin' for, dude?")

==Page 351==
'''"Pretend there's a frame around [your parents], pretend they're a show you're watching..."''' 
Once again, TV is America's common reference point.

'''"'Uh-oh,' said Frenesi."''' 
Frenesi refuses to cross the airport picket line. This is a bit on the too-little-too-late side for a professional class-traitor, but it's also quite believable.

==Page 352==
[[Image:ThreeStooges.jpg|thumb|The Three Stooges|right]]'''"the bowl haircut, etc."''' 
Another reference to The Three Stooges ... Moe's bowl haircut. Cf. [[Chapter_9#Page_149|page 149]]

'''"all 'em deeply personal li'l ones and zeros got changed to somebody else's"''' 
Roy Ibble, Flash's former handler, explains the computer file deletions, and carries on Pynchon's binary metaphor.

==Page 353==
'''"Please, no more..."''' 
Ibble crumbles in the face of Flash's anger. This is the only the first in a series of auspicious (but highly improbable) turns of the plot. The Hollywood Happy Ending is beginning.

'''"REX-84"''' 
Short for Reagan's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_84 Readiness Exercise 1984], a plan by the United States federal government to test their ability to detain large numbers of American citizens in case of massive civil unrest or national emergency.

Applying "paranoid logic" to the information in the above-mentioned Wikipedia article, let us suppose that Oliver North, one of the designers of the REX 84 readiness exercise, intended that it be used, exercise in name only, in conjunction with a US invasion of Nicaragua to oust the Sandinista government, which he opposed in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Contra Iran-Contra Affair]. This corresponds with DL's prediction on page 264-265 and Hector's intuition on page 339-340. Furthermore, let's pretend that REX 84 takes place at the time described in the novel, late summer of 1984, instead of the spring of 1984, as Wikipedia states. This will go a long way in explaining some of the action in the 1984 parts of the novel.

==Page 354==
'''"...Midol America..."''' 
Another low Pynchon pun ("middle-America") referring to the popular brand of menstrual medicine.

'''"...the destined losers whose only redemption would have to come through their usefulness to the State law-enforcement apparatus, which was calling itself 'America,' though somebody must have known better."''' 
This describes Frenesi and Flash, though it could also describe the larger preterite population of the novel. "...law enforcement apparatus...calling itself America..." underscores Pynchon's cold fury at the process via which Frenesi/America falls for the lies of the fascists.

==Page 355==
'''"Triglyph Productions"''' 
Triglyph = three (you-name-em) letters, like ABC, NBC, CBS, etc.

'''"Panaflex"'''[[Image:Panaflex.jpg|thumb|Panaflex 35mm Movie Camera|right]] 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panaflex Panaflex] was an innovative 35mm studio camera, made by Panavision, Inc. It's the world standard, used for everything from wide-screen epics to deodorant commercials. It makes a nice contrast with all the "underground" Arris and Auricons.

'''"The Bryant Gumbel Story"''' 
TV personality of the same generation as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brent_Musburger Brent Musburger]. Gumbel began as a sportscaster, then became a "Today Show" host, and is now doing sports on HBO.

==Page 356==
'''"...one slip of the tongue..."''' 
Arguably the worst joke in any of Pynchon's novels. Gross!

'''"How to get an Italian Woman Pregnant."''' 
Three versions of this joke:

:'''Q:''' How do you get an Italian woman pregnant? '''A:''' And they say the Italians are stupid!

:'''Q:''' How do you get an Italian woman pregnant? '''A:''' Fuck her.

:'''Q:''' How do you get an Italian woman pregnant? '''A:''' Come in her shoes and the flies will do the rest!

==Page 358==
'''"Starting with a small used trailer..."''' 
This brief flashback telling the story of Zoyd's house includes a typically Pynchon-esque fable about "prehistoric" (and mythical) 5/8-inch plumbing fittings.

'''"full scale kvetchathon"''' 
''kvetch'' = Yiddish for complaint. Hence, a kvetchathon is a marathon bitch session among Van Meter's legendarily bickering family.

'''"kit conversions"''' 
The parts required to convert legal, semi-automatic rifles to full (and illegal) automatic operation are often available in kit form. The kits themselves are not illegal, but they become illegal if installed in non-registered weapons.

==Page 359==
'''"Antinomian"''' 
One who holds that moral law is not binding on Christians. Therefore, as mentioned below, "They believe whatever they do, it's cool with Jesus..." Perhaps Antinomianism is the really extreme flavor of preterite and elect doctrine. So extreme, in fact, that in most circles it's a heresy.

'''"Mrs. Grundy"''' 
A character from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Morton_(playwright) Thomas Morton’s] play 'Speed the Plough' (1798). She is the personification of the tyranny of conventional propriety and is mentioned by various authors from Dickens to Joyce.

'''"motocross"''' 
A cycle race over rough terrain, often desert. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motocross Wikipedia]

'''"May your life be full of lawyers"''' 
Supposedly, the "heavy-dutiest" Mexican curse.

==Page 360==
'''Zoyd's lawyer's voice "suggested Saturday morning more than prime time"''' 
That is, it reminded one of a cartoon character. Lessee, would it be a Smurf or a chipmunk?

'''"What about 'innocent until proven guilty'?" "That was another planet, think they used to call it America, long time ago, before the gutting of the Fourth Amendment. You were automatically guilty the minute they found that marijuana growing on your land."''' 
Pynchon is obviously deeply pissed by this shit (as well he might be); it makes a powerful point in his argument that Big Brother and the Fascists have won. "Another planet" echoes the allegorical conversation between Zoyd and Vond on p. 300.

'''"Y-You mean...life isn't Vegas?"''' 
A very funny line, though (in context) rather ominous as well.

==Page 361==
'''"Musso and Frank's"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musso_%26_Frank_Grill Musso & Frank Grill] is a famous old-time Hollywood restaurant, established in 1919.

'''"the Grand Canyon"''' 
A lot of detail is packed into a few sentences. Looks like Pynchon has been there, too.

'''"Tex Wiener"''' 
Actor Tex Weiner was on ''General Hospital'' with Sally Kirkland. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Hospital ''General Hospital''] is the longest-running ABC Daytime American soap opera broadcast on the American Broadcasting Company television network

'''"...fooled once again by the uniform..."''' 
So Frenesi comes by her weakness for sadistic uniformed cops genetically, via Sasha? Or is this something about how opposites need and create each other?

'''"Weww -- it's oow rubbish i'n'i'?"''' 
Well, it's all rubbish, isn't it? Pynchon's fabulous ear again.

==Page 362==
'''"off the scale"''' 
Techno rap, meaning too great to measure, pins the meter, etc.

'''"Naugahyde"''' 
An artificial material designed to resemble leather, made from fabric coated with rubber or vinyl resin.

'''"red-and-gold-flocked"''' 
Flocking is powdered wool or cloth sprinkled onto material (here, wallpaper) producing a raised pattern.

'''"Did they scream?"''' 
A cheap, if effective, trick: Pynchon switches POV (narrators) in mid-scene, giving the tale to producer Sid, and twists the knife by making him playfully reluctant to part with details, so Zuniga has to beg.

'''"Too bad we can't use it."''' 
Christ! Have we been watching Zuniga's damn movie all this time? Directed by Frenesi???

'''"Kissing a young pale melon, under a golden pregnant lollapalooza of a moon."''' 
Sasha's dream is sweet and surreal, but it seems insufficiently motivated. Would she really forgive Frenesi so easily?

==Page 363==
'''"Holocaust Pixels.'''" 
Cool name for a rock band -- and another TV reference. ([[Chapter 12#Page_226|See note, p. 226.]])

Song: "Like a Meat Loaf." 
Great song! Also the Return of the Thanatoid Lunch Meat. Also an echo of Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues."

'''The Thanatoids are "acting rowdier than DL or Takeshi had ever seen them."''' 
The only reverberation of the big flap that sent the karmic adjustment duo racing off for Shade Creek in the last episode. The Happy Ending rolls on.

==Page 364==
'''"...just a couple o' clicks..."''' 
Clicks = kilometers.

'''"Bardo"''' 
Bardo is the after-death realm in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_book_of_the_dead ''Tibetan Book of the Dead'']. The trick is to avoid rebirth, but most people fuck up and let themselves be trapped in a new life. Weed tells of looking for a just-fertilized egg in which to be reborn, "seeking out men and women in the act of sex...in a...smoke-tarnished district of sex shows and porno theaters." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_Brothers The Mitchell Brothers] atmosphere is cute. In Tibet a lama keeps whispering the instructions in your dead ear so you don't make these little boo-boos ("couldn't find 'em, time ran out"). Pynchon implies that it's those with "too much still on [their minds]," i.e., unfinished business, that can't quite get permanently dead.

==Page 365==
'''"But what if I am the payback? If your account is zeroed out at last?"''' 
Weed's response to Prairie's offer is a little inconclusive, but note the zero.

'''"Thanatoids dream, though not always when we think we do--"''' 
Weed's dream is extremely powerful and the image is quite writerly. Is the coroner he's looking for "to reveal to the world at last my murder, my murderers" really Pynchon? Are the "companions" who keep trying to find this coroner the readers of Vineland? Faithful hippies? Those who refuse to buy the rewritten version of the Sixties? All of the above? Prairie says it's DL & Takeshi, Weed thinks maybe it's his parents. It might even be the Pisk sisters.

==Page 366==
'''"It was all for love... It was political... A rebel cop... The orders of a repressive regime..."''' 
Pynchon seems aware that his readers (the "companions") may be confused.

'''"Sometimes I think it could be my parents"''' 
Recall ([[Chapter_11#Page_206|page 206 notes]]) that Weed is based partly on Pynchon himself. ''Vineland's'' dedication is "For my mother and father". So this passage could be Pynchon speaking of or to his own parents.

'''"higher justice"''' 
God, karma, Karmic Adjusters, or Emersonism (cf. [[Chapter_15#Page_369|page 369]]), as opposed to the Department of Justice.

'''Prairie and Weed "soon to become an item"''' 
This is the real happy ending, suggesting that young kids may seek out the truth about the Sixties. (And not just the clothes!)

'''"Prairie would show him secrets of pachinko..."''' 
But how did she learn them? From DL? Pachinko is a Japanese gaming device used for amusement and prizes and is related to pinball machines. Although originally strictly mechanical, modern pachinko machines are a cross between a pinball machine and a video slot machine. Cf. [[Chapter_8#Page_122|page 122]].

==Page 367==
'''"the Traverse-Becker wingding"''' 
Nice image, suggesting the continuity of the Left although making it a picnic is surely some dark irony. (At least it's not a dinner party.)

'''"Octomaniacs"''' 
again, players of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_eights crazy eights].

'''"the Mother situation"''' 
Nice cinematic touch, superimposing Frenesi and the Mother of Doom (the Queen of Spades).

'''"with Sasha was a woman about forty, who had been a girl in a movie..."''' 
The reunion of Prairie and Frenesi, which has motivated Prairie, and haunted Frenesi, throughout most of the book, is tossed off distressingly quickly, but with at least this one great line.

'''"Commere lemme check those dimples, yes there, they are..."''' 
Sasha's agonizing grandma act is way out of character. We hope! Still, "it's her way of trying to help" ([[#Page 368|p. 368]]).

==Page 368==
You'd think Pynchon would devote a little more ink to the reunion of Frenesi and Prairie, but in fact Frenesi seems to be in the process of fading out here (much as Vond will do in a few pages).

==Page 369==
'''"pasta dishes and grilled tofu contributed by younger elements"''' 
Hello, Becker/Traverse yuppies!

'''"Secret retributions are always restoring the level..."''' 
This marvelous quote from Emerson is deeply optimistic, and goes a long way toward buying off the Happy Ending. Contrasts nicely with Lombroso's "misoneism," the negative feedback loop by which society resists change.

It also provides a counter to the Orwellian (in Pynchon's view) Department of Justice that sponsors Brock Vond and CAMP, as well as a counterpoint to the Eastern idea of karma.

'''"Ask Crocker 'Bud' Scantling"''' 
The Happy Ending continues, as we learn of Crocker 'Bud' Scantling's karmic payoff under the wheels of a chip truck.

==Page 370==
'''"Lux Unlimited"''' 
A lux is a unit of luminosity equal to 1 candela sterradian per square meter. Drop that into your next bar room argument. 

Lux is Latin for light. "Fiat Lux", or "Let there be light", is the motto of the University of California.

'''"Take care of your dead, or they'll take care of you."''' 
Confirmation of what the Thanatoids really are ([[#Page 325|see p. 325]]). Also a nice restatement of Santayana's famous quote about "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it (or retake the course)."

'''"Say, Jim"''' 
The title of this made-up half-hour sitcom (a black version of ''Star Trek'') is a reference both to Bones' habitual conversational opening to Captain James Kirk, and to Afro-American slang in which "Jim" is an all-purpose (and generally negative, being short for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws "Jim Crow"]) form of address. This is also another digital gag (white becoming black = zero becoming one).

It also reflects the cultural change in mass entertainment that happened between the sixties and the eighties.

'''"Zoyd and Flash went off looking for beer"''' 
Flash surfaces. No point, really, except for the overall reconciliation Pynchon is forcing on the book.

'''"Robert Musil"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Musil Robert Musil] was an Austrian novelist (1880-1942), whose Proustian style was marked by subtle psychological analysis. His works include ''Young Torless'' and ''The Man Without Qualities''.

''Young Torless'' mixes homoerotic sadism with philosophical discussions of imaginary numbers, so it is relevant to ''Against the Day''. ''The Man Without Qualities'' is a thinly disguised portrait of Walter Rathenau, who is invoked several times in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. So Pynchon is poking fun at himself.

==Page 371==
'''"...talking back to the tube..."''' 
The Beckers and Traverses are politically hip, shown by their talking back, and their suspicion that the "prefascist twilight" is really just "the light...coming from millions of Tubes all showing the same bright colored shadows..." TV as the true opiate of the masses -- or, as the NY commies used to say, "de messes."

==Page 372==
Zoyd feels sorry for Flash, the "unfortunate sucker" who's still with Frenesi; he sees "the need behind the desperado lamps" (eyes). Nice phrase, nice rendition of the healing power of time and distance, and a sweet way to take leave of Zoyd, who seems to have found some peaceful place to rest at least for the moment.

==Page 373==
'''"Minute the tube got hold of you folks, that was it..."''' 
The kid (who speaks for Pynchon, of course) is right. It's funny how so few of us saw the future, fought the Tube. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan McLuhan] was right too, but we only thought we knew what he was talking about.

'''"gold-handled chainsaw"''' 
Sheriff Willis Chunko's celebrated anti-pot weapon takes us full circle from/to Zoyd's ladylike purse-sized model in [[Chapter 1|Chapter 1]].

'''"monster Mopars dialed and eager"''' 
Mopar = the parts division of Chrysler Motors = (here) engines. Dialed = souped up. This is at least the second "dialed" reference in Vineland. It's hot-rod talk, and means more or less the same as the now old-fashioned "blue-printed." The dials refer to a machinist's dial indicators, used to bring once-stock engines into more-than-perfect condition and tune.

==Page 374==
'''"speeding after moonset"''' 
Like in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunder_Road ''Thunder Road''] [1958], the great [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mitchum Robert Mitchum] bootlegging thriller.

'''"quaquaversal beard"''' 
"Quaquaversal" is a geological term meaning "turned or pointing in every direction." It's a good description for a wiry beard.

'''"...go find [Vond] and cancel his series for him..."''' 
Another TV referent.

'''"found it easier now to make out...her own...face"''' 
Now that Prairie has met Frenesi she can see her own face more clearly in Zoyd's. That is, she's not Vond's daughter. More Happy Ending.

==Page 375==
'''"...down out of [the helicopter], hooked by harness and cable to the mother ship above, came Brock Vond..."''' Is Vond's deus ex machina appearance to Prairie a dream? It could be; she was asleep. Then again, "Brock, whom his colleagues were calling 'Death From Slightly Above,' had been out [practicing]." And remember the Madwoman In the Attic ([[Chapter 13#Page 274|p. 274]]).

Pynchon tells you it's not a dream: "The beat ... woke her" and on the next page "she came fully awake".

'''"Death From Slightly Above"''' 
"Mors Ab Alto" or "Death from Above" is the motto of the US 7th Strategic Bomber Wing ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7th_Bomb_Wing Wikipedia]). In the late 1960's and early 1970's they were famous for the "carpet bombing" of Vietnam. Brock Vond flies somewhat lower.

'''"Huey slicks"'''[[Image:UH-1.jpg|thumb|UH-1 Huey Slick|right]] 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UH-1_Iroquois UH-1 Iroquois helicopter] was first designated HU-1 (for "Helicopter, Utility" in backwards Army nomenclature) which led to its nickname "Huey". Although Hueys have been used in a wide variety of roles worldwide, they are closely associated with the Vietnam War, where they were heavily employed. The "slick" version of the Huey lacked external weapons pods, and was mainly used for evacuation and troop transport.

'''"more recaps on this subject than Mark C. Bloome"''' 
Bloome was the owner of a chain of popular tire stores in southern California, the Mark C. Bloome Tire Company.

'''"The original plan had been to go in..., come down vertical, grab her, and winch back up and out--"''' 
Why does Vond want to abduct Prairie? Lust? Pure evil? This is never adequately explained. There's a bit of chat in [[Chapter 14]] discussing Vond's interest in Prairie, but it's not developed any further.

==Page 376==
'''"The key is rapture."''' 
Earlier Vond explained the disappearance of the CotS students the same way. ([[Chapter 12#Page 248|See note, p. 248.]]) Also, it is Frenesi's rapture (or "frenzy") over being dominated that enables Vond to have his way with her.

The Rapture occurs along with the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Coming_of_Christ Second Coming of Christ], telegraphed to the Thanatoids on [[Chapter_15#Page_325|page 325]].

'''"Her tits, master--"''' 
Roscoe becomes Dwight Frye, Vampire Vond's Renfield. ("Rats, master, you promised me rats...")

'''Vond glows "unusually white."''' 
More evidence that he's a vampire. (A-and remember, he sleeps with his eyes open!)

Vampires, although deathly pale, don't glow white. They are afraid of light. But ''Angels'' ...

This is Vond's aura of invincibility, as seen on [[Chapter_13#Page_272|page 272]]. He has powered-up his primary weapon.

'''...can't be my father...Preparation H.'''[[Image:PreparationH.jpg|thumb|Preparation H|right]] 
She isn't Frenesi's clone, she has Zoyd's blood in her too. Vond paralyzes her for a second, but she can't be dominated as easily as Frenesi. In the Rapture, only believers are hoisted to heaven. Prairie doesn't believe in Vond's invincibility. And of course, Pynchon breaks the spell with another ass joke.

'''"Some white male far away must have wakened from a dream."''' 
Reagan? Meese? Nixon? The white male God of the Calvinists?

'''"Brock...now being winched back up..."''' 
Film running backward through the projector. The image is great, but there's something troublesome here. If the novel represents the real world (as we must assume it does, or it would be no more than an empty divertissement), what "real" event in 1984 informs Vond's withdrawal and defeat?

Here is a guess. Suppose REX 84 is taken to be a roundup of dissenters prior to a possible invasion of Nicaragua (cf. [[Chapter_15#Page_353|pg. 353 notes]]). It's late summer 1984 in the novel, so let's guess the Traverse-Becker picnic is always held on Labor Day, falling on September 3 in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984 1984]. On September 4, 1984 the Sandinista Front won the Nicaraguan election, considered fair by most international observers. An invasion was no longer possible.

==Page 377==
'''"Asshole, they're all together, one surgical strike..."''' 
Vond is ready to wipe out everyone Frenesi, Flash, Zoyd, Justin, maybe even Prairie just as (presumably) he wiped their computer files earlier.

'''"...[Vond] was gone, following his penis--"''' 
A reprise of the lyrics from "Like a Meat Loaf" ([[Chapter_15#Page 364|p. 364]]): "Well we followed our dicks just a couple o' clicks...")

'''Alexi appears in the clearing, carrying "an old acoustic guitar with Cyrillic stenciling on it, as if he'd been prepared to use it as a weapon."''' 
Like American political folkie [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Guthrie Woody Guthrie's] guitar, on which the folksinger wrote "This machine kills fascists."

'''"The Movie at Nine"''' 
Pynchon gets into a great male-folksy description of a basketball movie the most developed of any of his synthetic made-for-TV flicks. An elect white team (the Celtics) Vs. a preterite black team (the Lakers). Obviously Pynchon is a Lakers fan. It's a story of great courage, and it sets up Vato and Blood for their "rescue" of the newly Thanatoidized Vond. Vond's car disappears (the way thanatoid vehicles do), and we get a Yurok tale by Vato, implying that by coming to Vineland Brock got too close to the land of the dead (Shade Creek). Maybe that's what woke the Thanatoids up? But by then, V&B Tow is conducting Vond across the River Styxx.

For more on the political/sociological subtext of the Celtics-Lakers rivalry, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakers–Celtics_rivalry#Magic_and_Larry Wikipedia]. The game depicted is probably game 7 of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_NBA_Finals 1984 NBA Finals]. Since the game took place on June 12, Pynchon sticks to ''Vineland's'' themes and its late-summer timeline by including the game as a made-for-TV movie.

Pynchon uses Lakers games to anchor his timeline in [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Real_Time_and_Narrative_Time_in_Inherent_Vice ''Inherent Vice''].

==Page 378==
'''"Time to lock and load, Blood."''' 
Lock and load = ArmySpeak for "saddle up." Specifically, it means lock on the safety of your firearm and load a live round into the chamber, leaving the weapon armed and ready to fire but safe to carry. (The standard 'Nam response was "Cocked and locked!" meaning "Ready when you are.")

'''"It had been an unusual sort of car..."''' 
Vond's chopper turns into an (underpowered) car, which then disappears itself. Vond's power is fading out and he is too. Cool image, but same problem as above. Did Vond (that is, the totalitarian power freaks he fronts for) fade out in 1984? And if not, isn't it a cheat that he does so in the novel?

==Page 380==
'''"crankless"''' 
That is, without amphetamines.

==Page 381==
'''"...she and Takeshi finally renegotiated the no-sex clause..."''' 
Happy Ending continues. "Whooee!" says DL.

'''"a fractal halo of complications"''' 

Typical Pynchon light-and-color show -- and the second use of the "fractal" buzzword. (It occurs on [[#Page 323|page 323]], as well.) Are neural networks next?

==Page 382==
'''"an inkjet printer moved along the the meridians of his naked skin"''' 
Here, the Puncutron seems like Kafka's torture/execution machine from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_penal_colony ''In the Penal Colony''], but in reverse.

In acupuncture, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meridian_(Chinese_medicine) meridians] are channels in the body through which life-energy flows.

A template for instructing the "teen novices, all in white gi with trainee armbands" in acupuncture was being rendered unto Takeshi's body.

'''"an ivory fescue"''' 
Fescue = a teacher's pointer of high quality.

'''"When the Earth was still a paradise, long, long ago..."''' 
Sister Rochelle's allegory about Hell and Earth may explain a bit about Thanatoids, if you wish to read it that way.

Or perhaps an optimistic view of the end of the Cold War in the Third World, as seen by Pynchon in 1990.

==Page 383==
'''"faceless predators"''' 
This paragraph reads like Pynchon checked his outline, noticed two loose ends (the Kahuna hijack and the monster-stomped laboratory) and tied them up as quickly and crudely as possible. Sloppy work.

'''"despite every Karmic Adjustment resource brought to bear so far"''' 
This provides another motivation for DL & Takeshi's "business" venture.

'''"the night of no white diamonds or even chicken crank"''' 
Chicken crank = the speed Takeshi has been trying to score in the form of chicken feed. There are a number of other references to Takeshi's habitual speed use, not the least of which is his epic journey eastward to the SKA and Puncutron.

'''"the foreign magician and his blond tomato assistant"''' 
Takeshi and DL, of course.

==Page 384==
'''"Russian Johnny B. Goode"''' 
No happy-ending complete without Chuck Berry! Or does he mean "Back In the USSR?" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_B._Goode "Johnny B. Goode"] is a seminal 1958 rock and roll song by Chuck Berry, ranked by ''Rolling Stone'' as the seventh greatest song ever on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. [http://www.lyricsdepot.com/chuck-berry/johnny-b-goode.html Lyrics...] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ofD9t_sULM YouTube]

'''"You can come back...take me any place..."''' 
Prairie longs for Vond to come back and abuse her. It must be her genetic predilection for the uniform. Or, perhaps the desire to find out what was heavy enough to make her mom split. It's a bit sick, but maybe Pynchon knows his characters (and the human character) better than we do. ("Every woman adores a fascist / The boot in the face, the brute / Brute heart of a brute like you." "Daddy," [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_plath Sylvia Plath]) In any case, Pynchon "saves" it by having Desmond return. When it comes to preterite, what can out-pret a girl's dog?

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 15

2011-12-30T04:55:40Z

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==Page 323==
'''"pasture... meadows"''' 
Traditionally [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinland Vinland] was translated as "wine-land", then in more recent times as "pasture-, meadow-land". This kinda seems like a "booyah" moment in the novel, as the first visions/possible version of the family reunion (see pages 232 & 246) have to do with an "impossible hillside" and a "wineland", whereas now when we begin the reality version, it is actually a "pasture-, meadow-land".

'''"Soon toasters and toaster ovens, wood fires, RV kitchen microwaves--just-made coffee"'''" 
This bit, as well as the bar-b-queing later in the chapter, is a signature Pynchon passage; in spite of all the chaos and conflict in whichever book, humanity is anchored by big, communal feeds. See the infamous Banana Breakfast in "Gravity's Rainbow", the State Picnic (p. 1047) in "Against the Day." It's a great opportunity for Pynchon to make his lists, and while some critics have complained that his characters lack humanity, these picnics/parties are usually so evocative and warm it extends to and encompasses the individuals involved.

'''"branching invisible fractals of smell"'''[[Image:Fractal.png|thumb|Julia Set, a Fractal|right]] 
The fractal is a fairly recent (and fashionable) mathematical concept. The property that makes a thing fractal is that it looks the same at any scale -- self-similarity over scale. For this to be true, the fractal object must be made of pieces that look like tiny versions of the whole, and these pieces must be made of similar looking, littler pieces...on to infinity. (The notion of "complications that might go on forever," [[#Page 381|p. 381]], is very Pynchonesque.) Computer graphics programs based on this principle can create complexities that increase as long as you care to wait. Pynchon's use of "fractal" here draws a great word-picture of crinkly, cartoon-like aroma waves tickling noses of all sizes. He's obviously been keeping up with his reading. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fractals Wikipedia on Fractals...]

'''"Los Sombras"''' 
Spanish for "the shadows." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_shadows The Shadows] were an early-60s/pre-FabFour British instrumental quartet who were also the backing group for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cliff_Richard Cliff Richard]. They are apparently still working to this day.

==Page 324==
'''"Octomaniacs"''' 
players of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_eights crazy eights] card game.

'''"...portable TV sets bootlegged onto the cable..."''' 
Even the leftist/purist Traverse/Beckers are addicted to the Tube. Maybe that's how come they let Vond and his fascists take over.

==Page 325==
'''"Tokkata & Fuji"''' 
A pun on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toccata_and_Fugue_in_D_minor%2C_BWV_565 Toccata and Fugue]. Toccata (from Italian toccare, "to touch") is a virtuoso piece of classical music for a keyboard instrument or plucked string instrument featuring sections of virtuosic passagework, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer. A fugue is a type of contrapuntal composition or technique of composition for a fixed number of parts, normally referred to as "voices", irrespective of whether the work is vocal or instrumental.

'''"Bach's 'Wachet Auf'... one of the best tunes ever to come out of Europe"''' 
It's Resurrection Day! And weirdly enough, this does wake up the Thanatoids. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wachet_auf'' Wachet Auf''] (German: "Sleepers Awake") is a cantata written in 1731 by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach Johann Sebastian Bach].

The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_Ten_Virgins associated Biblical text] refers not to Resurrection Day, but to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Coming_of_Christ Second Coming of Christ], i.e. the day of reckoning or Last Judgement. This is the final chapter of ''Vineland''.

'''"What was a Thanatoid, at the end of the long dread day, but memory?"''' 
The answer at last. Sort of.

Possibly trapped in the memories of what "could have been"?

'''"timing adapted to the rigors of a disco percussion track"''' 
Listen to a cheesy electronic rendition of "Wachet Auf" on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msNi7Rj0WnQ YouTube].

'''"able to make the bluest Thanatoid believe, however briefly, in resurrection, they woke, the Thanatoids woke"''' 

It seems that this is where the "possibility of the future" and "memory" collide into reality, which brings Weed's death as the focal point? Is it now that Weed (once one of their own) and his death has atoned the Thanatoids? Now that the "real" reunion has begun in real space-time? See pgs 246 & 232-233. What if we see Rex and Weed's dialogue on 232-233 as some celluloid, Tubal alternate version of what "could have happened"? Possibly a dream that Prairie had after hearing the facts and seeing the 24fps films? A dream that somehow these "sleepers" had access to???? But once the dream is "over" (reality happens) they can awake? My mind just exploded.

'''"the peculiar band between 6200 and 7000 KHZ"''' 
Why peculiar? The FCC has designated the frequencies 6200-7000 KHz for "various fixed and mobile services; maritime and aeronautical." Pirate radio (unlicensed broadcasting of FM radio, AM radio, or shortwave signals over a significant coverage area that could be picked up by listeners. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio]) broadcasts between the shortwave frequencies of 6300 and 7000 KHZ. From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio_in_North_America Wikipedia]:
:In the USA pirate radio is frequently, but not always associated with anarchism which considers governmental spectrum regulatory schemes as favoring the interests of large corporations. Therefore, some anarchists consider pirate radio transmissions to be a challenge to that authority.

'''"false cities of gold"''' 
Pynchon playfully compares these mythical malls to the seven cities of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quivira_and_Cíbola Cibola], which kept [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francisco_V%C3%A1squez_de_Coronado Coronado] on the run so long.

==Page 326==
'''"The Noir Center Mall"''' 
The shops are puns on famous [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_noir film noir] titles: "Bubble Indemnity" = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Indemnity_(film) ''Double Indemnity'']; "Lounge Good Buy" = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Long_Goodbye_(film) ''The Long Goodbye'']; "Mall Tease Flacon" = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Maltese_Falcon_(1941_film) ''The Maltese Falcon'']; "The Lady 'n' the Lox" = [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_in_the_lake ''Lady In the Lake''].

[[Image:BradburyBuilding.jpg|thumb|Inside the Bradbury Building|right]]'''"Bradbury Building"''' 
In addition to film noir, the famous [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradbury_building Bradbury Building] appears in the cyberpunk film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blade_Runner ''Blade Runner''] and is mentioned in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_735-760#Page_752 ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. Built in 1893, the building, which contains a central courtyard with skylight, indeed resembles a shopping mall, although it's actually still an office building.

==Page 327==
'''"Che, you're rilly evil"''' 
The relationship between Prairie and Che echoes that of Frenesi and DL.

'''"Brent Musberger"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brent_Musburger Brent Musburger] (b. 1939) (the name is misspelled in ''Vineland'') is a TV sportscaster, most famous throughout the 1970s and '80s as the face and voice of CBS Sports. His signature phrase was "YOU are looking LIVE!!! at...(insert city or venue name here)" This was always delivered with maximum enthusiasm, no matter the event. When CBS let him go it created something of a media splash; he quickly resurfaced at ABC. He relates to the next line, and Pynchon's theme about people who are observers rather than makers of reality.

==Page 328==
'''"Maybellene"''' 
What's the joke here? Maybelline eye makeup? Or the chase element in [http://www.chuckberry.com/ Chuck Berry's] song? Probably all of the above, plus a Pynchonian takeoff on Muzak (the "oboe-and-string rendition.") Although a good rockin' tune, Berry's "Maybellene" doesn't have much of a melody, so the idea of an instrumental version, particularly for oboe and strings, seems absurd. See also "New Age mindbarf" on [[#Page 330|p. 330]]. [ [http://www.chuckberry.com/music/lyrics/maybellene.htm Lyrics to ''Maybellene''...] ]

==Page 329==
'''"agoramania"''' 
shopping frenzy.

From what I can find, it means a mania or craving for public/open spaces.

'''"some with runny noses..."''' 
Another "hidden poem."

==Page 330==
'''"New Age mindbarf"''' 
Pynchon's opinion of the New Age Movement which trended toward the spiritual, the organic and the Politically Correct, and spawned mostly trite philosophies and trite music.

==Page 332==
'''"It's like they's programmed for it or somethin'"''' 
Fleur's comment on why gentlemen prefer black and red underwear on "bad girls" is reminiscent of Pirate Prentiss' involuntary, ejaculatory response to a certain photo, delivered to him via V2, in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

'''"Night and Blood"''' 
Echoes of Katje and Pudding in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_226-236#Page_232 ''Gravity's Rainbow'' - p.232-233]: "She waits for him...white body and black uniform-of-the-night.... Lipstick...prevails like blood.... She is naked now, except for a long sable cape and black boots with court heels. Her only jewelry is a silver ring with an artificial ruby...an arrogant gout of blood..."

==Page 333==
'''"Inpo mode"''' 
Inpo is the Ninjitsu Art of Hiding.

'''"Juvenile Hall badasses"''' 
More badasses.

'''"conical black heaps smoked, glowed, flared here and there into visible fire"''' 
The scene in which Vond burns the 24fps footage is quite horrible -- and extremely important. By destroying 24fps' records of the Sixties, he clears the way for his rewritten fascist version. With no evidence to prove him wrong, who would dare to argue with "official" history?

==Page 334==
'''"a restored Vicky"''' 
Victorian house. The San Francisco Bay Area and surrounding areas has many Victorian-era homes.

'''"not only dropping but also picking up, dribbling and scoring three-pointers..."''' 
Total basketball metaphor for Hector's name dropping.

==Page 337==
'''"Miraculous Medal"''' 
The Miraculous Medal makes an appearance in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=M#miraculous-medal ''Gravity's Rainbow''] and in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Miraculous_Medal ''V.'']

'''"Ernie Triggerman, and his partner, Sid Liftoff"''' 
More cool names.

These are probably a parody of James Nicholson and Samuel Arkoff, founders of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_International_Pictures American International Pictures], which produced teen-oriented low-budget movies throughout the 1950's, 60's and 70's.

'''"bizcochos"''' 
Spanish for "biscuits, cookies."

'''"lizard-skin etui"''' 
Etui = a four letter word made of odd letters, therefore useful to crossword constructors, and meaning "small case." Pynchon does crossword puzzles? Maybe he just loves words.

==Page 338==
'''"arranged for Sid to work off the beef...[by making] an antidrug movie..."''' 
This plea-bargain echoes a real deal cut by ''Godfather'' producer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Evans_%28film_producer%29 Robert Evans] to avoid doing hard time on a cocaine bust. Evans made several anti-drug spots for TV, as promised, but apparently (according to subsequent courtroom testimony) he kept on using the stuff anyway.

'''"Roy Ibble"''' 
Yet another cool name.

==Page 339==
'''"sudden monster surge of toilet flushing...and...cold air"''' 
A new Pynchonian fable: Dope paranoia results in Hollywood fog bank.

'''"when he saw the screen go blank... 'From now on, I'm watching you.'"''' 
This section - which carries over to pg. 340 - screams of Big Brother and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four George Orwell's ''1984''], which we are again reminded in this section, is the current year in the novel. Cf. [[Chapter_15#Page_353|page 353]]

==Page 340==
'''"Larry Talbot"''' 
[http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0002574/ Lawrence Talbot], played by Lon Chaney Jr., was the cursed man who changed into the Wolfman in the Universal Studios Wolfman films of the 1940s.

'''"childhood religion... Soto Zen"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soto_Zen Soto Zen] is one of two major Zen Buddhist traditions in Japan. It emphasizes daily practice of meditative "wall-gazing".

==Page 341==

'''"but the warmer temperature brings out more of the flavor, don't you think."''' 

Pretty funny since Bud Light is like one of the most unflavorful beers of all time. Yes, a lot of complex beers (esp. darker beers, Belgian beers, etc.) are better enjoyed at warmer temps, but definitely not Bud Light!

==Page 342==
'''"Sounds real natural to me."''' 
A math joke. 2.71828 is "e," the root of the series of "natural" logarithms.

'''"43'd"''' 
half of 86'd. (See "octogenarihexation" on [[Chapter 9#Page 186|p. 186]].) Being 43'd is like being a little pregnant.

==Page 343==
'''Song: "Es Posible."''' 
Music-biz schtick at the end makes it even funnier. Also hilarious: the pre-Castro Cuban theme park, Holiday For Fascists.

==Page 344==
'''"board fading"''' 
fading slowly and smoothly, as if via a volume slider on a recording studio control board.

==Page 345==
'''"Tubal fantasies...pushing their propaganda message that cops-are-only-human...turning agents of government repression into sympathetic heroes. Nobody thought it was peculiar anymore, no more than the routine violations of constitutional rights...now absorbed into...American expectations."''' 
Good points, all, but isn't it a bit out of character for Frenesi the Betrayer, the biggest cop lover in the novel, to be fronting these thoughts for Pynchon? What's happening here, we think, is that Pynchon is starting to set up Frenesi for her rehabilitation as part of the big Happy Ending.

==Page 346==
'''"the Meese Police"''' 
Reagan's DOJ (Department of Justice) head, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edwin_Meese Edwin Meese].

==Page 347==
'''"Mad Dog Vond"''' 
Echoes [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey_Bogart Humphrey Bogart] as Mad Dog Roy Earle in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Sierra_%28film%29 ''High Sierra'']. But Vond really is crazy.

'''"Since '81, kids were coming in all on their own askin about careers..."''' 
Too true, too sad, and it undercuts the Happy Ending rather seriously (at least as a pointer to the real world.)

==Page 348==
'''"in the movie of his life story"''' 
A not-quite-made-up film.

==Page 349==
'''Vond is "waitin' for somethin'."''' 
OK, but what? Reluctantly we must point out that none of Pynchon's many explanations bear close examination. (See footnote to the plot synopsis, Chapter 4.)

Cf. [[Chapter_15#Page_353|page 353]] for a possible explanation of what Vond is waiting for.

==Page 350==
'''"Perez Prado"''' 
Cuban bandleader, "King of the Mambo."

'''"the pink slip to his heart"''' 
A pink slip is a title of ownership for a car. Before the days of automobile titles, the portion of a California car registration that conveyed ownership was colored pink. Hence the brag in the Beach Boys' "Little Deuce Coupe" about "I got the pink slip, daddy!" (meaning, "I'm holding the paperwork required to stake the LDC on a streetlight drag race, so whatchu waitin' for, dude?")

==Page 351==
'''"Pretend there's a frame around [your parents], pretend they're a show you're watching..."''' 
Once again, TV is America's common reference point.

'''"'Uh-oh,' said Frenesi."''' 
Frenesi refuses to cross the airport picket line. This is a bit on the too-little-too-late side for a professional class-traitor, but it's also quite believable.

==Page 352==
[[Image:ThreeStooges.jpg|thumb|The Three Stooges|right]]'''"the bowl haircut, etc."''' 
Another reference to The Three Stooges ... Moe's bowl haircut. Cf. [[Chapter_9#Page_149|page 149]]

'''"all 'em deeply personal li'l ones and zeros got changed to somebody else's"''' 
Roy Ibble, Flash's former handler, explains the computer file deletions, and carries on Pynchon's binary metaphor.

==Page 353==
'''"Please, no more..."''' 
Ibble crumbles in the face of Flash's anger. This is the only the first in a series of auspicious (but highly improbable) turns of the plot. The Hollywood Happy Ending is beginning.

'''"REX-84"''' 
Short for Reagan's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rex_84 Readiness Exercise 1984], a plan by the United States federal government to test their ability to detain large numbers of American citizens in case of massive civil unrest or national emergency.

Applying "paranoid logic" to the information in the above-mentioned Wikipedia article, let us suppose that Oliver North, one of the designers of the REX 84 readiness exercise, intended that it be used, exercise in name only, in conjunction with a US invasion of Nicaragua to oust the Sandinista government, which he opposed in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Contra Iran-Contra Affair]. This corresponds with DL's prediction on page 264-265 and Hector's intuition on page 339-340. Furthermore, let's pretend that REX 84 takes place at the time described in the novel, late summer of 1984, instead of the spring of 1984, as Wikipedia states. This will go a long way in explaining some of the action in the 1984 parts of the novel.

==Page 354==
'''"...Midol America..."''' 
Another low Pynchon pun ("middle-America") referring to the popular brand of menstrual medicine.

'''"...the destined losers whose only redemption would have to come through their usefulness to the State law-enforcement apparatus, which was calling itself 'America,' though somebody must have known better."''' 
This describes Frenesi and Flash, though it could also describe the larger preterite population of the novel. "...law enforcement apparatus...calling itself America..." underscores Pynchon's cold fury at the process via which Frenesi/America falls for the lies of the fascists.

==Page 355==
'''"Triglyph Productions"''' 
Triglyph = three (you-name-em) letters, like ABC, NBC, CBS, etc.

'''"Panaflex"'''[[Image:Panaflex.jpg|thumb|Panaflex 35mm Movie Camera|right]] 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panaflex Panaflex] was an innovative 35mm studio camera, made by Panavision, Inc. It's the world standard, used for everything from wide-screen epics to deodorant commercials. It makes a nice contrast with all the "underground" Arris and Auricons.

'''"The Bryant Gumbel Story"''' 
TV personality of the same generation as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brent_Musburger Brent Musburger]. Gumbel began as a sportscaster, then became a "Today Show" host, and is now doing sports on HBO.

==Page 356==
'''"...one slip of the tongue..."''' 
Arguably the worst joke in any of Pynchon's novels. Gross!

'''"How to get an Italian Woman Pregnant."''' 
Three versions of this joke:

:'''Q:''' How do you get an Italian woman pregnant? '''A:''' And they say the Italians are stupid!

:'''Q:''' How do you get an Italian woman pregnant? '''A:''' Fuck her.

:'''Q:''' How do you get an Italian woman pregnant? '''A:''' Come in her shoes and the flies will do the rest!

==Page 358==
'''"Starting with a small used trailer..."''' 
This brief flashback telling the story of Zoyd's house includes a typically Pynchon-esque fable about "prehistoric" (and mythical) 5/8-inch plumbing fittings.

'''"full scale kvetchathon"''' 
''kvetch'' = Yiddish for complaint. Hence, a kvetchathon is a marathon bitch session among Van Meter's legendarily bickering family.

'''"kit conversions"''' 
The parts required to convert legal, semi-automatic rifles to full (and illegal) automatic operation are often available in kit form. The kits themselves are not illegal, but they become illegal if installed in non-registered weapons.

==Page 359==
'''"Antinomian"''' 
One who holds that moral law is not binding on Christians. Therefore, as mentioned below, "They believe whatever they do, it's cool with Jesus..." Perhaps Antinomianism is the really extreme flavor of preterite and elect doctrine. So extreme, in fact, that in most circles it's a heresy.

'''"Mrs. Grundy"''' 
A character from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Morton_(playwright) Thomas Morton’s] play 'Speed the Plough' (1798). She is the personification of the tyranny of conventional propriety and is mentioned by various authors from Dickens to Joyce.

'''"motocross"''' 
A cycle race over rough terrain, often desert. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motocross Wikipedia]

'''"May your life be full of lawyers"''' 
Supposedly, the "heavy-dutiest" Mexican curse.

==Page 360==
'''Zoyd's lawyer's voice "suggested Saturday morning more than prime time"''' 
That is, it reminded one of a cartoon character. Lessee, would it be a Smurf or a chipmunk?

'''"What about 'innocent until proven guilty'?" "That was another planet, think they used to call it America, long time ago, before the gutting of the Fourth Amendment. You were automatically guilty the minute they found that marijuana growing on your land."''' 
Pynchon is obviously deeply pissed by this shit (as well he might be); it makes a powerful point in his argument that Big Brother and the Fascists have won. "Another planet" echoes the allegorical conversation between Zoyd and Vond on p. 300.

'''"Y-You mean...life isn't Vegas?"''' 
A very funny line, though (in context) rather ominous as well.

==Page 361==
'''"Musso and Frank's"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musso_%26_Frank_Grill Musso & Frank Grill] is a famous old-time Hollywood restaurant, established in 1919.

'''"the Grand Canyon"''' 
A lot of detail is packed into a few sentences. Looks like Pynchon has been there, too.

'''"Tex Wiener"''' 
Actor Tex Weiner was on ''General Hospital'' with Sally Kirkland. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Hospital ''General Hospital''] is the longest-running ABC Daytime American soap opera broadcast on the American Broadcasting Company television network

'''"...fooled once again by the uniform..."''' 
So Frenesi comes by her weakness for sadistic uniformed cops genetically, via Sasha? Or is this something about how opposites need and create each other?

'''"Weww -- it's oow rubbish i'n'i'?"''' 
Well, it's all rubbish, isn't it? Pynchon's fabulous ear again.

==Page 362==
'''"off the scale"''' 
Techno rap, meaning too great to measure, pins the meter, etc.

'''"Naugahyde"''' 
An artificial material designed to resemble leather, made from fabric coated with rubber or vinyl resin.

'''"red-and-gold-flocked"''' 
Flocking is powdered wool or cloth sprinkled onto material (here, wallpaper) producing a raised pattern.

'''"Did they scream?"''' 
A cheap, if effective, trick: Pynchon switches POV (narrators) in mid-scene, giving the tale to producer Sid, and twists the knife by making him playfully reluctant to part with details, so Zuniga has to beg.

'''"Too bad we can't use it."''' 
Christ! Have we been watching Zuniga's damn movie all this time? Directed by Frenesi???

'''"Kissing a young pale melon, under a golden pregnant lollapalooza of a moon."''' 
Sasha's dream is sweet and surreal, but it seems insufficiently motivated. Would she really forgive Frenesi so easily?

==Page 363==
'''"Holocaust Pixels.'''" 
Cool name for a rock band -- and another TV reference. ([[Chapter 12#Page_226|See note, p. 226.]])

Song: "Like a Meat Loaf." 
Great song! Also the Return of the Thanatoid Lunch Meat. Also an echo of Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues."

'''The Thanatoids are "acting rowdier than DL or Takeshi had ever seen them."''' 
The only reverberation of the big flap that sent the karmic adjustment duo racing off for Shade Creek in the last episode. The Happy Ending rolls on.

==Page 364==
'''"...just a couple o' clicks..."''' 
Clicks = kilometers.

'''"Bardo"''' 
Bardo is the after-death realm in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tibetan_book_of_the_dead ''Tibetan Book of the Dead'']. The trick is to avoid rebirth, but most people fuck up and let themselves be trapped in a new life. Weed tells of looking for a just-fertilized egg in which to be reborn, "seeking out men and women in the act of sex...in a...smoke-tarnished district of sex shows and porno theaters." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitchell_Brothers The Mitchell Brothers] atmosphere is cute. In Tibet a lama keeps whispering the instructions in your dead ear so you don't make these little boo-boos ("couldn't find 'em, time ran out"). Pynchon implies that it's those with "too much still on [their minds]," i.e., unfinished business, that can't quite get permanently dead.

==Page 365==
'''"But what if I am the payback? If your account is zeroed out at last?"''' 
Weed's response to Prairie's offer is a little inconclusive, but note the zero.

'''"Thanatoids dream, though not always when we think we do--"''' 
Weed's dream is extremely powerful and the image is quite writerly. Is the coroner he's looking for "to reveal to the world at last my murder, my murderers" really Pynchon? Are the "companions" who keep trying to find this coroner the readers of Vineland? Faithful hippies? Those who refuse to buy the rewritten version of the Sixties? All of the above? Prairie says it's DL & Takeshi, Weed thinks maybe it's his parents. It might even be the Pisk sisters.

==Page 366==
'''"It was all for love... It was political... A rebel cop... The orders of a repressive regime..."''' 
Pynchon seems aware that his readers (the "companions") may be confused.

'''"Sometimes I think it could be my parents"''' 
Recall ([[Chapter_11#Page_206|page 206 notes]]) that Weed is based partly on Pynchon himself. ''Vineland's'' dedication is "For my mother and father". So this passage could be Pynchon speaking of or to his own parents.

'''"higher justice"''' 
God, karma, Karmic Adjusters, or Emersonism (cf. [[Chapter_15#Page_369|page 369]]), as opposed to the Department of Justice.

'''Prairie and Weed "soon to become an item"''' 
This is the real happy ending, suggesting that young kids may seek out the truth about the Sixties. (And not just the clothes!)

'''"Prairie would show him secrets of pachinko..."''' 
But how did she learn them? From DL? Pachinko is a Japanese gaming device used for amusement and prizes and is related to pinball machines. Although originally strictly mechanical, modern pachinko machines are a cross between a pinball machine and a video slot machine. Cf. [[Chapter_8#Page_122|page 122]].

==Page 367==
'''"the Traverse-Becker wingding"''' 
Nice image, suggesting the continuity of the Left although making it a picnic is surely some dark irony. (At least it's not a dinner party.)

'''"Octomaniacs"''' 
again, players of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crazy_eights crazy eights].

'''"the Mother situation"''' 
Nice cinematic touch, superimposing Frenesi and the Mother of Doom (the Queen of Spades).

'''"with Sasha was a woman about forty, who had been a girl in a movie..."''' 
The reunion of Prairie and Frenesi, which has motivated Prairie, and haunted Frenesi, throughout most of the book, is tossed off distressingly quickly, but with at least this one great line.

'''"Commere lemme check those dimples, yes there, they are..."''' 
Sasha's agonizing grandma act is way out of character. We hope! Still, "it's her way of trying to help" ([[#Page 368|p. 368]]).

==Page 368==
You'd think Pynchon would devote a little more ink to the reunion of Frenesi and Prairie, but in fact Frenesi seems to be in the process of fading out here (much as Vond will do in a few pages).

==Page 369==
'''"pasta dishes and grilled tofu contributed by younger elements"''' 
Hello, Becker/Traverse yuppies!

'''"Secret retributions are always restoring the level..."''' 
This marvelous quote from Emerson is deeply optimistic, and goes a long way toward buying off the Happy Ending. Contrasts nicely with Lombroso's "misoneism," the negative feedback loop by which society resists change.

It also provides a counter to the Orwellian (in Pynchon's view) Department of Justice that sponsors Brock Vond and CAMP, as well as a counterpoint to the Eastern idea of karma.

'''"Ask Crocker 'Bud' Scantling"''' 
The Happy Ending continues, as we learn of Crocker 'Bud' Scantling's karmic payoff under the wheels of a chip truck.

==Page 370==
'''"Lux Unlimited"''' 
A lux is a unit of luminosity equal to 1 candela sterradian per square meter. Drop that into your next bar room argument. 

Lux is Latin for light. "Fiat Lux", or "Let there be light", is the motto of the University of California.

'''"Take care of your dead, or they'll take care of you."''' 
Confirmation of what the Thanatoids really are ([[#Page 325|see p. 325]]). Also a nice restatement of Santayana's famous quote about "Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it (or retake the course)."

'''"Say, Jim"''' 
The title of this made-up half-hour sitcom (a black version of ''Star Trek'') is a reference both to Bones' habitual conversational opening to Captain James Kirk, and to Afro-American slang in which "Jim" is an all-purpose (and generally negative, being short for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Crow_laws "Jim Crow"]) form of address. This is also another digital gag (white becoming black = zero becoming one).

It also reflects the cultural change in mass entertainment that happened between the sixties and the eighties.

'''"Zoyd and Flash went off looking for beer"''' 
Flash surfaces. No point, really, except for the overall reconciliation Pynchon is forcing on the book.

'''"Robert Musil"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Musil Robert Musil] was an Austrian novelist (1880-1942), whose Proustian style was marked by subtle psychological analysis. His works include ''Young Torless'' and ''The Man Without Qualities''.

''Young Torless'' mixes homoerotic sadism with philosophical discussions of imaginary numbers, so it is relevant to ''Against the Day''. ''The Man Without Qualities'' is a thinly disguised portrait of Walter Rathenau, who is invoked several times in ''Gravity's Rainbow''. So Pynchon is poking fun at himself.

==Page 371==
'''"...talking back to the tube..."''' 
The Beckers and Traverses are politically hip, shown by their talking back, and their suspicion that the "prefascist twilight" is really just "the light...coming from millions of Tubes all showing the same bright colored shadows..." TV as the true opiate of the masses -- or, as the NY commies used to say, "de messes."

==Page 372==
Zoyd feels sorry for Flash, the "unfortunate sucker" who's still with Frenesi; he sees "the need behind the desperado lamps" (eyes). Nice phrase, nice rendition of the healing power of time and distance, and a sweet way to take leave of Zoyd, who seems to have found some peaceful place to rest at least for the moment.

==Page 373==
'''"Minute the tube got hold of you folks, that was it..."''' 
The kid (who speaks for Pynchon, of course) is right. It's funny how so few of us saw the future, fought the Tube. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marshall_McLuhan McLuhan] was right too, but we only thought we knew what he was talking about.

'''"gold-handled chainsaw"''' 
Sheriff Willis Chunko's celebrated anti-pot weapon takes us full circle from/to Zoyd's ladylike purse-sized model in [[Chapter 1|Chapter 1]].

'''"monster Mopars dialed and eager"''' 
Mopar = the parts division of Chrysler Motors = (here) engines. Dialed = souped up. This is at least the second "dialed" reference in Vineland. It's hot-rod talk, and means more or less the same as the now old-fashioned "blue-printed." The dials refer to a machinist's dial indicators, used to bring once-stock engines into more-than-perfect condition and tune.

==Page 374==
'''"speeding after moonset"''' 
Like in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thunder_Road ''Thunder Road''] [1958], the great [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Mitchum Robert Mitchum] bootlegging thriller.

'''"quaquaversal beard"''' 
"Quaquaversal" is a geological term meaning "turned or pointing in every direction." It's a good description for a wiry beard.

'''"...go find [Vond] and cancel his series for him..."''' 
Another TV referent.

'''"found it easier now to make out...her own...face"''' 
Now that Prairie has met Frenesi she can see her own face more clearly in Zoyd's. That is, she's not Vond's daughter. More Happy Ending.

==Page 375==
'''"...down out of [the helicopter], hooked by harness and cable to the mother ship above, came Brock Vond..."''' Is Vond's deus ex machina appearance to Prairie a dream? It could be; she was asleep. Then again, "Brock, whom his colleagues were calling 'Death From Slightly Above,' had been out [practicing]." And remember the Madwoman In the Attic ([[Chapter 13#Page 274|p. 274]]).

Pynchon tells you it's not a dream: "The beat ... woke her" and on the next page "she came fully awake".

'''"Death From Slightly Above"''' 
"Mors Ab Alto" or "Death from Above" is the motto of the US 7th Strategic Bomber Wing ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/7th_Bomb_Wing Wikipedia]). In the late 1960's and early 1970's they were famous for the "carpet bombing" of Vietnam. Brock Vond flies somewhat lower.

'''"Huey slicks"'''[[Image:UH-1.jpg|thumb|UH-1 Huey Slick|right]] 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UH-1_Iroquois UH-1 Iroquois helicopter] was first designated HU-1 (for "Helicopter, Utility" in backwards Army nomenclature) which led to its nickname "Huey". Although Hueys have been used in a wide variety of roles worldwide, they are closely associated with the Vietnam War, where they were heavily employed. The "slick" version of the Huey lacked external weapons pods, and was mainly used for evacuation and troop transport.

'''"more recaps on this subject than Mark C. Bloome"''' 
Bloome was the owner of a chain of popular tire stores in southern California, the Mark C. Bloome Tire Company.

'''"The original plan had been to go in..., come down vertical, grab her, and winch back up and out--"''' 
Why does Vond want to abduct Prairie? Lust? Pure evil? This is never adequately explained. There's a bit of chat in [[Chapter 14]] discussing Vond's interest in Prairie, but it's not developed any further.

==Page 376==
'''"The key is rapture."''' 
Earlier Vond explained the disappearance of the CotS students the same way. ([[Chapter 12#Page 248|See note, p. 248.]]) Also, it is Frenesi's rapture (or "frenzy") over being dominated that enables Vond to have his way with her.

The Rapture occurs along with the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Coming_of_Christ Second Coming of Christ], telegraphed to the Thanatoids on [[Chapter_15#Page_325|page 325]].

'''"Her tits, master--"''' 
Roscoe becomes Dwight Frye, Vampire Vond's Renfield. ("Rats, master, you promised me rats...")

'''Vond glows "unusually white."''' 
More evidence that he's a vampire. (A-and remember, he sleeps with his eyes open!)

Vampires, although deathly pale, don't glow white. They are afraid of light. But ''Angels'' ...

This is Vond's aura of invincibility, as seen on [[Chapter_13#Page_272|page 272]]. He has powered-up his primary weapon.

'''...can't be my father...Preparation H.'''[[Image:PreparationH.jpg|thumb|Preparation H|right]] 
She isn't Frenesi's clone, she has Zoyd's blood in her too. Vond paralyzes her for a second, but she can't be dominated as easily as Frenesi. In the Rapture, only believers are hoisted to heaven. Prairie doesn't believe in Vond's invincibility. And of course, Pynchon breaks the spell with another ass joke.

'''"Some white male far away must have wakened from a dream."''' 
Reagan? Meese? Nixon? The white male God of the Calvinists?

'''"Brock...now being winched back up..."''' 
Film running backward through the projector. The image is great, but there's something troublesome here. If the novel represents the real world (as we must assume it does, or it would be no more than an empty divertissement), what "real" event in 1984 informs Vond's withdrawal and defeat?

Here is a guess. Suppose REX 84 is taken to be a roundup of dissenters prior to a possible invasion of Nicaragua (cf. [[Chapter_15#Page_353|pg. 353 notes]]). It's late summer 1984 in the novel, so let's guess the Traverse-Becker picnic is always held on Labor Day, falling on September 3 in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984 1984]. On September 4, 1984 the Sandinista Front won the Nicaraguan election, considered fair by most international observers. An invasion was no longer possible.

==Page 377==
'''"Asshole, they're all together, one surgical strike..."''' 
Vond is ready to wipe out everyone Frenesi, Flash, Zoyd, Justin, maybe even Prairie just as (presumably) he wiped their computer files earlier.

'''"...[Vond] was gone, following his penis--"''' 
A reprise of the lyrics from "Like a Meat Loaf" ([[Chapter_15#Page 364|p. 364]]): "Well we followed our dicks just a couple o' clicks...")

'''Alexi appears in the clearing, carrying "an old acoustic guitar with Cyrillic stenciling on it, as if he'd been prepared to use it as a weapon."''' 
Like American political folkie [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woody_Guthrie Woody Guthrie's] guitar, on which the folksinger wrote "This machine kills fascists."

'''"The Movie at Nine"''' 
Pynchon gets into a great male-folksy description of a basketball movie the most developed of any of his synthetic made-for-TV flicks. An elect white team (the Celtics) Vs. a preterite black team (the Lakers). Obviously Pynchon is a Lakers fan. It's a story of great courage, and it sets up Vato and Blood for their "rescue" of the newly Thanatoidized Vond. Vond's car disappears (the way thanatoid vehicles do), and we get a Yurok tale by Vato, implying that by coming to Vineland Brock got too close to the land of the dead (Shade Creek). Maybe that's what woke the Thanatoids up? But by then, V&B Tow is conducting Vond across the River Styxx.

For more on the political/sociological subtext of the Celtics-Lakers rivalry, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lakers–Celtics_rivalry#Magic_and_Larry Wikipedia]. The game depicted is probably game 7 of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1984_NBA_Finals 1984 NBA Finals]. Since the game took place on June 12, Pynchon sticks to ''Vineland's'' themes and its late-summer timeline by including the game as a made-for-TV movie.

Pynchon uses Lakers games to anchor his timeline in [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Real_Time_and_Narrative_Time_in_Inherent_Vice ''Inherent Vice''].

==Page 378==
'''"Time to lock and load, Blood."''' 
Lock and load = ArmySpeak for "saddle up." Specifically, it means lock on the safety of your firearm and load a live round into the chamber, leaving the weapon armed and ready to fire but safe to carry. (The standard 'Nam response was "Cocked and locked!" meaning "Ready when you are.")

'''"It had been an unusual sort of car..."''' 
Vond's chopper turns into an (underpowered) car, which then disappears itself. Vond's power is fading out and he is too. Cool image, but same problem as above. Did Vond (that is, the totalitarian power freaks he fronts for) fade out in 1984? And if not, isn't it a cheat that he does so in the novel?

==Page 380==
'''"crankless"''' 
That is, without amphetamines.

==Page 381==
'''"...she and Takeshi finally renegotiated the no-sex clause..."''' 
Happy Ending continues. "Whooee!" says DL.

'''"a fractal halo of complications"''' 

Typical Pynchon light-and-color show -- and the second use of the "fractal" buzzword. (It occurs on [[#Page 323|page 323]], as well.) Are neural networks next?

==Page 382==
'''"an inkjet printer moved along the the meridians of his naked skin"''' 
Here, the Puncutron seems like Kafka's torture/execution machine from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_penal_colony ''In the Penal Colony''], but in reverse.

In acupuncture, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meridian_(Chinese_medicine) meridians] are channels in the body through which life-energy flows.

A template for instructing the "teen novices, all in white gi with trainee armbands" in acupuncture was being rendered unto Takeshi's body.

'''"an ivory fescue"''' 
Fescue = a teacher's pointer of high quality.

'''"When the Earth was still a paradise, long, long ago..."''' 
Sister Rochelle's allegory about Hell and Earth may explain a bit about Thanatoids, if you wish to read it that way.

Or perhaps an optimistic view of the end of the Cold War in the Third World, as seen by Pynchon in 1990.

==Page 383==
'''"faceless predators"''' 
This paragraph reads like Pynchon checked his outline, noticed two loose ends (the Kahuna hijack and the monster-stomped laboratory) and tied them up as quickly and crudely as possible. Sloppy work.

'''"despite every Karmic Adjustment resource brought to bear so far"''' 
This provides another motivation for DL & Takeshi's "business" venture.

'''"the night of no white diamonds or even chicken crank"''' 
Chicken crank = the speed Takeshi has been trying to score in the form of chicken feed. There are a number of other references to Takeshi's habitual speed use, not the least of which is his epic journey eastward to the SKA and Puncutron.

'''"the foreign magician and his blond tomato assistant"''' 
Takeshi and DL, of course.

==Page 384==
'''"Russian Johnny B. Goode"''' 
No happy-ending complete without Chuck Berry! Or does he mean "Back In the USSR?" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_B._Goode "Johnny B. Goode"] is a seminal 1958 rock and roll song by Chuck Berry, ranked by ''Rolling Stone'' as the seventh greatest song ever on their list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. [http://www.lyricsdepot.com/chuck-berry/johnny-b-goode.html Lyrics...] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ofD9t_sULM YouTube]

'''"You can come back...take me any place..."''' 
Prairie longs for Vond to come back and abuse her. It must be her genetic predilection for the uniform. Or, perhaps the desire to find out what was heavy enough to make her mom split. It's a bit sick, but maybe Pynchon knows his characters (and the human character) better than we do. ("Every woman adores a fascist / The boot in the face, the brute / Brute heart of a brute like you." "Daddy," [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_plath Sylvia Plath]) In any case, Pynchon "saves" it by having Desmond return. When it comes to preterite, what can out-pret a girl's dog?

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 14

2011-12-30T03:04:44Z

Pthomas: /* Page 313 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 294==
'''"But when he found out about Prairie...something else, something from his nightmares of forced procreation, must have taken over, because later, in what could only be crippled judgment, Brock was to turn and go after the baby and, noticing Zoyd in the way, arrange for his removal too."''' 
This explains Vond's attack on Zoyd in [[Chapter 4]] -- but note how "crippled judgment" buys off Pynchon's lack of clear motivation for this series of events.

Brock's nightmares are discussed on [[Chapter_13#Page_274|page 274]]. In Pynchon's symbolic system Vond is placed in opposition to life.

'''A great joke about the huge brick of weed that Zuniga plants at Zoyd's pad. "Let me guess," says Zoyd, thinking of Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick's monolith, "2001: A Space Odyssey [1968]." "Try 20,000 Years In Sing Sing [1933]," replies Zuniga.''' 
This joke is especially funny because both titles include numbers, and because both guys include scholarly references to the years the films were made. (Pynchon, of course, has been doing this throughout, but this is the first time he does it in dialogue).

A monolith of pot also appears in ''Inherent Vice''. See [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_2#Page_33 pg. 33].

==Page 297==
'''"Following the wisdom of the time"''' 
Pynchon refers, with vague disapproval, to the touchie-feelie California notion that men should "get in touch with their feelings" and, presumably, cry their little hearts out. However, Zoyd, who has gotten used to crying, is finding out that, in fact, big boys don't cry.

'''"Museum of Drug Abuse"''' 
Sure, Pynchon.

==Page 298==
'''"gnathic index"''' 
In craniology, the ratio of the distance from basion to prosthion to the distance from basion to nasion, expressed as a percent of the latter. Aren't you glad you asked?

'''"I know how to take care of Frenesi, asshole..."''' 
Vond is unbearably cruel and sadistic in this interview with Zoyd. Unlike the hero of "Leader of the Pack," the lyrics to which Pynchon uses for a joke on p. 270, Vond is both bad and evil. What an asshole! And he really hates hippies presumably for being childish. But who's really being childish here?

==Page 299==
'''"who feared nothing unless it was taking apart a transmission"''' 
Vond's Scorpiopic self-destructiveness is compared to that of the "beer outlaws" of Zoyd's youth ([[Chapter 4#Page 37|see page 37]]). This observation is quite accurate: Only advanced automotive nerds can take transmissions apart (and get them back together again).

'''"those rectal spasms of fear"''' 
Zoyd once again experiences this not-so-leit-but-definitely-motif in ''Vineland''. (See also pages [[Chapter 1#Page 10|10]], [[Chapter 4#Page 45|45]], [[Chapter 8#Page 116|116]], [[Chapter 11#Page 207|207]].)

==Page 300==
'''"Not the Earth Brock was acquainted with"''' 
A great line!

'''"...squealing, screaming guitar solos that defied any number of rules, that also lifted the blood and reassured the soul..."''' 
Could be [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimi_hendrix Jimi Hendrix]. Or a description of ''Vineland''. But mainly it gives Zoyd an idea that the "real" world still exists, and so will he.

==Page 301==
'''"she calls up one night..."''' 
Vond seems interested in making sure that Frenesi won't be able to find Zoyd and Prairie. Of course this is contradicted by the "public act of craziness" that Vond has insisted Zoyd perform.

On pg. 304 it's Hector, not Vond, who describes the mental disability scam. He says they can keep track of him so long as he picks up his checks, just like one of Hector's Paid Informants. No nationwide publicity is required.

'''"I have her power of attorney, she gave me that even before she gave me her body..."''' 
That is, Frenesi surrendered her identity to Vond first; bondage before intercourse. There's a distant echo here of Mississippi bluesman [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Johnson_%28musician%29 Robert Johnson's] "Traveling Riverside Blues": "She got a mortgage on my body, now, and a lien on my soul."

==Page 302==
'''"the count at 5:30 AM"''' 
Body count, that is a basic security measure in prisons.

==Page 303==
'''"EPT"''' 
Very likely El Paso, Texas. Pynchon has a scene in [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_644-677 Against the Day] set in El Paso, and even refers to the city by the same initials.

'''"Agustin Lara tunes"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin_Lara Augustin Lara] was born in Mexico City in 1896. He began composing songs in 1929, influenced by the popular dances and jazz forms of the 1930s and 40s. He composed well over 400 songs, many of them written for Mexican films. His best known song is probably "Granada." Lara died in 1970.

'''"conjunto"''' 
Spanish for "small band," or "combo."

'''"los vatos de Chiques"''' 
"Chicano dudes."

'''"palabra"''' 

Equivalent in Spanish to "word".

Another instance of Pynchon using this slang is in ''Inherent Vice'' when Bigfoot Bjornson says it to Doc, while also then saying, "semi-palabra" and hooking three fingers like a fang. [will update with pagination]

==Page 306==
[[Image:truckin.jpg|thumb|An R. Crumb Drawing|right]]
'''R. Crumb''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Crumb R. Crumb] is an American illustrator, author of subversive comics. He founded the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_comix Underground Comix] movement, which wanted to distinguish itself from mainstream comics by including subversive, sexually taboo, and counter-cultural material. Crumb is the subject of a fascinating documentary called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crumb_(film) Crumb] (1994).

==Page 307==
'''"Prairie kept waking up every couple hours, all the way back to her old baby ways."''' 
This is true baby stuff. Is Pynchon a daddy? Consider also all the baby details, and Prairie's teenagerhood. This is hard stuff to get from a book, but with Pynchon's genius for bringing research alive you never know.

'''"Mucho Maas"''' 
A pun, of course, on "mucho mas" ("much more", in Spanish). Also (and also "of course") ex-husband of Oedipa Maas, and one of the main characters in [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''The Crying of Lot 49''], in which Mucho is a DJ disgusted by his former incarnation as a used car salesman for a group called N.A.D.A., and becomes dependent on LSD.

==Page 308==
'''"Paranoids concert at the Fillmore"''' 
[http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''The Crying of Lot 49''] A band featured in The Crying of Lot 49. Showing that his writing and his novels all take place in the same fictional universe.

'''"absquatulation"''' 
Absquatulate is a coined word, apparently meaning to make off, or decamp. It also makes an appearance in Pynchon's 2006 novel [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Against the Day'']. The OED states it to have originated in the mid-19th Century and to have never had a serious application.

==Page 309==
'''"guest stash"''' 
A special supply of smoke for visitors was not uncommon in the houses of serious weedheads at this time. However, since Zoyd can't find the guest stash at Mucho's house he has to roll his own. Bummer!

'''Lawrence of Arabia [song]''' 

May not be intended at all, but I couldn't read this scene - Zoyd singing Prairie to sleep with this tune (before smoking his newly rolled J) - without thinking about the Skip Spence tune, "Lawrence of Euphoria," from his 1969 record, ''Oar''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oar_(Skip_Spence_album) WIKI]

'''Charles Manson''' 
Although Manson is most famous for the horrible murders committed by his followers, he was, at one time, an aspiring musician. He even hung out with the Beach Boys' Dennis Wilson for a time and a recording of his music was released after his trial.

'''[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/18/arts/music/wild-man-fischer-outsider-musician-dies-at-66.html Wild Man Fischer]''' 
Mentally ill Los Angeles street musician who was discovered on Sunset Strip and signed by Frank Zappa to a record contract with Bizarre Records. Died June 16, 2011. Was also mentioned by Pynchon on page 155 of ''Inherent Vice''.

'''Tiny Tim''' 
An eccentric folk singer who played the ukulele and sang in a strangely beautiful falsetto voice. He's most famous for his version of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips." He also shows up in ''Inherent Vice''.

==Page 310==
'''"unforeseen passion"''' 
A good description of Mucho's love for cocaine.

'''"Dr. Hugo Splanchnick"''' 
The entire Splanchnick sequence is immensely funny, including Pynchon's use of "snoot croaker" to describe the doc's specialty.

==Page 311==
[[Image:VWbus.jpg|thumb|Painted VW Bus|right]]
'''"stop-me-search-me VW bus"''' 
The epitome of Sixties California hippie culture, which (wonderful to say) continues to survive, everywhere, to this very day.

'''"'Aw' said the dopers, the speech balloon emerging from their tailpipe"''' 

All of a sudden, we're in 'toontown.

==Page 312==

'''Harry J. Anslinger''' 

Harry Jacob Anslinger [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Anslinger WIKI]

'''"...me entiendes como te digo?"''' 
Spanish for "Unnerstan' what I'm sayin'?"

==Page 313==

'''KQAS''' 
There is a real KQAS 89.3 FM licensed in Warrenton, OR, but "KQAS! Kick-Ass 460 on the AM dial!" is fictitious. Nevertheless, it has a website, www.kqas.com. [http://www.kqas.com] Mucho Maas does the drive-time show. Thanks to whoever created this!

'''"I guess it's over..."''' 
It seems likely that this is Pynchon delivering the "nut paragraph," as journalists call the central idea in a story. This dialogue seems heartfelt -- especially the stuff about the tube ("keep us distracted, it's what the Tube is for,") and rock 'n' roll ("just another way to claim our attention,") and "Soon they're gonna be coming after everything, not just drugs but beer, cigarettes, sugar, salt, fat, you name it, anything that could remotely please any of your senses...," and "It was the way people used to talk." (314) Yes, it was.

'''"Just please go careful, Zoyd"''' 
Mucho has made much the same settlement with the establishment that Hub Gates has: joined the approved union, settled down, stopped making a fuss.

==Page 314==
'''"''The Best of Sam Cooke'' ... the sermon"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Cooke Sam Cooke] was a singer-songwriter who was a pioneer of Soul music and was shot to death in Los Angeles in 1964. By "the sermon" Pynchon may mean Cooke's song [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Change_Is_Gonna_Come_(song) ''A Change is Gonna Come''] which was released just after his death. Listen on YouTube [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48K5Y0421Ig here].

'''"Enjoy it while you can, while you're light enough for that glass to hold you."''' 
Prairie on top of the Hip Trip pinball machine is a marvelous image capturing the fragility of the moment, the certainty of loss, age, death.

'''"Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge represents a transition, in the metaphysics of the region"''' [[Image:GoldenGateBridge.jpg|thumb|Golden Gate Bridge|right]] 
Great intro to Zoyd in Vineland.

==Page 315==

'''"the way a firearm is... finality...out to sea"''' 
Suicide?

'''"one guitar and one harmonica, playing the blues"''' 

This is a great metaphorical bit, with this exodus of hippies, signaling the end of a generation: the journey begins with them playing rock'n'roll and then reversing the process through history, until finally, back where it all began, a single person, playing the blues.

==Page 316==

'''Harbor of Refuge'''

The historical [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Harbor_of_Refuge Harbor of Refuge] is in Delaware. Here Pynchon seems to be creating the same idea for the west coast, however, a much less developed area over the years. Notice the mention of the Corps of Engineers marina on the following page.

See [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_26:_257-265#Page_258 ''Mason & Dixon'', pg. 258]

==Page 317==

'''Eureka-Crescent City-Vineland megalopolis''' 

Since traveling north on Highway 101, and not hitting Vineland until after Eureka, one could surmise that Vineland is located somewhere between Eureka and Crescent City, probably somewhere around [http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=415 Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park]. The actual topography, with mention to Vineland Bay, suggests the Arcata area, possibly transplanted a bit further north, or even possibly a flip on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware_Bay Delaware Bay]? [see page 316, and Harbor of Refuge].

The city of Arcata (see a satellite view [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=arcata,+California&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=34.724817,56.513672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Arcata,+Humboldt,+California&ll=40.767542,-124.109116&spn=0.2595,0.441513&t=h&z=11 here]) approximately (but not perfectly) matches Pynchon's description of the city of Vineland. It even has the Art Deco bridges Pynchon describes. Arcata, of course, is in Humboldt County. However, the name Vineland and Pynchon's references to grape-growing suggest Mendocino County to the south, since Humboldt and Del Norte were too far northwest to be used for wine grapes in the 1980's and earlier. See also
[[Chapter_1#Page_8|page 8]]. Ultimately, there's no reason for Pynchon to geographically match the real world. In his words from the ''Against the Day'' jacket flap, "Maybe it's not the world, but with a minor adjustment or two it's what the world might be."

For more on Arcata and marijuana, see [http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63L20820100422 this] Reuters article.

==Page 320==
'''"spool tenders, zooglers, water bucks and bull punchers"''' 
Logging jobs.

==Page 321==
'''"Many would be the former tripping partners and old flames who came over the years to deal with each other this way across desktops or through computer terminals, as if chosen in secret and sorted into opposing teams...."''' 
Some folks get on Welfare, and others administer it. Another incarnation of the binary/preterite metaphor.

==Page 322==

'''Vineland the Good''' 

The Vikings were the first to find and settle North America. They called it, "Vineland the Good". Following is an excerpt from ''Studies on the Vineland Voyages'' by Gustav Storm:

"[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leif_Ericson Leiv Eriksson] on his home-voyage from Norway to Greenland >>discovered Vineland
the Good<<, an event which, in conjunction with his saving off the coast of
Greenland a shipwrecked crew, got him the surname of >>the Lucky<<).
In Icelandic manuscripts from the 14th and 15th centuries... derived partly
from Latin sources... the noted traveller Nicholas, abbot of Thingeyre... con-
taining special information... where mention is made of the countries west and
south-west of Iceland, a passage on the discovery of Vineland, which accordingly
can be taken as of very ancient date, and at any rate may come from Nicholas...
>>South of Greenland lies Helluland, next Markland, and from thence it is not far
to Vineland the Good, which some think joins Africa." [http://books.google.com/books?id=1d0TAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=%22vineland+the+good%22&source=bl&ots=-X0xA_mGLb&sig=KPaspqNHrkHzr2lEwM0q39fbI6E&hl=en&ei=ey2xSvapEMi0tweLnJjmDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CBgQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=%22vineland%20the%20good%22&f=false GOOGLE BOOKS LINK]

Also, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinland Vinland].

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 14

2011-12-30T03:01:08Z

Pthomas: /* Page 313 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 294==
'''"But when he found out about Prairie...something else, something from his nightmares of forced procreation, must have taken over, because later, in what could only be crippled judgment, Brock was to turn and go after the baby and, noticing Zoyd in the way, arrange for his removal too."''' 
This explains Vond's attack on Zoyd in [[Chapter 4]] -- but note how "crippled judgment" buys off Pynchon's lack of clear motivation for this series of events.

Brock's nightmares are discussed on [[Chapter_13#Page_274|page 274]]. In Pynchon's symbolic system Vond is placed in opposition to life.

'''A great joke about the huge brick of weed that Zuniga plants at Zoyd's pad. "Let me guess," says Zoyd, thinking of Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick's monolith, "2001: A Space Odyssey [1968]." "Try 20,000 Years In Sing Sing [1933]," replies Zuniga.''' 
This joke is especially funny because both titles include numbers, and because both guys include scholarly references to the years the films were made. (Pynchon, of course, has been doing this throughout, but this is the first time he does it in dialogue).

A monolith of pot also appears in ''Inherent Vice''. See [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_2#Page_33 pg. 33].

==Page 297==
'''"Following the wisdom of the time"''' 
Pynchon refers, with vague disapproval, to the touchie-feelie California notion that men should "get in touch with their feelings" and, presumably, cry their little hearts out. However, Zoyd, who has gotten used to crying, is finding out that, in fact, big boys don't cry.

'''"Museum of Drug Abuse"''' 
Sure, Pynchon.

==Page 298==
'''"gnathic index"''' 
In craniology, the ratio of the distance from basion to prosthion to the distance from basion to nasion, expressed as a percent of the latter. Aren't you glad you asked?

'''"I know how to take care of Frenesi, asshole..."''' 
Vond is unbearably cruel and sadistic in this interview with Zoyd. Unlike the hero of "Leader of the Pack," the lyrics to which Pynchon uses for a joke on p. 270, Vond is both bad and evil. What an asshole! And he really hates hippies presumably for being childish. But who's really being childish here?

==Page 299==
'''"who feared nothing unless it was taking apart a transmission"''' 
Vond's Scorpiopic self-destructiveness is compared to that of the "beer outlaws" of Zoyd's youth ([[Chapter 4#Page 37|see page 37]]). This observation is quite accurate: Only advanced automotive nerds can take transmissions apart (and get them back together again).

'''"those rectal spasms of fear"''' 
Zoyd once again experiences this not-so-leit-but-definitely-motif in ''Vineland''. (See also pages [[Chapter 1#Page 10|10]], [[Chapter 4#Page 45|45]], [[Chapter 8#Page 116|116]], [[Chapter 11#Page 207|207]].)

==Page 300==
'''"Not the Earth Brock was acquainted with"''' 
A great line!

'''"...squealing, screaming guitar solos that defied any number of rules, that also lifted the blood and reassured the soul..."''' 
Could be [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimi_hendrix Jimi Hendrix]. Or a description of ''Vineland''. But mainly it gives Zoyd an idea that the "real" world still exists, and so will he.

==Page 301==
'''"she calls up one night..."''' 
Vond seems interested in making sure that Frenesi won't be able to find Zoyd and Prairie. Of course this is contradicted by the "public act of craziness" that Vond has insisted Zoyd perform.

On pg. 304 it's Hector, not Vond, who describes the mental disability scam. He says they can keep track of him so long as he picks up his checks, just like one of Hector's Paid Informants. No nationwide publicity is required.

'''"I have her power of attorney, she gave me that even before she gave me her body..."''' 
That is, Frenesi surrendered her identity to Vond first; bondage before intercourse. There's a distant echo here of Mississippi bluesman [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Johnson_%28musician%29 Robert Johnson's] "Traveling Riverside Blues": "She got a mortgage on my body, now, and a lien on my soul."

==Page 302==
'''"the count at 5:30 AM"''' 
Body count, that is a basic security measure in prisons.

==Page 303==
'''"EPT"''' 
Very likely El Paso, Texas. Pynchon has a scene in [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_644-677 Against the Day] set in El Paso, and even refers to the city by the same initials.

'''"Agustin Lara tunes"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin_Lara Augustin Lara] was born in Mexico City in 1896. He began composing songs in 1929, influenced by the popular dances and jazz forms of the 1930s and 40s. He composed well over 400 songs, many of them written for Mexican films. His best known song is probably "Granada." Lara died in 1970.

'''"conjunto"''' 
Spanish for "small band," or "combo."

'''"los vatos de Chiques"''' 
"Chicano dudes."

'''"palabra"''' 

Equivalent in Spanish to "word".

Another instance of Pynchon using this slang is in ''Inherent Vice'' when Bigfoot Bjornson says it to Doc, while also then saying, "semi-palabra" and hooking three fingers like a fang. [will update with pagination]

==Page 306==
[[Image:truckin.jpg|thumb|An R. Crumb Drawing|right]]
'''R. Crumb''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Crumb R. Crumb] is an American illustrator, author of subversive comics. He founded the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_comix Underground Comix] movement, which wanted to distinguish itself from mainstream comics by including subversive, sexually taboo, and counter-cultural material. Crumb is the subject of a fascinating documentary called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crumb_(film) Crumb] (1994).

==Page 307==
'''"Prairie kept waking up every couple hours, all the way back to her old baby ways."''' 
This is true baby stuff. Is Pynchon a daddy? Consider also all the baby details, and Prairie's teenagerhood. This is hard stuff to get from a book, but with Pynchon's genius for bringing research alive you never know.

'''"Mucho Maas"''' 
A pun, of course, on "mucho mas" ("much more", in Spanish). Also (and also "of course") ex-husband of Oedipa Maas, and one of the main characters in [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''The Crying of Lot 49''], in which Mucho is a DJ disgusted by his former incarnation as a used car salesman for a group called N.A.D.A., and becomes dependent on LSD.

==Page 308==
'''"Paranoids concert at the Fillmore"''' 
[http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''The Crying of Lot 49''] A band featured in The Crying of Lot 49. Showing that his writing and his novels all take place in the same fictional universe.

'''"absquatulation"''' 
Absquatulate is a coined word, apparently meaning to make off, or decamp. It also makes an appearance in Pynchon's 2006 novel [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Against the Day'']. The OED states it to have originated in the mid-19th Century and to have never had a serious application.

==Page 309==
'''"guest stash"''' 
A special supply of smoke for visitors was not uncommon in the houses of serious weedheads at this time. However, since Zoyd can't find the guest stash at Mucho's house he has to roll his own. Bummer!

'''Lawrence of Arabia [song]''' 

May not be intended at all, but I couldn't read this scene - Zoyd singing Prairie to sleep with this tune (before smoking his newly rolled J) - without thinking about the Skip Spence tune, "Lawrence of Euphoria," from his 1969 record, ''Oar''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oar_(Skip_Spence_album) WIKI]

'''Charles Manson''' 
Although Manson is most famous for the horrible murders committed by his followers, he was, at one time, an aspiring musician. He even hung out with the Beach Boys' Dennis Wilson for a time and a recording of his music was released after his trial.

'''[http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/18/arts/music/wild-man-fischer-outsider-musician-dies-at-66.html Wild Man Fischer]''' 
Mentally ill Los Angeles street musician who was discovered on Sunset Strip and signed by Frank Zappa to a record contract with Bizarre Records. Died June 16, 2011. Was also mentioned by Pynchon on page 155 of ''Inherent Vice''.

'''Tiny Tim''' 
An eccentric folk singer who played the ukulele and sang in a strangely beautiful falsetto voice. He's most famous for his version of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips." He also shows up in ''Inherent Vice''.

==Page 310==
'''"unforeseen passion"''' 
A good description of Mucho's love for cocaine.

'''"Dr. Hugo Splanchnick"''' 
The entire Splanchnick sequence is immensely funny, including Pynchon's use of "snoot croaker" to describe the doc's specialty.

==Page 311==
[[Image:VWbus.jpg|thumb|Painted VW Bus|right]]
'''"stop-me-search-me VW bus"''' 
The epitome of Sixties California hippie culture, which (wonderful to say) continues to survive, everywhere, to this very day.

'''"'Aw' said the dopers, the speech balloon emerging from their tailpipe"''' 

All of a sudden, we're in 'toontown.

==Page 312==

'''Harry J. Anslinger''' 

Harry Jacob Anslinger [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Anslinger WIKI]

'''"...me entiendes como te digo?"''' 
Spanish for "Unnerstan' what I'm sayin'?"

==Page 313==

'''KQAS''' 
There is a real KQAS 89.3 FM licensed in Warrenton, OR, but "KQAS! Kick-Ass 460 on the AM dial!" is fictitious. Nevertheless, it has a website, www.kqas.com. [http://www.kqas.com] Mucho Maas does the drive-time show.

'''"I guess it's over..."''' 
It seems likely that this is Pynchon delivering the "nut paragraph," as journalists call the central idea in a story. This dialogue seems heartfelt -- especially the stuff about the tube ("keep us distracted, it's what the Tube is for,") and rock 'n' roll ("just another way to claim our attention,") and "Soon they're gonna be coming after everything, not just drugs but beer, cigarettes, sugar, salt, fat, you name it, anything that could remotely please any of your senses...," and "It was the way people used to talk." (314) Yes, it was.

'''"Just please go careful, Zoyd"''' 
Mucho has made much the same settlement with the establishment that Hub Gates has: joined the approved union, settled down, stopped making a fuss.

==Page 314==
'''"''The Best of Sam Cooke'' ... the sermon"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Cooke Sam Cooke] was a singer-songwriter who was a pioneer of Soul music and was shot to death in Los Angeles in 1964. By "the sermon" Pynchon may mean Cooke's song [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Change_Is_Gonna_Come_(song) ''A Change is Gonna Come''] which was released just after his death. Listen on YouTube [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48K5Y0421Ig here].

'''"Enjoy it while you can, while you're light enough for that glass to hold you."''' 
Prairie on top of the Hip Trip pinball machine is a marvelous image capturing the fragility of the moment, the certainty of loss, age, death.

'''"Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge represents a transition, in the metaphysics of the region"''' [[Image:GoldenGateBridge.jpg|thumb|Golden Gate Bridge|right]] 
Great intro to Zoyd in Vineland.

==Page 315==

'''"the way a firearm is... finality...out to sea"''' 
Suicide?

'''"one guitar and one harmonica, playing the blues"''' 

This is a great metaphorical bit, with this exodus of hippies, signaling the end of a generation: the journey begins with them playing rock'n'roll and then reversing the process through history, until finally, back where it all began, a single person, playing the blues.

==Page 316==

'''Harbor of Refuge'''

The historical [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Harbor_of_Refuge Harbor of Refuge] is in Delaware. Here Pynchon seems to be creating the same idea for the west coast, however, a much less developed area over the years. Notice the mention of the Corps of Engineers marina on the following page.

See [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_26:_257-265#Page_258 ''Mason & Dixon'', pg. 258]

==Page 317==

'''Eureka-Crescent City-Vineland megalopolis''' 

Since traveling north on Highway 101, and not hitting Vineland until after Eureka, one could surmise that Vineland is located somewhere between Eureka and Crescent City, probably somewhere around [http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=415 Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park]. The actual topography, with mention to Vineland Bay, suggests the Arcata area, possibly transplanted a bit further north, or even possibly a flip on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware_Bay Delaware Bay]? [see page 316, and Harbor of Refuge].

The city of Arcata (see a satellite view [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=arcata,+California&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=34.724817,56.513672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Arcata,+Humboldt,+California&ll=40.767542,-124.109116&spn=0.2595,0.441513&t=h&z=11 here]) approximately (but not perfectly) matches Pynchon's description of the city of Vineland. It even has the Art Deco bridges Pynchon describes. Arcata, of course, is in Humboldt County. However, the name Vineland and Pynchon's references to grape-growing suggest Mendocino County to the south, since Humboldt and Del Norte were too far northwest to be used for wine grapes in the 1980's and earlier. See also
[[Chapter_1#Page_8|page 8]]. Ultimately, there's no reason for Pynchon to geographically match the real world. In his words from the ''Against the Day'' jacket flap, "Maybe it's not the world, but with a minor adjustment or two it's what the world might be."

For more on Arcata and marijuana, see [http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63L20820100422 this] Reuters article.

==Page 320==
'''"spool tenders, zooglers, water bucks and bull punchers"''' 
Logging jobs.

==Page 321==
'''"Many would be the former tripping partners and old flames who came over the years to deal with each other this way across desktops or through computer terminals, as if chosen in secret and sorted into opposing teams...."''' 
Some folks get on Welfare, and others administer it. Another incarnation of the binary/preterite metaphor.

==Page 322==

'''Vineland the Good''' 

The Vikings were the first to find and settle North America. They called it, "Vineland the Good". Following is an excerpt from ''Studies on the Vineland Voyages'' by Gustav Storm:

"[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leif_Ericson Leiv Eriksson] on his home-voyage from Norway to Greenland >>discovered Vineland
the Good<<, an event which, in conjunction with his saving off the coast of
Greenland a shipwrecked crew, got him the surname of >>the Lucky<<).
In Icelandic manuscripts from the 14th and 15th centuries... derived partly
from Latin sources... the noted traveller Nicholas, abbot of Thingeyre... con-
taining special information... where mention is made of the countries west and
south-west of Iceland, a passage on the discovery of Vineland, which accordingly
can be taken as of very ancient date, and at any rate may come from Nicholas...
>>South of Greenland lies Helluland, next Markland, and from thence it is not far
to Vineland the Good, which some think joins Africa." [http://books.google.com/books?id=1d0TAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=%22vineland+the+good%22&source=bl&ots=-X0xA_mGLb&sig=KPaspqNHrkHzr2lEwM0q39fbI6E&hl=en&ei=ey2xSvapEMi0tweLnJjmDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CBgQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=%22vineland%20the%20good%22&f=false GOOGLE BOOKS LINK]

Also, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinland Vinland].

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 13

2011-12-30T02:23:59Z

Pthomas: /* Page 288 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 268==
'''"When had Brock ever possessed her?"''' 
See comments on [[Chapter_13#Page_274|page 274]].

'''"...his partner Roscoe..."''' 
Roscoe = slang for pistol.

Also, a racetrack tout friend of the detectives on the TV detective show [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/77_Sunset_Strip ''77 Sunset Strip''].

Roscoe Boulevard is a street in Los Angeles.

'''"solon"''' 
U.S. term for a legislator or congressman. Solon was one of the seven sages of Athens, and is best know for inventing a class system based on wealth instead of lineage.

See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon Wikipedia] article.

'''"the chain-link perimeters of Allenwood, Pa."''' 
Allenwood Federal Correction Complex includes FCI Allenwood Low, #4 on Forbes Magazine's "Ten Best Places to Go To Prison" list. Once considered a "country club prison," Allenwood Low has become "a bit more austere" in recent years.

==Page 269==
'''"children longing for discipline"''' 
Vond's genius lies in seeing this desire in the kids of the Sixties. Is this Pynchon's view? It certainly seems true of Frenesi.

==Page 270==
'''"Internals"''' 
Roscoe is referring to Internal Affairs, the police division that investigates crimes by policemen. So Roscoe, a "bad cop", was fired from the police and subsequently hired by Brock Vond.

'''"Jeez I know I'm bad but--"''' 
Reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangri-Las Shangri-Las'] 60s rock 'n' roll song "Give Him A Great Big Kiss." The full line goes, "He's good bad, but he's not evil." [[Give Him A Great Big Kiss - Shangri-Las|Lyrics...]]; [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuNlEGbAKf0 Video of performance...]

'''"some of 'ems in it for real...They'll get remanded someplace else ... in the mainstream, that's where we fish"''' 
So Brock Vond is a fisher of men. Consistent with his Rapture analogy (cf. [[Chapter_12#Page_248|page 248]]), he is only interested in those he can convert; he throws the others back.

'''"I'm counting on that other 90%..."''' 
This certainly sounds like Pynchon, the disillusioned hippie. Pynchon likes to put his own political ideas in the mouths of his villains. Consider Scarsdale Vibe's comments on class struggle in ''Against the Day''.

==Page 271==
'''"less voluble Tonto"''' 
Brock and Roscoe as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Ranger Lone Ranger] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonto Tonto]. ''The Lone Ranger'' was a television series starring Clayton Moore (though with John Hart as the Lone Ranger from 1952-1954) and Jay Silverheels as Tonto, which ran from 1949 to 1957.

'''"Feel like we've been in a Movie of the Week!"''' 
L-like The Brock Vond Story, starring [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Redford Robert Redford]?

==Page 272==
'''"supernatural luck...aura...pure white light...immune to gunfire"''' 
This is Brock's aura of invincibility, that paralyzes his opponents by convincing them that all resistance is futile. Of course, Pynchon is making a broader point about the State. The aura returns on page 376.

[[Image:Lombroso.jpg|thumb|Revolutionaries and Political Criminals (Lombroso)|right]]
'''"Cesare Lombroso"''' 
Detailed exposition of the Italian criminologist's theories show Brock's (or, more precisely, Pynchon's) fascination with them. "...crude in method and long superseded, although it seemed reasonable to Brock." Or any other fascist with a bent toward genocide. Most of this stuff probably comes from the 1911 translation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Lombroso Cesare Lombroso's] ''Criminal Man'', or the 1911 biography by H.G. Kurella.

==Page 274==
'''"a set of big S's"''' 
Double lightning S's were the symbol of the Nazi SS, as any reader of ''Gravity's Rainbow'' knows. In light of the "scene" just ending, Vond's S's could also stand for "Super Sadist". The segment begins on page 268 with Brock Vond reminiscing that he had only possessed Frenesi for a minute and a half. This is a curious statement, given the amount of sex they have had together. It makes more sense after the fetishistic BDSM scene, since it appears that Vond views "possession" to be domination, rather than copulation. It jibes with a symbolism in which Vond has been placed in opposition to life.

'''"the Madwoman in the Attic"''' 
Brock's female side. This is the name of a major concept in post-Freudian feminist psychology, as well as the title of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Madwoman_in_the_Attic the Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar book] of feminist criticism concerning 19th Century novels. Published in 1979, their book examines Victorian literature from a feminist perspective. They drew their title from Charlotte Brontë's ''Jane Eyre'', in which Rochester's mad wife Bertha stays locked in the attic. Vond's dream foreshadows other criminal/erotic dream-women (such as Frenesi) coming in "from steep overhead angles" ([[Chapter 13#Page 276|p. 276]]). They sound like harpies or vampires, coming to rape Vond. As we shall see, Vond later approaches Prairie from the same direction.
[[Image:Arbogast.jpg|thumb|Arbogast's Death in ''Psycho''|right]]
'''"In dreams he could not control..."''' 
Brock's dream is a scene from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho_(1960_film) ''Psycho'']. Brock plays the hapless detective Arbogast and Brock's anima plays Arbogast's killer, Norman Bates. In some interpretations of ''Psycho'', Norman Bates' murders are symbolic rapes arising from an Oedipal fear of sex. This connects him with Brock Vond, who prefers domination to sex.

==Page 277==
'''"like a skier on an unfamiliar black-diamond slope"''' 
The black diamond symbol marks an "expert" (i.e., very difficult) skiing slope. Hearing of Frenesi's escape from PREP, Brock freaks out, feeling himself to be in a dangerous situation beyond his abilities.

Although he certainly was upset by Frenesi's escape, the line refers to the "descent" of his career. His project at College of the Surf was a public relations disaster and he was removed from the case. He goes from public hero to public villain. Where previously he "projected a charm that appeared to transcend politics..." (page 275), now he is considered a child molester. Times are changing (cf. page 279), and Brock's aura of rationality and invincibility, just as the Nixon Administration's after the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_Massacre Kent State Massacre], is fading in the public eye.

==Page 278==
'''"...hoping to find a girl to project Frenesi's ghost onto."''' 
Vond is about to repeat the mistake make by actor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stewart_%28actor%29 Jimmy Stewart] in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo_%28film%29 ''Vertigo''] [1958].

==Page 280==
'''"a fecoventilatory collision"''' 
Shit hitting the fan.

==Page 282==
'''"Frenesi had been making it as easy for him as she could..."''' 
She really does love Vond, it seems. Or his uniform, his sadistic charms, his authority.

He's a prosecuting attorney, so he doesn't wear a uniform. The other two reasons are on the mark.
Also, he's her escape ticket from mundane life to a world that is secret, exclusive and exciting.

'''KHJ''' 
"Boss Radio 93" in the '60s and '70s, a major Top 40 station. After 1980, changed to C&W, then Spanish programming. For KFWB, see note for page 133.

'''"sky-blue Rayleigh scattering"''' 
Typical Pynchon science shot. The frequency-differential scattering of light waves, as described by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Rayleigh Lord Rayleigh] (1842-1919), is indeed what makes the sky appear blue.

==Page 283==
'''"A&R"''' 
Artists and Repertoire. In record companies, the "Head of A&R" (originally "A&R man") decides which artists to sign, and what they'll record. A powerful position.

'''"Department...head!"''' 
A very old joke indeed. As noted previously, "head" is sixties doper slang for a user of (usually soft) drugs.

==Page 284==
'''"the eye-catching production values of LSD"''' 
Nice line, but to set it up Pynchon has to run these Mellow acid-head variations. It's a pretty idealized trip. Pynchon does Dr. Tim.

==Page 285==
'''"Leonard the midwife."''' 
Leonard? And in a Nehru shirt, no less! See also [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''The Crying of Lot 49''], paperback edition, [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_5 p. 128]: "Change your name to Miles, Dean, Serge, and/or Leonard, baby..."

'''The look from infant Prairie to papa Zoyd that would, more than once in years to come, "help him through those times when the Klingons are closing, and the helm won't answer, and the warp engine's out of control."''' 
Very nice use of the Star Trek metaphor to lock in the time frame during which Zoyd needed help, and also a powerful image to describe times of distress. See also the adventures of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutter_John Cutter John], the wheelchair-bound character in the "Bloom County" comic strip, who's famed for ''Star Trek'' fantasies enjoyed with Opus, Bill the Cat and other animal stars of that strip.

==Page 286==
'''"...Frenesi was depressed"''' 
Frenesi's deep sadness upon having her baby is so common it even has a name: "post-partum depression."

'''"Lobster Trick Movie"''' 
Well, this might be [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_hall ''Annie Hall''], but basically we're totally lost. Can it be some obscure Navy reference? A helmsman putting in his "trick" at the wheel? Or is this some kinda SoCal TV thing?

A [http://www.word-detective.com/2009/07/19/graveyard-dog-lobster-shift/ "lobster trick"] is journalistic slang for the midnight-to-sunrise shift at a newspaper. The word "trick" indeed comes from your maritime citation. The word "lobster" meant someone stupid as a lobster. You'd be stupid to work those hours! ''Annie Hall'' is impossible, since it was released in 1977 and couldn't have been on TV when Prairie was a baby.

==Page 287==
[[Image:ChryslerEagle.jpg|thumb|Eagle on the Chrysler Building, NYC|right]]
'''"the sleek raptors that decorate fascist architecture"''' 
Like the eagles of the 3rd Reich, and the USA.

'''"She understood, from all the silver and light she'd known and been, brought back to the world like silver recalled grain by grain from the Invisible to form images of what then went on to grow old, go away, get broken or contaminated."''' 
A remarkable extended metaphor about film (in which blacks are created by grains of silver appearing "from the Invisible" during development) as a sort of liberation from time.

Time trapped in a photograph is an important metaphor in ''Against the Day'', as in ''Vineland''. Cf. [[Chapter_8#Page_115|page 115]]

'''"Hubbell...cracking apart the first white-flame carbons of the evening into sky-drilling beams of pure arc light."''' 
Nice writing, and sets up the soon-to-come "photon projectors" nicely. To light a carbon-arc spotlight you turn on the power and then bring two carbon rods together. A bright, sizzling spark is lit, and as you move the carbons a few millimeters apart that spark stretches into a dazzling arc suitable for drilling up into the sky.

'''"photon projectors"''' 
arc lights.

==Page 288==
'''Dr. Spock''' 
Dr. Benjamin Spock, author of mega-bestseller Baby and Child Care [1st ed. 1946]. "Spock was the first pediatrician to study psychoanalysis to try to understand children's needs and family dynamics." [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Spock]

'''Hubbell's tale''' 
Sad, accurate, believable story pinned down by Pynchon's usual cascade of obscure, effective historic details and dialogue. Once again, Pynchon draws on his Navy experience to give Electrician’s Mate Third Class Hubbel Gates a verisimilitudinous background.

==Page 289==
'''"...drop a Brute 450 on you just as easy as a tree..."''' 
The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d7bsCiRFLE Brute] is a heavy carbon-arc studio light made by the Mole-Richardson company. Obviously, Hub is tired of hearing about the heroic but schlemiel-like main event in the life of Sasha's dad. ([[Chapter 6#Page 75|See p. 75]]).

'''"hit literally with a bolt from the sky"''' 
This colorful telling is based on a real event. On 7 October, 1945, outside Warner Bros. Studios, at least 40 strikers were casualties of this and other gambits, including being blasted with studio fire hoses.

'''"IATSE"''' 
[[Chapter 6#Page 82|See note on IA, page 82.]]

'''"Conference of Studio Unions"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conference_of_Studio_Unions CSU] was a coalition of filmmaking unions, notably the Painters' and Carpenters', formed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Sorrell Herb Sorrell] in 1941. The CSU was the spiritual successor of the SUC (Studio Unemployment Conference), the CMPAC (Conference of Motion Picture Arts and Crafts) and the UTSG (United Studio Technician’s Guild)—all of which were formed for similar reasons (to retake local control from the mob and sweetheart unions). And all of which were ruthlessly destroyed in the course of unsuccessful strikes. From Wikipedia:

:Hollywood Black Friday is the name given, in the history of organized labor in the United States, to October 5, 1945. On that date, a six month strike by the set decorators represented by the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU) boiled over into a bloody riot at the gates of Warner Brothers' studios in Burbank, California. The strikes helped the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 and led to the eventual break up of the CSU and reorganization of the then rival IATSE leadership.

'''"misoneism"''' 
hatred of what is new.

This concept was defined on page 272-273, where it was attributed to the racist criminologist Lombroso and reflected Brock Vond's thinking, but sounded suspiciously like Pynchon. By the end of this page, it's definitely Pynchon lecturing the reader.

'''"Roy Brewer"''' 
Brewer was International Representative of the IA in 1941. Although he was the successor to small-time mobster Willie Bioff, Brewer was not, apparently, mob-connected—but he carried on the tradition of collusion with the producers, insuring "international" (as opposed to local) control of the Hollywood unions.

'''"Ronald Reagan of the Screen Actors Guild"''' 
Obviously, much has been written about [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_reagan Ronald Reagan], but some readers may not be aware that before becoming Governor of California, and then President of the United States, Reagan was a high-ranking officer of SAG—which was, initially, a fairly progressive union. In the 1930s SAG stood in solidarity with the liberal, locally-based Hollywood unions that were opposed to IA and its mob management. However, the mob quickly discovered that accusing the rival unions of communist influence was an effective tactic—especially since the charge was not entirely untrue. As World War II drew to a close, and the "red scare" began, the screen actors' union began a turn towards the IA. In July, 1947, Reagan (then Vice President of SAG) negotiated a temporary truce between the studios and the CSU—known as the Peace Treaty of Beverly Hills. Unfortunately, just as things were starting to calm down, the Central Committee of the Communist Party stepped into the situation, calling for more control—which alienated even friendly progressives like Reagan. Eventually, under pressure from Reagan (who was now President) SAG officially voted to condemn the CSU actions as "communist inspired," and led all the other neutral unions into the IATSE camp. This was, apparently, the beginning of Reagan’s conviction that Communism was a conspiracy bent on destroying the American way.

==Page 290==
'''"Happy-go-lucky kids..."''' 
A sudden explosion of bebop tunes and wartime details powers this brief but effective time-machine day-trip.

'''"...Hub with a uke...[both] singing bop tunes..."''' 
In Pynchon's universe, musicians are always good guys.

==Page 291==
'''"pocket pool"''' 
Guys playing with their testicles in their pants pocket.

'''"...the Brute was first coming in. Jesus, all those amps..."'''[[Image:Brute.jpg|thumb|Brute 450|right]] 
So it turns out that Hub, Frenesi's father, "went over" too, and (like his daughter) for the love of a Brute. This [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d7bsCiRFLE Brute], however, is a big Mole-Richardson arc light, not a lawman.

'''"sold off my only real fortune -- my precious anger -- for a lot of god-damn shadows."''' 
Meaning film, of course, but remember too that in the binary scheme of life light and shadows are ones and zeros.

Recall that the Thanatoids, inert poltergeists, also dissipate their desire for revenge on the living by watching the Tube.

'''"Young Gaffer...I'd've called you my Best Girl."''' 
A play on "Best Boy," a film term referring to the gaffer's first assistant.

==Page 292==
'''"...this turn against Sasha her once-connected self would remain a puzzle she would never quite solve..."''' 
It's not that mysterious. Vond has forced a wedge (his erect penis, perhaps; see following note) between Frenesi and her mother, her leftism, her own female identity. It's a form of expulsion from Paradise, and ties in very neatly with Sister Rochelle's feminist Eden fable on [[Chapter 9#Page 166|p. 166]].

==Page 293==
'''"joystick"''' 
Vond reenters Frenesi's life, and the chapter ends with a powerful (if appropriately cheerless and depressing) simile in which Vond's erect penis is the joystick of the video game in a forbidden arcade that never shuts.

'''"falsely deathless"''' 
Game time is ''falsely'' deathless. The State lured Frenesi by promising to remove her from ordinary mortal life and history, but the State lied.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 13

2011-12-30T02:06:33Z

Pthomas: /* Page 282 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 268==
'''"When had Brock ever possessed her?"''' 
See comments on [[Chapter_13#Page_274|page 274]].

'''"...his partner Roscoe..."''' 
Roscoe = slang for pistol.

Also, a racetrack tout friend of the detectives on the TV detective show [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/77_Sunset_Strip ''77 Sunset Strip''].

Roscoe Boulevard is a street in Los Angeles.

'''"solon"''' 
U.S. term for a legislator or congressman. Solon was one of the seven sages of Athens, and is best know for inventing a class system based on wealth instead of lineage.

See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon Wikipedia] article.

'''"the chain-link perimeters of Allenwood, Pa."''' 
Allenwood Federal Correction Complex includes FCI Allenwood Low, #4 on Forbes Magazine's "Ten Best Places to Go To Prison" list. Once considered a "country club prison," Allenwood Low has become "a bit more austere" in recent years.

==Page 269==
'''"children longing for discipline"''' 
Vond's genius lies in seeing this desire in the kids of the Sixties. Is this Pynchon's view? It certainly seems true of Frenesi.

==Page 270==
'''"Internals"''' 
Roscoe is referring to Internal Affairs, the police division that investigates crimes by policemen. So Roscoe, a "bad cop", was fired from the police and subsequently hired by Brock Vond.

'''"Jeez I know I'm bad but--"''' 
Reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangri-Las Shangri-Las'] 60s rock 'n' roll song "Give Him A Great Big Kiss." The full line goes, "He's good bad, but he's not evil." [[Give Him A Great Big Kiss - Shangri-Las|Lyrics...]]; [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuNlEGbAKf0 Video of performance...]

'''"some of 'ems in it for real...They'll get remanded someplace else ... in the mainstream, that's where we fish"''' 
So Brock Vond is a fisher of men. Consistent with his Rapture analogy (cf. [[Chapter_12#Page_248|page 248]]), he is only interested in those he can convert; he throws the others back.

'''"I'm counting on that other 90%..."''' 
This certainly sounds like Pynchon, the disillusioned hippie. Pynchon likes to put his own political ideas in the mouths of his villains. Consider Scarsdale Vibe's comments on class struggle in ''Against the Day''.

==Page 271==
'''"less voluble Tonto"''' 
Brock and Roscoe as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Ranger Lone Ranger] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonto Tonto]. ''The Lone Ranger'' was a television series starring Clayton Moore (though with John Hart as the Lone Ranger from 1952-1954) and Jay Silverheels as Tonto, which ran from 1949 to 1957.

'''"Feel like we've been in a Movie of the Week!"''' 
L-like The Brock Vond Story, starring [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Redford Robert Redford]?

==Page 272==
'''"supernatural luck...aura...pure white light...immune to gunfire"''' 
This is Brock's aura of invincibility, that paralyzes his opponents by convincing them that all resistance is futile. Of course, Pynchon is making a broader point about the State. The aura returns on page 376.

[[Image:Lombroso.jpg|thumb|Revolutionaries and Political Criminals (Lombroso)|right]]
'''"Cesare Lombroso"''' 
Detailed exposition of the Italian criminologist's theories show Brock's (or, more precisely, Pynchon's) fascination with them. "...crude in method and long superseded, although it seemed reasonable to Brock." Or any other fascist with a bent toward genocide. Most of this stuff probably comes from the 1911 translation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Lombroso Cesare Lombroso's] ''Criminal Man'', or the 1911 biography by H.G. Kurella.

==Page 274==
'''"a set of big S's"''' 
Double lightning S's were the symbol of the Nazi SS, as any reader of ''Gravity's Rainbow'' knows. In light of the "scene" just ending, Vond's S's could also stand for "Super Sadist". The segment begins on page 268 with Brock Vond reminiscing that he had only possessed Frenesi for a minute and a half. This is a curious statement, given the amount of sex they have had together. It makes more sense after the fetishistic BDSM scene, since it appears that Vond views "possession" to be domination, rather than copulation. It jibes with a symbolism in which Vond has been placed in opposition to life.

'''"the Madwoman in the Attic"''' 
Brock's female side. This is the name of a major concept in post-Freudian feminist psychology, as well as the title of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Madwoman_in_the_Attic the Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar book] of feminist criticism concerning 19th Century novels. Published in 1979, their book examines Victorian literature from a feminist perspective. They drew their title from Charlotte Brontë's ''Jane Eyre'', in which Rochester's mad wife Bertha stays locked in the attic. Vond's dream foreshadows other criminal/erotic dream-women (such as Frenesi) coming in "from steep overhead angles" ([[Chapter 13#Page 276|p. 276]]). They sound like harpies or vampires, coming to rape Vond. As we shall see, Vond later approaches Prairie from the same direction.
[[Image:Arbogast.jpg|thumb|Arbogast's Death in ''Psycho''|right]]
'''"In dreams he could not control..."''' 
Brock's dream is a scene from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho_(1960_film) ''Psycho'']. Brock plays the hapless detective Arbogast and Brock's anima plays Arbogast's killer, Norman Bates. In some interpretations of ''Psycho'', Norman Bates' murders are symbolic rapes arising from an Oedipal fear of sex. This connects him with Brock Vond, who prefers domination to sex.

==Page 277==
'''"like a skier on an unfamiliar black-diamond slope"''' 
The black diamond symbol marks an "expert" (i.e., very difficult) skiing slope. Hearing of Frenesi's escape from PREP, Brock freaks out, feeling himself to be in a dangerous situation beyond his abilities.

Although he certainly was upset by Frenesi's escape, the line refers to the "descent" of his career. His project at College of the Surf was a public relations disaster and he was removed from the case. He goes from public hero to public villain. Where previously he "projected a charm that appeared to transcend politics..." (page 275), now he is considered a child molester. Times are changing (cf. page 279), and Brock's aura of rationality and invincibility, just as the Nixon Administration's after the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_Massacre Kent State Massacre], is fading in the public eye.

==Page 278==
'''"...hoping to find a girl to project Frenesi's ghost onto."''' 
Vond is about to repeat the mistake make by actor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stewart_%28actor%29 Jimmy Stewart] in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo_%28film%29 ''Vertigo''] [1958].

==Page 280==
'''"a fecoventilatory collision"''' 
Shit hitting the fan.

==Page 282==
'''"Frenesi had been making it as easy for him as she could..."''' 
She really does love Vond, it seems. Or his uniform, his sadistic charms, his authority.

He's a prosecuting attorney, so he doesn't wear a uniform. The other two reasons are on the mark.
Also, he's her escape ticket from mundane life to a world that is secret, exclusive and exciting.

'''KHJ''' 
"Boss Radio 93" in the '60s and '70s, a major Top 40 station. After 1980, changed to C&W, then Spanish programming. For KFWB, see note for page 133.

'''"sky-blue Rayleigh scattering"''' 
Typical Pynchon science shot. The frequency-differential scattering of light waves, as described by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Rayleigh Lord Rayleigh] (1842-1919), is indeed what makes the sky appear blue.

==Page 283==
'''"A&R"''' 
Artists and Repertoire. In record companies, the "Head of A&R" (originally "A&R man") decides which artists to sign, and what they'll record. A powerful position.

'''"Department...head!"''' 
A very old joke indeed. As noted previously, "head" is sixties doper slang for a user of (usually soft) drugs.

==Page 284==
'''"the eye-catching production values of LSD"''' 
Nice line, but to set it up Pynchon has to run these Mellow acid-head variations. It's a pretty idealized trip. Pynchon does Dr. Tim.

==Page 285==
'''"Leonard the midwife."''' 
Leonard? And in a Nehru shirt, no less! See also [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''The Crying of Lot 49''], paperback edition, [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_5 p. 128]: "Change your name to Miles, Dean, Serge, and/or Leonard, baby..."

'''The look from infant Prairie to papa Zoyd that would, more than once in years to come, "help him through those times when the Klingons are closing, and the helm won't answer, and the warp engine's out of control."''' 
Very nice use of the Star Trek metaphor to lock in the time frame during which Zoyd needed help, and also a powerful image to describe times of distress. See also the adventures of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutter_John Cutter John], the wheelchair-bound character in the "Bloom County" comic strip, who's famed for ''Star Trek'' fantasies enjoyed with Opus, Bill the Cat and other animal stars of that strip.

==Page 286==
'''"...Frenesi was depressed"''' 
Frenesi's deep sadness upon having her baby is so common it even has a name: "post-partum depression."

'''"Lobster Trick Movie"''' 
Well, this might be [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_hall ''Annie Hall''], but basically we're totally lost. Can it be some obscure Navy reference? A helmsman putting in his "trick" at the wheel? Or is this some kinda SoCal TV thing?

A [http://www.word-detective.com/2009/07/19/graveyard-dog-lobster-shift/ "lobster trick"] is journalistic slang for the midnight-to-sunrise shift at a newspaper. The word "trick" indeed comes from your maritime citation. The word "lobster" meant someone stupid as a lobster. You'd be stupid to work those hours! ''Annie Hall'' is impossible, since it was released in 1977 and couldn't have been on TV when Prairie was a baby.

==Page 287==
[[Image:ChryslerEagle.jpg|thumb|Eagle on the Chrysler Building, NYC|right]]
'''"the sleek raptors that decorate fascist architecture"''' 
Like the eagles of the 3rd Reich, and the USA.

'''"She understood, from all the silver and light she'd known and been, brought back to the world like silver recalled grain by grain from the Invisible to form images of what then went on to grow old, go away, get broken or contaminated."''' 
A remarkable extended metaphor about film (in which blacks are created by grains of silver appearing "from the Invisible" during development) as a sort of liberation from time.

Time trapped in a photograph is an important metaphor in ''Against the Day'', as in ''Vineland''. Cf. [[Chapter_8#Page_115|page 115]]

'''"Hubbell...cracking apart the first white-flame carbons of the evening into sky-drilling beams of pure arc light."''' 
Nice writing, and sets up the soon-to-come "photon projectors" nicely. To light a carbon-arc spotlight you turn on the power and then bring two carbon rods together. A bright, sizzling spark is lit, and as you move the carbons a few millimeters apart that spark stretches into a dazzling arc suitable for drilling up into the sky.

'''"photon projectors"''' 
arc lights.

==Page 288==
'''Hubbell's tale''' 
Sad, accurate, believable story pinned down by Pynchon's usual cascade of obscure, effective historic details and dialogue. Once again, Pynchon draws on his Navy experience to give Electrician’s Mate Third Class Hubbel Gates a verisimilitudinous background.

==Page 289==
'''"...drop a Brute 450 on you just as easy as a tree..."''' 
The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d7bsCiRFLE Brute] is a heavy carbon-arc studio light made by the Mole-Richardson company. Obviously, Hub is tired of hearing about the heroic but schlemiel-like main event in the life of Sasha's dad. ([[Chapter 6#Page 75|See p. 75]]).

'''"hit literally with a bolt from the sky"''' 
This colorful telling is based on a real event. On 7 October, 1945, outside Warner Bros. Studios, at least 40 strikers were casualties of this and other gambits, including being blasted with studio fire hoses.

'''"IATSE"''' 
[[Chapter 6#Page 82|See note on IA, page 82.]]

'''"Conference of Studio Unions"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conference_of_Studio_Unions CSU] was a coalition of filmmaking unions, notably the Painters' and Carpenters', formed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Sorrell Herb Sorrell] in 1941. The CSU was the spiritual successor of the SUC (Studio Unemployment Conference), the CMPAC (Conference of Motion Picture Arts and Crafts) and the UTSG (United Studio Technician’s Guild)—all of which were formed for similar reasons (to retake local control from the mob and sweetheart unions). And all of which were ruthlessly destroyed in the course of unsuccessful strikes. From Wikipedia:

:Hollywood Black Friday is the name given, in the history of organized labor in the United States, to October 5, 1945. On that date, a six month strike by the set decorators represented by the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU) boiled over into a bloody riot at the gates of Warner Brothers' studios in Burbank, California. The strikes helped the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 and led to the eventual break up of the CSU and reorganization of the then rival IATSE leadership.

'''"misoneism"''' 
hatred of what is new.

This concept was defined on page 272-273, where it was attributed to the racist criminologist Lombroso and reflected Brock Vond's thinking, but sounded suspiciously like Pynchon. By the end of this page, it's definitely Pynchon lecturing the reader.

'''"Roy Brewer"''' 
Brewer was International Representative of the IA in 1941. Although he was the successor to small-time mobster Willie Bioff, Brewer was not, apparently, mob-connected—but he carried on the tradition of collusion with the producers, insuring "international" (as opposed to local) control of the Hollywood unions.

'''"Ronald Reagan of the Screen Actors Guild"''' 
Obviously, much has been written about [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_reagan Ronald Reagan], but some readers may not be aware that before becoming Governor of California, and then President of the United States, Reagan was a high-ranking officer of SAG—which was, initially, a fairly progressive union. In the 1930s SAG stood in solidarity with the liberal, locally-based Hollywood unions that were opposed to IA and its mob management. However, the mob quickly discovered that accusing the rival unions of communist influence was an effective tactic—especially since the charge was not entirely untrue. As World War II drew to a close, and the "red scare" began, the screen actors' union began a turn towards the IA. In July, 1947, Reagan (then Vice President of SAG) negotiated a temporary truce between the studios and the CSU—known as the Peace Treaty of Beverly Hills. Unfortunately, just as things were starting to calm down, the Central Committee of the Communist Party stepped into the situation, calling for more control—which alienated even friendly progressives like Reagan. Eventually, under pressure from Reagan (who was now President) SAG officially voted to condemn the CSU actions as "communist inspired," and led all the other neutral unions into the IATSE camp. This was, apparently, the beginning of Reagan’s conviction that Communism was a conspiracy bent on destroying the American way.

==Page 290==
'''"Happy-go-lucky kids..."''' 
A sudden explosion of bebop tunes and wartime details powers this brief but effective time-machine day-trip.

'''"...Hub with a uke...[both] singing bop tunes..."''' 
In Pynchon's universe, musicians are always good guys.

==Page 291==
'''"pocket pool"''' 
Guys playing with their testicles in their pants pocket.

'''"...the Brute was first coming in. Jesus, all those amps..."'''[[Image:Brute.jpg|thumb|Brute 450|right]] 
So it turns out that Hub, Frenesi's father, "went over" too, and (like his daughter) for the love of a Brute. This [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d7bsCiRFLE Brute], however, is a big Mole-Richardson arc light, not a lawman.

'''"sold off my only real fortune -- my precious anger -- for a lot of god-damn shadows."''' 
Meaning film, of course, but remember too that in the binary scheme of life light and shadows are ones and zeros.

Recall that the Thanatoids, inert poltergeists, also dissipate their desire for revenge on the living by watching the Tube.

'''"Young Gaffer...I'd've called you my Best Girl."''' 
A play on "Best Boy," a film term referring to the gaffer's first assistant.

==Page 292==
'''"...this turn against Sasha her once-connected self would remain a puzzle she would never quite solve..."''' 
It's not that mysterious. Vond has forced a wedge (his erect penis, perhaps; see following note) between Frenesi and her mother, her leftism, her own female identity. It's a form of expulsion from Paradise, and ties in very neatly with Sister Rochelle's feminist Eden fable on [[Chapter 9#Page 166|p. 166]].

==Page 293==
'''"joystick"''' 
Vond reenters Frenesi's life, and the chapter ends with a powerful (if appropriately cheerless and depressing) simile in which Vond's erect penis is the joystick of the video game in a forbidden arcade that never shuts.

'''"falsely deathless"''' 
Game time is ''falsely'' deathless. The State lured Frenesi by promising to remove her from ordinary mortal life and history, but the State lied.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 13

2011-12-30T01:43:36Z

Pthomas: /* Page 278 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 268==
'''"When had Brock ever possessed her?"''' 
See comments on [[Chapter_13#Page_274|page 274]].

'''"...his partner Roscoe..."''' 
Roscoe = slang for pistol.

Also, a racetrack tout friend of the detectives on the TV detective show [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/77_Sunset_Strip ''77 Sunset Strip''].

Roscoe Boulevard is a street in Los Angeles.

'''"solon"''' 
U.S. term for a legislator or congressman. Solon was one of the seven sages of Athens, and is best know for inventing a class system based on wealth instead of lineage.

See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon Wikipedia] article.

'''"the chain-link perimeters of Allenwood, Pa."''' 
Allenwood Federal Correction Complex includes FCI Allenwood Low, #4 on Forbes Magazine's "Ten Best Places to Go To Prison" list. Once considered a "country club prison," Allenwood Low has become "a bit more austere" in recent years.

==Page 269==
'''"children longing for discipline"''' 
Vond's genius lies in seeing this desire in the kids of the Sixties. Is this Pynchon's view? It certainly seems true of Frenesi.

==Page 270==
'''"Internals"''' 
Roscoe is referring to Internal Affairs, the police division that investigates crimes by policemen. So Roscoe, a "bad cop", was fired from the police and subsequently hired by Brock Vond.

'''"Jeez I know I'm bad but--"''' 
Reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangri-Las Shangri-Las'] 60s rock 'n' roll song "Give Him A Great Big Kiss." The full line goes, "He's good bad, but he's not evil." [[Give Him A Great Big Kiss - Shangri-Las|Lyrics...]]; [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuNlEGbAKf0 Video of performance...]

'''"some of 'ems in it for real...They'll get remanded someplace else ... in the mainstream, that's where we fish"''' 
So Brock Vond is a fisher of men. Consistent with his Rapture analogy (cf. [[Chapter_12#Page_248|page 248]]), he is only interested in those he can convert; he throws the others back.

'''"I'm counting on that other 90%..."''' 
This certainly sounds like Pynchon, the disillusioned hippie. Pynchon likes to put his own political ideas in the mouths of his villains. Consider Scarsdale Vibe's comments on class struggle in ''Against the Day''.

==Page 271==
'''"less voluble Tonto"''' 
Brock and Roscoe as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Ranger Lone Ranger] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonto Tonto]. ''The Lone Ranger'' was a television series starring Clayton Moore (though with John Hart as the Lone Ranger from 1952-1954) and Jay Silverheels as Tonto, which ran from 1949 to 1957.

'''"Feel like we've been in a Movie of the Week!"''' 
L-like The Brock Vond Story, starring [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Redford Robert Redford]?

==Page 272==
'''"supernatural luck...aura...pure white light...immune to gunfire"''' 
This is Brock's aura of invincibility, that paralyzes his opponents by convincing them that all resistance is futile. Of course, Pynchon is making a broader point about the State. The aura returns on page 376.

[[Image:Lombroso.jpg|thumb|Revolutionaries and Political Criminals (Lombroso)|right]]
'''"Cesare Lombroso"''' 
Detailed exposition of the Italian criminologist's theories show Brock's (or, more precisely, Pynchon's) fascination with them. "...crude in method and long superseded, although it seemed reasonable to Brock." Or any other fascist with a bent toward genocide. Most of this stuff probably comes from the 1911 translation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Lombroso Cesare Lombroso's] ''Criminal Man'', or the 1911 biography by H.G. Kurella.

==Page 274==
'''"a set of big S's"''' 
Double lightning S's were the symbol of the Nazi SS, as any reader of ''Gravity's Rainbow'' knows. In light of the "scene" just ending, Vond's S's could also stand for "Super Sadist". The segment begins on page 268 with Brock Vond reminiscing that he had only possessed Frenesi for a minute and a half. This is a curious statement, given the amount of sex they have had together. It makes more sense after the fetishistic BDSM scene, since it appears that Vond views "possession" to be domination, rather than copulation. It jibes with a symbolism in which Vond has been placed in opposition to life.

'''"the Madwoman in the Attic"''' 
Brock's female side. This is the name of a major concept in post-Freudian feminist psychology, as well as the title of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Madwoman_in_the_Attic the Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar book] of feminist criticism concerning 19th Century novels. Published in 1979, their book examines Victorian literature from a feminist perspective. They drew their title from Charlotte Brontë's ''Jane Eyre'', in which Rochester's mad wife Bertha stays locked in the attic. Vond's dream foreshadows other criminal/erotic dream-women (such as Frenesi) coming in "from steep overhead angles" ([[Chapter 13#Page 276|p. 276]]). They sound like harpies or vampires, coming to rape Vond. As we shall see, Vond later approaches Prairie from the same direction.
[[Image:Arbogast.jpg|thumb|Arbogast's Death in ''Psycho''|right]]
'''"In dreams he could not control..."''' 
Brock's dream is a scene from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho_(1960_film) ''Psycho'']. Brock plays the hapless detective Arbogast and Brock's anima plays Arbogast's killer, Norman Bates. In some interpretations of ''Psycho'', Norman Bates' murders are symbolic rapes arising from an Oedipal fear of sex. This connects him with Brock Vond, who prefers domination to sex.

==Page 277==
'''"like a skier on an unfamiliar black-diamond slope"''' 
The black diamond symbol marks an "expert" (i.e., very difficult) skiing slope. Hearing of Frenesi's escape from PREP, Brock freaks out, feeling himself to be in a dangerous situation beyond his abilities.

Although he certainly was upset by Frenesi's escape, the line refers to the "descent" of his career. His project at College of the Surf was a public relations disaster and he was removed from the case. He goes from public hero to public villain. Where previously he "projected a charm that appeared to transcend politics..." (page 275), now he is considered a child molester. Times are changing (cf. page 279), and Brock's aura of rationality and invincibility, just as the Nixon Administration's after the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_Massacre Kent State Massacre], is fading in the public eye.

==Page 278==
'''"...hoping to find a girl to project Frenesi's ghost onto."''' 
Vond is about to repeat the mistake make by actor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stewart_%28actor%29 Jimmy Stewart] in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo_%28film%29 ''Vertigo''] [1958].

==Page 280==
'''"a fecoventilatory collision"''' 
Shit hitting the fan.

==Page 282==
'''"Frenesi had been making it as easy for him as she could..."''' 
She really does love Vond, it seems. Or his uniform, his sadistic charms, his authority.

He's a prosecuting attorney, so he doesn't wear a uniform. The other two reasons are on the mark.
Also, he's her escape ticket from mundane life to a world that is secret, exclusive and exciting.

'''"sky-blue Rayleigh scattering"''' 
Typical Pynchon science shot. The frequency-differential scattering of light waves, as described by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Rayleigh Lord Rayleigh] (1842-1919), is indeed what makes the sky appear blue.

==Page 283==
'''"A&R"''' 
Artists and Repertoire. In record companies, the "Head of A&R" (originally "A&R man") decides which artists to sign, and what they'll record. A powerful position.

'''"Department...head!"''' 
A very old joke indeed. As noted previously, "head" is sixties doper slang for a user of (usually soft) drugs.

==Page 284==
'''"the eye-catching production values of LSD"''' 
Nice line, but to set it up Pynchon has to run these Mellow acid-head variations. It's a pretty idealized trip. Pynchon does Dr. Tim.

==Page 285==
'''"Leonard the midwife."''' 
Leonard? And in a Nehru shirt, no less! See also [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''The Crying of Lot 49''], paperback edition, [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_5 p. 128]: "Change your name to Miles, Dean, Serge, and/or Leonard, baby..."

'''The look from infant Prairie to papa Zoyd that would, more than once in years to come, "help him through those times when the Klingons are closing, and the helm won't answer, and the warp engine's out of control."''' 
Very nice use of the Star Trek metaphor to lock in the time frame during which Zoyd needed help, and also a powerful image to describe times of distress. See also the adventures of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutter_John Cutter John], the wheelchair-bound character in the "Bloom County" comic strip, who's famed for ''Star Trek'' fantasies enjoyed with Opus, Bill the Cat and other animal stars of that strip.

==Page 286==
'''"...Frenesi was depressed"''' 
Frenesi's deep sadness upon having her baby is so common it even has a name: "post-partum depression."

'''"Lobster Trick Movie"''' 
Well, this might be [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_hall ''Annie Hall''], but basically we're totally lost. Can it be some obscure Navy reference? A helmsman putting in his "trick" at the wheel? Or is this some kinda SoCal TV thing?

A [http://www.word-detective.com/2009/07/19/graveyard-dog-lobster-shift/ "lobster trick"] is journalistic slang for the midnight-to-sunrise shift at a newspaper. The word "trick" indeed comes from your maritime citation. The word "lobster" meant someone stupid as a lobster. You'd be stupid to work those hours! ''Annie Hall'' is impossible, since it was released in 1977 and couldn't have been on TV when Prairie was a baby.

==Page 287==
[[Image:ChryslerEagle.jpg|thumb|Eagle on the Chrysler Building, NYC|right]]
'''"the sleek raptors that decorate fascist architecture"''' 
Like the eagles of the 3rd Reich, and the USA.

'''"She understood, from all the silver and light she'd known and been, brought back to the world like silver recalled grain by grain from the Invisible to form images of what then went on to grow old, go away, get broken or contaminated."''' 
A remarkable extended metaphor about film (in which blacks are created by grains of silver appearing "from the Invisible" during development) as a sort of liberation from time.

Time trapped in a photograph is an important metaphor in ''Against the Day'', as in ''Vineland''. Cf. [[Chapter_8#Page_115|page 115]]

'''"Hubbell...cracking apart the first white-flame carbons of the evening into sky-drilling beams of pure arc light."''' 
Nice writing, and sets up the soon-to-come "photon projectors" nicely. To light a carbon-arc spotlight you turn on the power and then bring two carbon rods together. A bright, sizzling spark is lit, and as you move the carbons a few millimeters apart that spark stretches into a dazzling arc suitable for drilling up into the sky.

'''"photon projectors"''' 
arc lights.

==Page 288==
'''Hubbell's tale''' 
Sad, accurate, believable story pinned down by Pynchon's usual cascade of obscure, effective historic details and dialogue. Once again, Pynchon draws on his Navy experience to give Electrician’s Mate Third Class Hubbel Gates a verisimilitudinous background.

==Page 289==
'''"...drop a Brute 450 on you just as easy as a tree..."''' 
The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d7bsCiRFLE Brute] is a heavy carbon-arc studio light made by the Mole-Richardson company. Obviously, Hub is tired of hearing about the heroic but schlemiel-like main event in the life of Sasha's dad. ([[Chapter 6#Page 75|See p. 75]]).

'''"hit literally with a bolt from the sky"''' 
This colorful telling is based on a real event. On 7 October, 1945, outside Warner Bros. Studios, at least 40 strikers were casualties of this and other gambits, including being blasted with studio fire hoses.

'''"IATSE"''' 
[[Chapter 6#Page 82|See note on IA, page 82.]]

'''"Conference of Studio Unions"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conference_of_Studio_Unions CSU] was a coalition of filmmaking unions, notably the Painters' and Carpenters', formed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Sorrell Herb Sorrell] in 1941. The CSU was the spiritual successor of the SUC (Studio Unemployment Conference), the CMPAC (Conference of Motion Picture Arts and Crafts) and the UTSG (United Studio Technician’s Guild)—all of which were formed for similar reasons (to retake local control from the mob and sweetheart unions). And all of which were ruthlessly destroyed in the course of unsuccessful strikes. From Wikipedia:

:Hollywood Black Friday is the name given, in the history of organized labor in the United States, to October 5, 1945. On that date, a six month strike by the set decorators represented by the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU) boiled over into a bloody riot at the gates of Warner Brothers' studios in Burbank, California. The strikes helped the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 and led to the eventual break up of the CSU and reorganization of the then rival IATSE leadership.

'''"misoneism"''' 
hatred of what is new.

This concept was defined on page 272-273, where it was attributed to the racist criminologist Lombroso and reflected Brock Vond's thinking, but sounded suspiciously like Pynchon. By the end of this page, it's definitely Pynchon lecturing the reader.

'''"Roy Brewer"''' 
Brewer was International Representative of the IA in 1941. Although he was the successor to small-time mobster Willie Bioff, Brewer was not, apparently, mob-connected—but he carried on the tradition of collusion with the producers, insuring "international" (as opposed to local) control of the Hollywood unions.

'''"Ronald Reagan of the Screen Actors Guild"''' 
Obviously, much has been written about [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_reagan Ronald Reagan], but some readers may not be aware that before becoming Governor of California, and then President of the United States, Reagan was a high-ranking officer of SAG—which was, initially, a fairly progressive union. In the 1930s SAG stood in solidarity with the liberal, locally-based Hollywood unions that were opposed to IA and its mob management. However, the mob quickly discovered that accusing the rival unions of communist influence was an effective tactic—especially since the charge was not entirely untrue. As World War II drew to a close, and the "red scare" began, the screen actors' union began a turn towards the IA. In July, 1947, Reagan (then Vice President of SAG) negotiated a temporary truce between the studios and the CSU—known as the Peace Treaty of Beverly Hills. Unfortunately, just as things were starting to calm down, the Central Committee of the Communist Party stepped into the situation, calling for more control—which alienated even friendly progressives like Reagan. Eventually, under pressure from Reagan (who was now President) SAG officially voted to condemn the CSU actions as "communist inspired," and led all the other neutral unions into the IATSE camp. This was, apparently, the beginning of Reagan’s conviction that Communism was a conspiracy bent on destroying the American way.

==Page 290==
'''"Happy-go-lucky kids..."''' 
A sudden explosion of bebop tunes and wartime details powers this brief but effective time-machine day-trip.

'''"...Hub with a uke...[both] singing bop tunes..."''' 
In Pynchon's universe, musicians are always good guys.

==Page 291==
'''"pocket pool"''' 
Guys playing with their testicles in their pants pocket.

'''"...the Brute was first coming in. Jesus, all those amps..."'''[[Image:Brute.jpg|thumb|Brute 450|right]] 
So it turns out that Hub, Frenesi's father, "went over" too, and (like his daughter) for the love of a Brute. This [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d7bsCiRFLE Brute], however, is a big Mole-Richardson arc light, not a lawman.

'''"sold off my only real fortune -- my precious anger -- for a lot of god-damn shadows."''' 
Meaning film, of course, but remember too that in the binary scheme of life light and shadows are ones and zeros.

Recall that the Thanatoids, inert poltergeists, also dissipate their desire for revenge on the living by watching the Tube.

'''"Young Gaffer...I'd've called you my Best Girl."''' 
A play on "Best Boy," a film term referring to the gaffer's first assistant.

==Page 292==
'''"...this turn against Sasha her once-connected self would remain a puzzle she would never quite solve..."''' 
It's not that mysterious. Vond has forced a wedge (his erect penis, perhaps; see following note) between Frenesi and her mother, her leftism, her own female identity. It's a form of expulsion from Paradise, and ties in very neatly with Sister Rochelle's feminist Eden fable on [[Chapter 9#Page 166|p. 166]].

==Page 293==
'''"joystick"''' 
Vond reenters Frenesi's life, and the chapter ends with a powerful (if appropriately cheerless and depressing) simile in which Vond's erect penis is the joystick of the video game in a forbidden arcade that never shuts.

'''"falsely deathless"''' 
Game time is ''falsely'' deathless. The State lured Frenesi by promising to remove her from ordinary mortal life and history, but the State lied.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 13

2011-12-30T01:38:42Z

Pthomas: /* Page 268 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 268==
'''"When had Brock ever possessed her?"''' 
See comments on [[Chapter_13#Page_274|page 274]].

'''"...his partner Roscoe..."''' 
Roscoe = slang for pistol.

Also, a racetrack tout friend of the detectives on the TV detective show [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/77_Sunset_Strip ''77 Sunset Strip''].

Roscoe Boulevard is a street in Los Angeles.

'''"solon"''' 
U.S. term for a legislator or congressman. Solon was one of the seven sages of Athens, and is best know for inventing a class system based on wealth instead of lineage.

See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon Wikipedia] article.

'''"the chain-link perimeters of Allenwood, Pa."''' 
Allenwood Federal Correction Complex includes FCI Allenwood Low, #4 on Forbes Magazine's "Ten Best Places to Go To Prison" list. Once considered a "country club prison," Allenwood Low has become "a bit more austere" in recent years.

==Page 269==
'''"children longing for discipline"''' 
Vond's genius lies in seeing this desire in the kids of the Sixties. Is this Pynchon's view? It certainly seems true of Frenesi.

==Page 270==
'''"Internals"''' 
Roscoe is referring to Internal Affairs, the police division that investigates crimes by policemen. So Roscoe, a "bad cop", was fired from the police and subsequently hired by Brock Vond.

'''"Jeez I know I'm bad but--"''' 
Reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangri-Las Shangri-Las'] 60s rock 'n' roll song "Give Him A Great Big Kiss." The full line goes, "He's good bad, but he's not evil." [[Give Him A Great Big Kiss - Shangri-Las|Lyrics...]]; [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuNlEGbAKf0 Video of performance...]

'''"some of 'ems in it for real...They'll get remanded someplace else ... in the mainstream, that's where we fish"''' 
So Brock Vond is a fisher of men. Consistent with his Rapture analogy (cf. [[Chapter_12#Page_248|page 248]]), he is only interested in those he can convert; he throws the others back.

'''"I'm counting on that other 90%..."''' 
This certainly sounds like Pynchon, the disillusioned hippie. Pynchon likes to put his own political ideas in the mouths of his villains. Consider Scarsdale Vibe's comments on class struggle in ''Against the Day''.

==Page 271==
'''"less voluble Tonto"''' 
Brock and Roscoe as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Ranger Lone Ranger] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonto Tonto]. ''The Lone Ranger'' was a television series starring Clayton Moore (though with John Hart as the Lone Ranger from 1952-1954) and Jay Silverheels as Tonto, which ran from 1949 to 1957.

'''"Feel like we've been in a Movie of the Week!"''' 
L-like The Brock Vond Story, starring [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Redford Robert Redford]?

==Page 272==
'''"supernatural luck...aura...pure white light...immune to gunfire"''' 
This is Brock's aura of invincibility, that paralyzes his opponents by convincing them that all resistance is futile. Of course, Pynchon is making a broader point about the State. The aura returns on page 376.

[[Image:Lombroso.jpg|thumb|Revolutionaries and Political Criminals (Lombroso)|right]]
'''"Cesare Lombroso"''' 
Detailed exposition of the Italian criminologist's theories show Brock's (or, more precisely, Pynchon's) fascination with them. "...crude in method and long superseded, although it seemed reasonable to Brock." Or any other fascist with a bent toward genocide. Most of this stuff probably comes from the 1911 translation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Lombroso Cesare Lombroso's] ''Criminal Man'', or the 1911 biography by H.G. Kurella.

==Page 274==
'''"a set of big S's"''' 
Double lightning S's were the symbol of the Nazi SS, as any reader of ''Gravity's Rainbow'' knows. In light of the "scene" just ending, Vond's S's could also stand for "Super Sadist". The segment begins on page 268 with Brock Vond reminiscing that he had only possessed Frenesi for a minute and a half. This is a curious statement, given the amount of sex they have had together. It makes more sense after the fetishistic BDSM scene, since it appears that Vond views "possession" to be domination, rather than copulation. It jibes with a symbolism in which Vond has been placed in opposition to life.

'''"the Madwoman in the Attic"''' 
Brock's female side. This is the name of a major concept in post-Freudian feminist psychology, as well as the title of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Madwoman_in_the_Attic the Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar book] of feminist criticism concerning 19th Century novels. Published in 1979, their book examines Victorian literature from a feminist perspective. They drew their title from Charlotte Brontë's ''Jane Eyre'', in which Rochester's mad wife Bertha stays locked in the attic. Vond's dream foreshadows other criminal/erotic dream-women (such as Frenesi) coming in "from steep overhead angles" ([[Chapter 13#Page 276|p. 276]]). They sound like harpies or vampires, coming to rape Vond. As we shall see, Vond later approaches Prairie from the same direction.
[[Image:Arbogast.jpg|thumb|Arbogast's Death in ''Psycho''|right]]
'''"In dreams he could not control..."''' 
Brock's dream is a scene from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho_(1960_film) ''Psycho'']. Brock plays the hapless detective Arbogast and Brock's anima plays Arbogast's killer, Norman Bates. In some interpretations of ''Psycho'', Norman Bates' murders are symbolic rapes arising from an Oedipal fear of sex. This connects him with Brock Vond, who prefers domination to sex.

==Page 277==
'''"like a skier on an unfamiliar black-diamond slope"''' 
The black diamond symbol marks an "expert" (i.e., very difficult) skiing slope. Hearing of Frenesi's escape from PREP, Brock freaks out, feeling himself to be in a dangerous situation beyond his abilities.

Although he certainly was upset by Frenesi's escape, the line refers to the "descent" of his career. His project at College of the Surf was a public relations disaster and he was removed from the case. He goes from public hero to public villain. Where previously he "projected a charm that appeared to transcend politics..." (page 275), now he is considered a child molester. Times are changing (cf. page 279), and Brock's aura of rationality and invincibility, just as the Nixon Administration's after the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_Massacre Kent State Massacre], is fading in the public eye.

==Page 278==
'''"...hoping to find a girl to project Frenesi's ghost onto."''' 
Vond is about to repeat the mistake make by actor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stewart_%28actor%29 Jimmy Stewart] in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo_%28film%29 ''Vertigo''] [1958].

==Page 282==
'''"Frenesi had been making it as easy for him as she could..."''' 
She really does love Vond, it seems. Or his uniform, his sadistic charms, his authority.

He's a prosecuting attorney, so he doesn't wear a uniform. The other two reasons are on the mark.
Also, he's her escape ticket from mundane life to a world that is secret, exclusive and exciting.

'''"sky-blue Rayleigh scattering"''' 
Typical Pynchon science shot. The frequency-differential scattering of light waves, as described by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Rayleigh Lord Rayleigh] (1842-1919), is indeed what makes the sky appear blue.

==Page 283==
'''"A&R"''' 
Artists and Repertoire. In record companies, the "Head of A&R" (originally "A&R man") decides which artists to sign, and what they'll record. A powerful position.

'''"Department...head!"''' 
A very old joke indeed. As noted previously, "head" is sixties doper slang for a user of (usually soft) drugs.

==Page 284==
'''"the eye-catching production values of LSD"''' 
Nice line, but to set it up Pynchon has to run these Mellow acid-head variations. It's a pretty idealized trip. Pynchon does Dr. Tim.

==Page 285==
'''"Leonard the midwife."''' 
Leonard? And in a Nehru shirt, no less! See also [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''The Crying of Lot 49''], paperback edition, [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_5 p. 128]: "Change your name to Miles, Dean, Serge, and/or Leonard, baby..."

'''The look from infant Prairie to papa Zoyd that would, more than once in years to come, "help him through those times when the Klingons are closing, and the helm won't answer, and the warp engine's out of control."''' 
Very nice use of the Star Trek metaphor to lock in the time frame during which Zoyd needed help, and also a powerful image to describe times of distress. See also the adventures of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutter_John Cutter John], the wheelchair-bound character in the "Bloom County" comic strip, who's famed for ''Star Trek'' fantasies enjoyed with Opus, Bill the Cat and other animal stars of that strip.

==Page 286==
'''"...Frenesi was depressed"''' 
Frenesi's deep sadness upon having her baby is so common it even has a name: "post-partum depression."

'''"Lobster Trick Movie"''' 
Well, this might be [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_hall ''Annie Hall''], but basically we're totally lost. Can it be some obscure Navy reference? A helmsman putting in his "trick" at the wheel? Or is this some kinda SoCal TV thing?

A [http://www.word-detective.com/2009/07/19/graveyard-dog-lobster-shift/ "lobster trick"] is journalistic slang for the midnight-to-sunrise shift at a newspaper. The word "trick" indeed comes from your maritime citation. The word "lobster" meant someone stupid as a lobster. You'd be stupid to work those hours! ''Annie Hall'' is impossible, since it was released in 1977 and couldn't have been on TV when Prairie was a baby.

==Page 287==
[[Image:ChryslerEagle.jpg|thumb|Eagle on the Chrysler Building, NYC|right]]
'''"the sleek raptors that decorate fascist architecture"''' 
Like the eagles of the 3rd Reich, and the USA.

'''"She understood, from all the silver and light she'd known and been, brought back to the world like silver recalled grain by grain from the Invisible to form images of what then went on to grow old, go away, get broken or contaminated."''' 
A remarkable extended metaphor about film (in which blacks are created by grains of silver appearing "from the Invisible" during development) as a sort of liberation from time.

Time trapped in a photograph is an important metaphor in ''Against the Day'', as in ''Vineland''. Cf. [[Chapter_8#Page_115|page 115]]

'''"Hubbell...cracking apart the first white-flame carbons of the evening into sky-drilling beams of pure arc light."''' 
Nice writing, and sets up the soon-to-come "photon projectors" nicely. To light a carbon-arc spotlight you turn on the power and then bring two carbon rods together. A bright, sizzling spark is lit, and as you move the carbons a few millimeters apart that spark stretches into a dazzling arc suitable for drilling up into the sky.

'''"photon projectors"''' 
arc lights.

==Page 288==
'''Hubbell's tale''' 
Sad, accurate, believable story pinned down by Pynchon's usual cascade of obscure, effective historic details and dialogue. Once again, Pynchon draws on his Navy experience to give Electrician’s Mate Third Class Hubbel Gates a verisimilitudinous background.

==Page 289==
'''"...drop a Brute 450 on you just as easy as a tree..."''' 
The [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d7bsCiRFLE Brute] is a heavy carbon-arc studio light made by the Mole-Richardson company. Obviously, Hub is tired of hearing about the heroic but schlemiel-like main event in the life of Sasha's dad. ([[Chapter 6#Page 75|See p. 75]]).

'''"hit literally with a bolt from the sky"''' 
This colorful telling is based on a real event. On 7 October, 1945, outside Warner Bros. Studios, at least 40 strikers were casualties of this and other gambits, including being blasted with studio fire hoses.

'''"IATSE"''' 
[[Chapter 6#Page 82|See note on IA, page 82.]]

'''"Conference of Studio Unions"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conference_of_Studio_Unions CSU] was a coalition of filmmaking unions, notably the Painters' and Carpenters', formed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Sorrell Herb Sorrell] in 1941. The CSU was the spiritual successor of the SUC (Studio Unemployment Conference), the CMPAC (Conference of Motion Picture Arts and Crafts) and the UTSG (United Studio Technician’s Guild)—all of which were formed for similar reasons (to retake local control from the mob and sweetheart unions). And all of which were ruthlessly destroyed in the course of unsuccessful strikes. From Wikipedia:

:Hollywood Black Friday is the name given, in the history of organized labor in the United States, to October 5, 1945. On that date, a six month strike by the set decorators represented by the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU) boiled over into a bloody riot at the gates of Warner Brothers' studios in Burbank, California. The strikes helped the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 and led to the eventual break up of the CSU and reorganization of the then rival IATSE leadership.

'''"misoneism"''' 
hatred of what is new.

This concept was defined on page 272-273, where it was attributed to the racist criminologist Lombroso and reflected Brock Vond's thinking, but sounded suspiciously like Pynchon. By the end of this page, it's definitely Pynchon lecturing the reader.

'''"Roy Brewer"''' 
Brewer was International Representative of the IA in 1941. Although he was the successor to small-time mobster Willie Bioff, Brewer was not, apparently, mob-connected—but he carried on the tradition of collusion with the producers, insuring "international" (as opposed to local) control of the Hollywood unions.

'''"Ronald Reagan of the Screen Actors Guild"''' 
Obviously, much has been written about [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_reagan Ronald Reagan], but some readers may not be aware that before becoming Governor of California, and then President of the United States, Reagan was a high-ranking officer of SAG—which was, initially, a fairly progressive union. In the 1930s SAG stood in solidarity with the liberal, locally-based Hollywood unions that were opposed to IA and its mob management. However, the mob quickly discovered that accusing the rival unions of communist influence was an effective tactic—especially since the charge was not entirely untrue. As World War II drew to a close, and the "red scare" began, the screen actors' union began a turn towards the IA. In July, 1947, Reagan (then Vice President of SAG) negotiated a temporary truce between the studios and the CSU—known as the Peace Treaty of Beverly Hills. Unfortunately, just as things were starting to calm down, the Central Committee of the Communist Party stepped into the situation, calling for more control—which alienated even friendly progressives like Reagan. Eventually, under pressure from Reagan (who was now President) SAG officially voted to condemn the CSU actions as "communist inspired," and led all the other neutral unions into the IATSE camp. This was, apparently, the beginning of Reagan’s conviction that Communism was a conspiracy bent on destroying the American way.

==Page 290==
'''"Happy-go-lucky kids..."''' 
A sudden explosion of bebop tunes and wartime details powers this brief but effective time-machine day-trip.

'''"...Hub with a uke...[both] singing bop tunes..."''' 
In Pynchon's universe, musicians are always good guys.

==Page 291==
'''"pocket pool"''' 
Guys playing with their testicles in their pants pocket.

'''"...the Brute was first coming in. Jesus, all those amps..."'''[[Image:Brute.jpg|thumb|Brute 450|right]] 
So it turns out that Hub, Frenesi's father, "went over" too, and (like his daughter) for the love of a Brute. This [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9d7bsCiRFLE Brute], however, is a big Mole-Richardson arc light, not a lawman.

'''"sold off my only real fortune -- my precious anger -- for a lot of god-damn shadows."''' 
Meaning film, of course, but remember too that in the binary scheme of life light and shadows are ones and zeros.

Recall that the Thanatoids, inert poltergeists, also dissipate their desire for revenge on the living by watching the Tube.

'''"Young Gaffer...I'd've called you my Best Girl."''' 
A play on "Best Boy," a film term referring to the gaffer's first assistant.

==Page 292==
'''"...this turn against Sasha her once-connected self would remain a puzzle she would never quite solve..."''' 
It's not that mysterious. Vond has forced a wedge (his erect penis, perhaps; see following note) between Frenesi and her mother, her leftism, her own female identity. It's a form of expulsion from Paradise, and ties in very neatly with Sister Rochelle's feminist Eden fable on [[Chapter 9#Page 166|p. 166]].

==Page 293==
'''"joystick"''' 
Vond reenters Frenesi's life, and the chapter ends with a powerful (if appropriately cheerless and depressing) simile in which Vond's erect penis is the joystick of the video game in a forbidden arcade that never shuts.

'''"falsely deathless"''' 
Game time is ''falsely'' deathless. The State lured Frenesi by promising to remove her from ordinary mortal life and history, but the State lied.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 12

2011-12-30T01:06:03Z

Pthomas: /* Page 231 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 218==
'''"up over the passes and out long desert arterials, out past the seed and feed houses and country music bars and Mexican joints with Happy Hours featuring 99 cent margaritas out of a hose, under the smog, the dribbling rain, the toxic lens of sky..."''' 
Mr. Pynchon, meet Mr. Chandler.

'''"At first Weed went around feeling like a political defector."''' 
Pun intended.

'''"chartreuse"''' 
An apple-green colour.

==Page 219==
'''"What an evening"''' 
Thanatoid Roast '84 is the "tenth annual get-together" -- which means there have been thanatoids since '75. So what happened in 1974-1975? Patty Hearst kidnapped by SLA. Nixon is impeached over Watergate, and resigns. Motion picture ratings system created. US Bicentenial celebration. Vietnam War ends; last 1,000 Americans evacuated from South Vietnam.

They were around before 1975, but you're on to something. See page 320.

==Page 220==
'''"CAMP"''' [[Image:CAMPlogo.gif|thumb|CAMP Logo|right]] 
[http://www.ag.ca.gov/bne/camp.htm Camp], the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, is a multiagency law-enforcement taskforce set up by California to eradicate illegal marijuana cultivation and trafficking in the state. Although it is state-created, it includes representatives from state, federal, and local law enforcement agencies.

'''"Willis Chunko"''' 
Nice name.

==Page 221==
'''"Pale blue unmarked little planes appeared, on days of VFR unlimited nearly invisible against the sky, flown by a private vigilante squadron of student antidrug activists..."''' 
Cf. [[Chapter_1#Page 3|p.3]] ("squadron of blue jays stomping around on the roof...").

'''"Kommandant Karl Bopp"''' 
Another great name.

'''"pacified territory"''' 
Growers discuss CAMP progress in Vietnam-like terms.

==Page 222==
'''"All right, you parrots, listen up!"''' 
Parrot sale and shared dreams: Magic realism, gorgeous and surreal; tropical colors and flashy imagery.

==Page 223==
'''"can't shit, can't get a hardon"''' 
The Thanatoid Roast rendered from Van Meter's POV; his paranoia is expressed in terms familiar from [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

This passage doesn't concern the atmosphere of the Thanatoid Roast; it describes Van Meter's frustration in failing to lucidly dream his way into the same alternate reality that the children (claim to) perceive. Constipation and impotence are maladies of old age. Van Meter has lost his link to the dreams of the "younger generation" that have been shaped by the parrot media background. Perhaps that's why he's been reduced to playing Thanatoid gigs.

==Page 224==
'''"They're ev'ry...Place that ya go..."''' 
In theme and structure, this is awfully close to the song "Government Spies," in Gilbert Shelton's
''Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers #3'' [''A Year Passes Like Nothing''] Rip Off Press, 1973.

==Page 225==
'''"old-time Combo-Ork arrangements"''' 
There's that lingo again.

'''"rallentando"''' 
A typically obscure Pynchon word, this musical term means exactly the same as ritardando: played with decreasing pace. Perfect for the Thanatoid gig.

==Page 226==
'''"Larry Elasmo"''' 
Cool name. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasticman Plasticman]? Elasmos is Greek for beaten metal (hence elastic) plate. An [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elasmobranchii elasmobranch] is a fish, such as a shark, with a cartilage (not bone) skeleton and [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/elasmobranch tooth-like scales].

But what the fuck is he doing at the Thanatoid Roast? Pynchon is pushing the outside of the coincidence envelope.

Elasmo sequence. Mr. Pynchon, meet Mr. Kafka. This all seems boosted right out of The Trial. Here's Weed, another rebellious American child (like Frenesi), submitting to, or fascinated with, authority. "Because the Doctor says so..." turn your body over to coaches, boys with hardons. Go to the Draft Board Center and sit on the group W bench. Even rational, mathematical, radical Weed does what the dentist tells him to, even if it is manifestly senseless.

Among other questions worth asking: Who authorized Elasmo to issue these compulsory forms that require people to come to his office? And by what mysterious process does Weed's merely waiting around cause him to become confused and dispirited? Maybe the idea is simply to take Weed out of the picture at intervals, so Vond and Frenesi can talk and fuck. There's some hint (from Vond if not from Pynchon) that Weed is collaborating with Vond. If so, we'd expect at least a short scene showing that collaboration. The Elasmo sequence stands in the right position, and serves the same function -- but there's no hint whatsoever of Vond. Pretty weird.

'''"Dr Elasmo's video image had swept, had pixeldanced in"''' 
Image/raster TV techotalk. Pixels = the tiny dots that make up the Tube image.

Another possible explanation of the whole Dr. Larry's World of Discomfort sequence is implied by the passage "Somehow, in Weed's deathstunned memory, Dr. Elasmo's video image had swept, had pixeldanced in, to cover, mercifully, for something else..." Since his commercials were so ubiquitous on TV at the time, is it possible that Weed was doing something else, meeting someone in a bureaucratic building in the city-- meetings that left him feeling stunned, guilty, and sick at heart-- and he has recast and shot these memories as meetings with the faux-celebrity of Dr. Larry Elasmo?

Plasticman indeed.

==Page 227==
'''"Dr. Larry Elasmo, or a person wearing, like a coverall and veil, his ubiquitous screen image grainy, flickering at the edges..."''' 
So not only is the real Elasmo tracking Weed, his TV image is doing it too!

==Page 228==
'''"Ilse, the hygienist..."''' 
Naturally, the dental hygienist in Larry's World of Discomfort is none other than Ilse, the high-heeled Nazi heroine of sixties S&M porno flicks, e.g., Ilse, She-Wolf of the SS.

==Page 230==
'''"...adjusted the pulsing vacuum to meet his own quickening rhythm..."''' 
The scene of Rex adjusting Bruno's carburetors while masturbating in the intakes clearly harks back to certain intimate moments involving Rachel and her MG's gearshift lever in V.

'''"Trash the Xanthocroid"''' 
(See note, [[Chapter 10#Page 197|p. 197]].)

==Page 231==

'''Elliot X''' 

Extremely close to being an anagram for Malcolm X's real last name, Little. Just switch a t for an o?
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_x WIKI]

Also, some believe the name "Elliot" is derived from the French "Elias" which comes from "Elijah" - which would also factor in a reference to Elijah Muhammad [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah_Muhammad WIKI]

'''UHURU''' 
"Uhuru" is Swahili for "freedom."

==Page 232==

'''"land of the May Events"''' 

Rex is heading to France. May Events refers to the revolts in France in May of 1968. Possibly Rex feels these events going on are more pure in protest/outcome than what is going on with Weed, Frenesi, PR3, etc. especially now that he's feeling high on sacrifice, what with giving up Bruno and all. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_events WIKI]

See [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1#Epigraph epigraph] of ''Inherent Vice''.

'''"Neither one could know how few and fortunate would be any who'd be able to meet in years later than these and smile, relax beneath some single low oak out on an impossible hillside, with sunlight, and the voice of children... drink some chilly gold-green California Chenin Blanc, and laugh, and pour more wine"''' 

Flashsideways (or some-even-stranger-ways) to an imaginary, 4th-dimensional picnic in which Rex, Weed, and Prairie "negotiate an agreeable version of history." This is an important little scene, since it's where the details of the murder are made explicit at last. Or are they? Note the "nearly" in "he nearly blew me away," which seems to suggest that maybe Weed is merely wounded? (It's just Pynchonian smoke; Weed really is killed.) This scene appears to be Rex's fantasy -- except how does he know about Prairie?

I dont think this is necessarily Rex's vision, but Pynchon's foreshadowing (and an alternate version) of the family reunion, kindof a "what if" Weed and Rex had made it, what would they have said, looking back? Obviously, Rex nor Weed will make it to this dreamy "Wineland" (traditional translation of Vineland: see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinland Vinland]). See page 246 where it specifically refers back to this scene.

It is also ''possible'' that this is actually a dream sequence from Prairie's mind after taking in all of the stories and 24fps film (much like she and DL's convo break up the narrative). See pg. 325.

==Page 233==

'''"Weed had found himself a classical pigeon"''' 
The "flashsideways" ends with Pynchon switching from present tense to (mostly) past tense.

==Page 234==

'''The Invaders''' 

Science fiction TV show about alien invasion that aired on ABC for two seasons in 1967-1968. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invaders WIKI] The "aliens infiltrating human institutions", paranoia, etc. seems apt here.

'''chocolate-covered banana''' 

Howie enjoys one here, but also a favorite of Bigfoot Bjornson in ''Inherent Vice''.

==Page 235==

'''Amerikan''' 

From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satiric_misspelling#.E2.80.9CK.E2.80.9D_replacing_.E2.80.9CC.E2.80.9D Wiki]: In the 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, leftists, particularly the Yippies, sometimes used Amerika rather than "America" in referring to the United States. It is still used as a political statement today. It is likely that this was originally an allusion to the German spelling of America, and intended to be suggestive of Nazism, a hypothesis that the Oxford English Dictionary supports.

Note that Franz Kafka's unfinished, first novel, was spelled this way, titled by Max Brod, published posthumously. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerika_(novel) ''Amerika'']

==Page 236==
'''"...he reached for the Tube, popped it on, fastened himself to the screen and began to feed."''' 
A great William Burroughs-style science-fictional, Tube/addictive image.

'''"It's takin his soul, man"''' 
Certain primitive (and not so primitive) tribes believe that when someone takes your photograph it steals your soul. Or maybe Howie means the Tube.
But of course Brock has said that Weed's soul is exactly what he wants.

'''"Culito Canyon"''' 
Spanish for "Little Ass Canyon."

==Page 237==
'''"...might make the Guinness Book someday..."''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_Book Guinness Book of Records], published regularly by the Irish brewery/distillery company, chronicles current achievements in urban sports like phone booth stuffing.

==Page 238==
'''"Famous worms of song"''' 
A play on "The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, the worms play [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinochle pinochle] on your snout," sung to Mozart/Haydn/whoever's requiem. A famous childhood song, right up there with "Great green gobs of greasy grimy monkeymeat" (It's Gopher guts...see the alliteration.) "Hitler he had just one big ball" and the tragic ballad "Found a Peanut." This is kind of a heavy Pynchon hit on Frenesi's knowledge of Weed's impending doom.

==Page 239==
'''Note the asterisk at the top of the page. How come? Pynchon hasn't needed no steenking asterisks before! Can those worms have thrown him so far off balance that he can't carry on without typographic help? (Actually, there is one earlier asterisk occurrence, at the bottom of [[Chapter 1#Page 8|page 8]]. Go figure.)

'''"ND-1 filters"''' 
ND = Neutral Density; the suffix digit tells how many f stops it reduces incoming light (or outgoing baby-blue intensity) without changing color values.

'''"Nixonian reaction...continued to...compromise...what may only in some fading memories ever have been a people's miracle, an army of loving friends..."''' 
Pynchon seems bitter over the ease with which the government (and its media, and its money) destroyed the ideal/idyll.

==Page 240==
'''"'therapy sessions,' Brock called them..."''' 
Brock seems connected with Elasmo. Does this mean that Weed has really turned? Or that Weed's sessions with the tooth-yanker are just Vond's "reality adjustments," in which Weed is somehow osmosified to believe in Brock's version of reality (in which only power counts, and resistance is futile)?

As discussed on [[Chapter_12#Page_226|page 226]], Elasmo is the Freudian-style dream transformation of Brock Vond in Thanatoid Weed's "deathstunned memory". Pynchon, so far, hasn't described how Weed was "turned".

'''"Smith"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Wesson Smith and Wesson], the largest manufacturer of handguns in the United States.

==Page 241==
'''"24-frame-per-second truth"''' 
Hi, [[Chapter 8#Page 114|Jean-Luc Godard]]!

==Page 242==
'''"frogwork"''' 
Frogs are the knots in which ornate cords (like the ones on doormen's uniform coats) are tied. Similar to Buddhist "priest cords" sometimes used as hangings. Here, frogwork is an evocative metaphor for the intricate shadow cast by the tangle of overhead cables and trolley wires and a very apt one, you'll agree, if you've ever seen the rat's nest of wiring suspended above the street in San Francisco or San Diego.

==Page 244==
'''"the Arri and...a wind-up Bolex"''' 
Two small, light, quiet, highly portable 16mm movie cameras. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arriflex Arriflex's] electric motor is powered by a battery pack; the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolex Bolex] is (like Pynchon says) spring-driven.

'''"Howie'd kill them again"''' 
Surely should be "Howie'd kick them again".

No. Howie would kick-on the lights, Weed would chicken-out, Howie would kill the lights, then presumably Frenesi would work on Weed some more, then the cycle would repeat.

==Page 245==
'''"a battered old Auricon"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP-16 Auricon] is another 16mm camera, also battery (or AC) powered, with the handy capability to record live sound right on the film.

==Page 246==
'''"the shirt cloth still burning around the blackly erupted exit, pale flames guttering out..."''' 
Sounds great, but while we're no forensic experts we'd guess that burns would be characteristic of the entry hole of a gunshot wound, not the exit.

'''He would not after all be lucky enough to sit under that oak under that dreamed hillside someday with a miraculously saved Weed Atman, in some 1980s world of the future''' 

Here Rex's actions have changed his "possible" future (see page 232). Now neither Rex nor Weed will be a part of the exodus to Vineland (or Wineland). Also see page 325.

==Page 247==
'''"a Mole-Richardson Series 700 generator ... legendary Eclairs ... Miller heads, Fastaxes ... Norwood Binary light meters"''' 
All deluxe loot from the CotS Film Arts Dept. The "legendary" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclair_%28camera%29 Eclairs] (there you go again, Mr. Pynchon!) are innovative French 16mm cameras, quieter (and producing a steadier image) than the Arri, Bolex or Auricon cameras mentioned above. The Miller fluid head goes on top of a camera tripod and allows very smooth pans.

'''"Blue Cheer concert"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Cheer Blue Cheer] was a popular "acid-rock" band of the time, named after one of underground chemist Owsley Stanley's most popular (and potent) releases of LSD tablets. The tabs got their name because, in the charming flower-power style of the time, Owsley would dye each new release a different color and the blue tinge of this batch reminded users of a well-known laundry detergent.

'''"7242"''' 
16mm Ektachrome EF reversal film, a medium fast (125 ASA) workhorse stock.

==Page 248==
'''"...a handful of persons [were] unaccounted for. In those days it was unthinkable that any North American agency would kill its own civilians and then lie about it.... Vond referred to it humorously as 'rapture.'"''' 
Rapture is a Biblical reference to the Day of Judgment, when the dead and the living will be taken to Heaven. Vond uses the term again, later, to describe winching Prairie up "into the sky" and abducting her ([[Chapter 15#Page 376|p. 376]]). Pynchon may have picked up the term from ''Job'', [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_heinlein Robert Heinlein's] last great fantasy novel.

[[Image:RaptureSticker.png|thumb|Evangelical Bumper Sticker|right]]In the doctrine of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapture Rapture] ''only the Christian believers'' will be abducted by God. For evangelicals, Rapture of the Saved occurs before the time of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribulation Tribulation]. Hence the bumper sticker, "In Case of Rapture This Car Will Be Unmanned". People more like Pynchon's audience used "Beam Me Up, Scotty". Vond believes that, like Frenesi, children of the 1960's secretly long for discipline (cf. [[Chapter_13#Page_269|page 269]]) so his rapture analogy is apt.

'''"Fawning, gazing upward at the zipper of his fly, media toadies..."''' 
Here we see the "official" media, directed by the government, rewriting the Sixties on the spot. The only reporter to challenge Vond is dragged away.

'''"field-gray trucks"''' 
Feldgrau, that popular old Wehrmacht color!

==Page 249==
'''"tenebrous cool light"''' 
tenebrous = dark, gloomy.

'''"Federal Emergency Evacuation Route (FEER)"''' 
What a quintessentially Pynchonian idea, and what a powerful image, and what a great acronym!

==Page 250==
'''"ruins from Camelot"''' 
Little left from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kennedy Kennedy] presidency.

'''"the flagship of the 24fps motor pool, a '57 Chevy Nomad"''' 
Cool wheels, but not mentioned in the semi-extensive description of the 24fps vehicle collection on p. 194.

==Page 251==
'''"Virgil Ploce"''' 
Great name. And count on Pynchon to choose an anti-communist with an exploding cigar! Rumors about this supposedly-CIA-backed anti-Castro plot emerged after the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion Bay of Pigs invasion]. It's never been established whether the gambit was actually put into practice.

Virgil Place is a street in Los Angeles.

==Page 252==
'''"primer cord"''' 
Pynchon makes a common error in this reference; he may only have heard it said, never seen it in writing. This stuff is actually called "Primacord" (a copyrighted name of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensign-Bickford_Company Ensign-Bickford Company]). It's useful stuff, serving not only as a primer, but as a conveniently cord-shaped explosive substance.

'''"the sudden light from behind, the unbearable sight in the mirror"''' 
An atomic explosion.

'''"the hour of the rat"''' 
In Chinese astrology, the [http://library.thinkquest.org/C0113521/lcon.htm hour of the rat] is the two-hour period from 11pm - 1am. The same concept was used in ancient [http://pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Time_in_Old_Japan Japanese timekeeping].

'''"Be groovy or B movie"''' 
Takeoff on [http://ask.yahoo.com/20061113.html "Be there or be square"].

==Page 253==
'''"...becoming its harsh woven shadow..."''' 
Frenesi = light; DL = shadow; together = film. Also, of course, ones and zeros.

==Page 254==
[[Image:ZPoster.jpg|thumb|Poster for ''Z''|right]]
'''"Hasta la proxima, querida mia"''' 
Spanish: "Until next time, my dear." The letter "Z" is, of course, the trademark of Zorro. This steamy scene seems virtually pointless; maybe Pynchon got horny while he was writing. "Perhaps...not unscented" indeed! ([[Chapter 8#Page 118|See also p. 118]], with the smell of DL's "pussy excitation.")

The letter "Z" also stands for Ζει, he lives, which was scrawled on Greek walls in the 1960's to show that the spirit of resistance still lived. This was popularized worldwide in 1969 by the political film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(film) ''Z''].

It pays to remember that one of the main motifs in this book is the unreality of television -gratuitous sex scenes are very much a part of that. The section is intended to be satirical.

==Page 255==
'''"the subroutine Yukai na...a low-order limbic pleasure cycle that would loop over and over"''' 
Interesting use of computer programming lingo in the martial arts world.

More cyberpunk shtick.

'''"the rodent hour"''' 
Given the refs to Daffy and Bugs in the previous sentence, this might refer to the Mickey Mouse Club show on the Tube, but was that one hour or one half hour??

No, go back to [[Chapter_12#Page_252|Page 252]] "They arrived ... well before dawn, the hour of the rat ...". DL is indeed sneaking into the prison camp like a rat stealing some cheese.

'''"one hatchway after another, leading to smaller and smaller volumes."'''

Echoes the structure of the shelter system in Mordecai Roshwald's chilling doomsday novel ''Level 7'' [1959].
==Page 257==
'''Quilbasazos''' 
Arguably Spanish for "Keilbasas"--Eastern European sausages. Possibly Punta Banda in the real world.

==Page 258==
'''"''A llover''"''' 
What a great meal! ''A llover'' is Spanish for, "It's about to rain," but it also refers to the fact that it's "all over" for the outdoor desayuno. Pynchon puns again.

==Page 259==
'''"powder to the people"''' 
Ouch! Punning on the slogan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_to_the_people_%28slogan%29 "Power to the People"] which was a rallying cry of the Black Panthers, as well as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_to_the_People_%28song%29 a song by John Lennon].

'''"Feel like we were running around like little kids with toy weapons, like the camera really was some kind of gun, gave us that kind of power. Shit. How could we lose track like that, about what was real?"''' 
Frenesi has totally bought Vond's line about the powerlessness of film vs. a gun. (And that's how they got her. And us.)

:And yet: 
:"You don't die for no motherfuckin' shadows" page 202 
:"...sold off my only real fortune - my precious anger - for a lot of got-damn shadows" page 291

'''"who'd we save"''' 
Yet another preterite reference, and one that harks back to Hector's speech on [[Chapter 3#Page 28|p. 28]].
[[Image:PurpleOwsleyBear.jpg|thumb|A Purple ''Grateful Dead'' Bear|right]]
'''"Purple Owsley"''' 
Another run of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owsley_Stanley Owsley's] high-grade color-coded LSD. Cf. [[Chapter 12#Page 247|p. 247]]

The same Owsley "Bear" Stanley also worked as soundman for the band [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grateful_dead ''Grateful Dead''], and was one of the inspirations for their dancing bear logo.

==Page 260==
'''"You know what happens when my pussy's runnin' the show."''' 
If this is Frenesi's only motivation for the series of betrayals (including her betrayal of herself) that lie at the heart of ''Vineland'', it's a thin reed on which to build a book. Unless we buy into Sister Rochelle's Eden parable in which Vond represents the snaky seductiveness of authority, and Frenesi stands for a postwar America that's eager to surrender its freedom. Indeed, Frenesi's enjoyment of bondage and discipline games, which free her of responsibility, makes a strong connection with all the S&M sequences in the book (see next note).

These are Frenesi's rationalizations to DL, not Pynchon's explanations for her behavior. Note: "... getting things wrong on purpose, and more and more wrong as it went falling to pieces" and "blaming external drug molecules for each of her failures ...". There is some truth to her excuses, but, as Pynchon indicates, not the whole truth.

'''"behind the Thorazine curtain"''' 
Pynchon on a sadism kick. He does seem to have a weakness for this stuff, as many sequences in Gravity's Rainbow will attest.

'''"5 mg Stelazine plus 50 of Thorazine"''' 
Thorazine and Stelazine are antihallucinatory specifics, usually used to treat schizophrenics.

==Page 261==
'''Las Suegras''' 
"The Mothers-in-law." There is a Las Suegras Vineyard off I-15 near Temecula, CA, but no town of that name.

'''"1,000-watt Mickey-Mole spot"''' 
An open face (lensless) focusing studio light from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole-Richardson Mole-Richardson company]. It rhymes, too.

==Page 263==
'''"out in the zodiac..."''' 
Vond is a Scorpio. What else?

'''"idiolalia"''' 
Pynchon loves these esoteric terms. It means a private language. Here starts the paranoia about 24fps'rs disappearing which echoes people disappearing from the computer ([[Chapter 6#Page 85|p. 85]]), and the Kahuna airplane ([[Chapter 5#Page 65|p. 65]]).

It also echoes the disappearing people in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four Nineteen Eighty-Four] and Philip K. Dick's novel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBIK UBIK]. Cf. [[Chapter_8#Page_111|page 111]].

==Page 264==
'''"Reagan's got it for when he invades Nicaragua,"''' 
DL's prediction of Reagan's invasion of Nicaragua never came true; the closest Reagan ever came was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Contra Iran-Contra]. Cf. [[Chapter_15#Page_353|page 353]]

==Page 265==
'''"Why would he come after us?"''' 
Good question.

'''"The whole Reagan program..."''' 
Yeah! Go, Pynchon, go!

==Page 266==
'''Vond is "after Frenesi...to use her for some task."''' 
OK, what task?

Perhaps to get Prairie, the future. Cf. page 50. Remember that this part of the story is taking place in the Reagan Era, not the Nixon Era. Pynchon's take on the Reagan Era was that the nightmare was beginning all over again.

'''"So the big bad Ninjamobile swept along on the great Ventura [Freeway]...above the heads of TV watchers, lovers under the overpasses, movies at malls letting out, bright gas-station oases in pure fluorescent spill...down the corridors of the surface streets, in nocturnal smog, the adobe air, the smell of distant fireworks, the spilled, the broken world."''' 
What a great paragraph! Yes, the cat can write -- rhyming verse and all: "flirters, deserters, wimps and pimps"

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 12

2011-12-30T00:27:44Z

Pthomas: /* Page 223 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 218==
'''"up over the passes and out long desert arterials, out past the seed and feed houses and country music bars and Mexican joints with Happy Hours featuring 99 cent margaritas out of a hose, under the smog, the dribbling rain, the toxic lens of sky..."''' 
Mr. Pynchon, meet Mr. Chandler.

'''"At first Weed went around feeling like a political defector."''' 
Pun intended.

'''"chartreuse"''' 
An apple-green colour.

==Page 219==
'''"What an evening"''' 
Thanatoid Roast '84 is the "tenth annual get-together" -- which means there have been thanatoids since '75. So what happened in 1974-1975? Patty Hearst kidnapped by SLA. Nixon is impeached over Watergate, and resigns. Motion picture ratings system created. US Bicentenial celebration. Vietnam War ends; last 1,000 Americans evacuated from South Vietnam.

They were around before 1975, but you're on to something. See page 320.

==Page 220==
'''"CAMP"''' [[Image:CAMPlogo.gif|thumb|CAMP Logo|right]] 
[http://www.ag.ca.gov/bne/camp.htm Camp], the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, is a multiagency law-enforcement taskforce set up by California to eradicate illegal marijuana cultivation and trafficking in the state. Although it is state-created, it includes representatives from state, federal, and local law enforcement agencies.

'''"Willis Chunko"''' 
Nice name.

==Page 221==
'''"Pale blue unmarked little planes appeared, on days of VFR unlimited nearly invisible against the sky, flown by a private vigilante squadron of student antidrug activists..."''' 
Cf. [[Chapter_1#Page 3|p.3]] ("squadron of blue jays stomping around on the roof...").

'''"Kommandant Karl Bopp"''' 
Another great name.

'''"pacified territory"''' 
Growers discuss CAMP progress in Vietnam-like terms.

==Page 222==
'''"All right, you parrots, listen up!"''' 
Parrot sale and shared dreams: Magic realism, gorgeous and surreal; tropical colors and flashy imagery.

==Page 223==
'''"can't shit, can't get a hardon"''' 
The Thanatoid Roast rendered from Van Meter's POV; his paranoia is expressed in terms familiar from [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

This passage doesn't concern the atmosphere of the Thanatoid Roast; it describes Van Meter's frustration in failing to lucidly dream his way into the same alternate reality that the children (claim to) perceive. Constipation and impotence are maladies of old age. Van Meter has lost his link to the dreams of the "younger generation" that have been shaped by the parrot media background. Perhaps that's why he's been reduced to playing Thanatoid gigs.

==Page 224==
'''"They're ev'ry...Place that ya go..."''' 
In theme and structure, this is awfully close to the song "Government Spies," in Gilbert Shelton's
''Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers #3'' [''A Year Passes Like Nothing''] Rip Off Press, 1973.

==Page 225==
'''"old-time Combo-Ork arrangements"''' 
There's that lingo again.

'''"rallentando"''' 
A typically obscure Pynchon word, this musical term means exactly the same as ritardando: played with decreasing pace. Perfect for the Thanatoid gig.

==Page 226==
'''"Larry Elasmo"''' 
Cool name. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasticman Plasticman]? Elasmos is Greek for beaten metal (hence elastic) plate. An [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elasmobranchii elasmobranch] is a fish, such as a shark, with a cartilage (not bone) skeleton and [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/elasmobranch tooth-like scales].

But what the fuck is he doing at the Thanatoid Roast? Pynchon is pushing the outside of the coincidence envelope.

Elasmo sequence. Mr. Pynchon, meet Mr. Kafka. This all seems boosted right out of The Trial. Here's Weed, another rebellious American child (like Frenesi), submitting to, or fascinated with, authority. "Because the Doctor says so..." turn your body over to coaches, boys with hardons. Go to the Draft Board Center and sit on the group W bench. Even rational, mathematical, radical Weed does what the dentist tells him to, even if it is manifestly senseless.

Among other questions worth asking: Who authorized Elasmo to issue these compulsory forms that require people to come to his office? And by what mysterious process does Weed's merely waiting around cause him to become confused and dispirited? Maybe the idea is simply to take Weed out of the picture at intervals, so Vond and Frenesi can talk and fuck. There's some hint (from Vond if not from Pynchon) that Weed is collaborating with Vond. If so, we'd expect at least a short scene showing that collaboration. The Elasmo sequence stands in the right position, and serves the same function -- but there's no hint whatsoever of Vond. Pretty weird.

'''"Dr Elasmo's video image had swept, had pixeldanced in"''' 
Image/raster TV techotalk. Pixels = the tiny dots that make up the Tube image.

Another possible explanation of the whole Dr. Larry's World of Discomfort sequence is implied by the passage "Somehow, in Weed's deathstunned memory, Dr. Elasmo's video image had swept, had pixeldanced in, to cover, mercifully, for something else..." Since his commercials were so ubiquitous on TV at the time, is it possible that Weed was doing something else, meeting someone in a bureaucratic building in the city-- meetings that left him feeling stunned, guilty, and sick at heart-- and he has recast and shot these memories as meetings with the faux-celebrity of Dr. Larry Elasmo?

Plasticman indeed.

==Page 227==
'''"Dr. Larry Elasmo, or a person wearing, like a coverall and veil, his ubiquitous screen image grainy, flickering at the edges..."''' 
So not only is the real Elasmo tracking Weed, his TV image is doing it too!

==Page 228==
'''"Ilse, the hygienist..."''' 
Naturally, the dental hygienist in Larry's World of Discomfort is none other than Ilse, the high-heeled Nazi heroine of sixties S&M porno flicks, e.g., Ilse, She-Wolf of the SS.

==Page 230==
'''"...adjusted the pulsing vacuum to meet his own quickening rhythm..."''' 
The scene of Rex adjusting Bruno's carburetors while masturbating in the intakes clearly harks back to certain intimate moments involving Rachel and her MG's gearshift lever in V.

'''"Trash the Xanthocroid"''' 
(See note, [[Chapter 10#Page 197|p. 197]].)

==Page 231==

'''Elliot X''' 

Extremely close to being an anagram for Malcolm X's real last name, Little. Just switch a t for an o?
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_x WIKI]

Also, some believe the name "Elliot" is derived from the French "Elias" which comes from "Elijah" - which would also factor in a reference to Elijah Muhammad [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah_Muhammad WIKI]

==Page 232==

'''"land of the May Events"''' 

Rex is heading to France. May Events refers to the revolts in France in May of 1968. Possibly Rex feels these events going on are more pure in protest/outcome than what is going on with Weed, Frenesi, PR3, etc. especially now that he's feeling high on sacrifice, what with giving up Bruno and all. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_events WIKI]

See [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1#Epigraph epigraph] of ''Inherent Vice''.

'''"Neither one could know how few and fortunate would be any who'd be able to meet in years later than these and smile, relax beneath some single low oak out on an impossible hillside, with sunlight, and the voice of children... drink some chilly gold-green California Chenin Blanc, and laugh, and pour more wine"''' 

Flashsideways (or some-even-stranger-ways) to an imaginary, 4th-dimensional picnic in which Rex, Weed, and Prairie "negotiate an agreeable version of history." This is an important little scene, since it's where the details of the murder are made explicit at last. Or are they? Note the "nearly" in "he nearly blew me away," which seems to suggest that maybe Weed is merely wounded? (It's just Pynchonian smoke; Weed really is killed.) This scene appears to be Rex's fantasy -- except how does he know about Prairie?

I dont think this is necessarily Rex's vision, but Pynchon's foreshadowing (and an alternate version) of the family reunion, kindof a "what if" Weed and Rex had made it, what would they have said, looking back? Obviously, Rex nor Weed will make it to this dreamy "Wineland" (traditional translation of Vineland: see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinland Vinland]). See page 246 where it specifically refers back to this scene.

It is also ''possible'' that this is actually a dream sequence from Prairie's mind after taking in all of the stories and 24fps film (much like she and DL's convo break up the narrative). See pg. 325.

==Page 233==

'''"Weed had found himself a classical pigeon"''' 
The "flashsideways" ends with Pynchon switching from present tense to (mostly) past tense.

==Page 234==

'''The Invaders''' 

Science fiction TV show about alien invasion that aired on ABC for two seasons in 1967-1968. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invaders WIKI] The "aliens infiltrating human institutions", paranoia, etc. seems apt here.

'''chocolate-covered banana''' 

Howie enjoys one here, but also a favorite of Bigfoot Bjornson in ''Inherent Vice''.

==Page 235==

'''Amerikan''' 

From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satiric_misspelling#.E2.80.9CK.E2.80.9D_replacing_.E2.80.9CC.E2.80.9D Wiki]: In the 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, leftists, particularly the Yippies, sometimes used Amerika rather than "America" in referring to the United States. It is still used as a political statement today. It is likely that this was originally an allusion to the German spelling of America, and intended to be suggestive of Nazism, a hypothesis that the Oxford English Dictionary supports.

Note that Franz Kafka's unfinished, first novel, was spelled this way, titled by Max Brod, published posthumously. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerika_(novel) ''Amerika'']

==Page 236==
'''"...he reached for the Tube, popped it on, fastened himself to the screen and began to feed."''' 
A great William Burroughs-style science-fictional, Tube/addictive image.

'''"It's takin his soul, man"''' 
Certain primitive (and not so primitive) tribes believe that when someone takes your photograph it steals your soul. Or maybe Howie means the Tube.
But of course Brock has said that Weed's soul is exactly what he wants.

'''"Culito Canyon"''' 
Spanish for "Little Ass Canyon."

==Page 237==
'''"...might make the Guinness Book someday..."''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_Book Guinness Book of Records], published regularly by the Irish brewery/distillery company, chronicles current achievements in urban sports like phone booth stuffing.

==Page 238==
'''"Famous worms of song"''' 
A play on "The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, the worms play [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinochle pinochle] on your snout," sung to Mozart/Haydn/whoever's requiem. A famous childhood song, right up there with "Great green gobs of greasy grimy monkeymeat" (It's Gopher guts...see the alliteration.) "Hitler he had just one big ball" and the tragic ballad "Found a Peanut." This is kind of a heavy Pynchon hit on Frenesi's knowledge of Weed's impending doom.

==Page 239==
'''Note the asterisk at the top of the page. How come? Pynchon hasn't needed no steenking asterisks before! Can those worms have thrown him so far off balance that he can't carry on without typographic help? (Actually, there is one earlier asterisk occurrence, at the bottom of [[Chapter 1#Page 8|page 8]]. Go figure.)

'''"ND-1 filters"''' 
ND = Neutral Density; the suffix digit tells how many f stops it reduces incoming light (or outgoing baby-blue intensity) without changing color values.

'''"Nixonian reaction...continued to...compromise...what may only in some fading memories ever have been a people's miracle, an army of loving friends..."''' 
Pynchon seems bitter over the ease with which the government (and its media, and its money) destroyed the ideal/idyll.

==Page 240==
'''"'therapy sessions,' Brock called them..."''' 
Brock seems connected with Elasmo. Does this mean that Weed has really turned? Or that Weed's sessions with the tooth-yanker are just Vond's "reality adjustments," in which Weed is somehow osmosified to believe in Brock's version of reality (in which only power counts, and resistance is futile)?

As discussed on [[Chapter_12#Page_226|page 226]], Elasmo is the Freudian-style dream transformation of Brock Vond in Thanatoid Weed's "deathstunned memory". Pynchon, so far, hasn't described how Weed was "turned".

'''"Smith"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Wesson Smith and Wesson], the largest manufacturer of handguns in the United States.

==Page 241==
'''"24-frame-per-second truth"''' 
Hi, [[Chapter 8#Page 114|Jean-Luc Godard]]!

==Page 242==
'''"frogwork"''' 
Frogs are the knots in which ornate cords (like the ones on doormen's uniform coats) are tied. Similar to Buddhist "priest cords" sometimes used as hangings. Here, frogwork is an evocative metaphor for the intricate shadow cast by the tangle of overhead cables and trolley wires and a very apt one, you'll agree, if you've ever seen the rat's nest of wiring suspended above the street in San Francisco or San Diego.

==Page 244==
'''"the Arri and...a wind-up Bolex"''' 
Two small, light, quiet, highly portable 16mm movie cameras. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arriflex Arriflex's] electric motor is powered by a battery pack; the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolex Bolex] is (like Pynchon says) spring-driven.

'''"Howie'd kill them again"''' 
Surely should be "Howie'd kick them again".

No. Howie would kick-on the lights, Weed would chicken-out, Howie would kill the lights, then presumably Frenesi would work on Weed some more, then the cycle would repeat.

==Page 245==
'''"a battered old Auricon"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP-16 Auricon] is another 16mm camera, also battery (or AC) powered, with the handy capability to record live sound right on the film.

==Page 246==
'''"the shirt cloth still burning around the blackly erupted exit, pale flames guttering out..."''' 
Sounds great, but while we're no forensic experts we'd guess that burns would be characteristic of the entry hole of a gunshot wound, not the exit.

'''He would not after all be lucky enough to sit under that oak under that dreamed hillside someday with a miraculously saved Weed Atman, in some 1980s world of the future''' 

Here Rex's actions have changed his "possible" future (see page 232). Now neither Rex nor Weed will be a part of the exodus to Vineland (or Wineland). Also see page 325.

==Page 247==
'''"a Mole-Richardson Series 700 generator ... legendary Eclairs ... Miller heads, Fastaxes ... Norwood Binary light meters"''' 
All deluxe loot from the CotS Film Arts Dept. The "legendary" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclair_%28camera%29 Eclairs] (there you go again, Mr. Pynchon!) are innovative French 16mm cameras, quieter (and producing a steadier image) than the Arri, Bolex or Auricon cameras mentioned above. The Miller fluid head goes on top of a camera tripod and allows very smooth pans.

'''"Blue Cheer concert"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Cheer Blue Cheer] was a popular "acid-rock" band of the time, named after one of underground chemist Owsley Stanley's most popular (and potent) releases of LSD tablets. The tabs got their name because, in the charming flower-power style of the time, Owsley would dye each new release a different color and the blue tinge of this batch reminded users of a well-known laundry detergent.

'''"7242"''' 
16mm Ektachrome EF reversal film, a medium fast (125 ASA) workhorse stock.

==Page 248==
'''"...a handful of persons [were] unaccounted for. In those days it was unthinkable that any North American agency would kill its own civilians and then lie about it.... Vond referred to it humorously as 'rapture.'"''' 
Rapture is a Biblical reference to the Day of Judgment, when the dead and the living will be taken to Heaven. Vond uses the term again, later, to describe winching Prairie up "into the sky" and abducting her ([[Chapter 15#Page 376|p. 376]]). Pynchon may have picked up the term from ''Job'', [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_heinlein Robert Heinlein's] last great fantasy novel.

[[Image:RaptureSticker.png|thumb|Evangelical Bumper Sticker|right]]In the doctrine of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapture Rapture] ''only the Christian believers'' will be abducted by God. For evangelicals, Rapture of the Saved occurs before the time of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribulation Tribulation]. Hence the bumper sticker, "In Case of Rapture This Car Will Be Unmanned". People more like Pynchon's audience used "Beam Me Up, Scotty". Vond believes that, like Frenesi, children of the 1960's secretly long for discipline (cf. [[Chapter_13#Page_269|page 269]]) so his rapture analogy is apt.

'''"Fawning, gazing upward at the zipper of his fly, media toadies..."''' 
Here we see the "official" media, directed by the government, rewriting the Sixties on the spot. The only reporter to challenge Vond is dragged away.

'''"field-gray trucks"''' 
Feldgrau, that popular old Wehrmacht color!

==Page 249==
'''"tenebrous cool light"''' 
tenebrous = dark, gloomy.

'''"Federal Emergency Evacuation Route (FEER)"''' 
What a quintessentially Pynchonian idea, and what a powerful image, and what a great acronym!

==Page 250==
'''"ruins from Camelot"''' 
Little left from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kennedy Kennedy] presidency.

'''"the flagship of the 24fps motor pool, a '57 Chevy Nomad"''' 
Cool wheels, but not mentioned in the semi-extensive description of the 24fps vehicle collection on p. 194.

==Page 251==
'''"Virgil Ploce"''' 
Great name. And count on Pynchon to choose an anti-communist with an exploding cigar! Rumors about this supposedly-CIA-backed anti-Castro plot emerged after the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion Bay of Pigs invasion]. It's never been established whether the gambit was actually put into practice.

Virgil Place is a street in Los Angeles.

==Page 252==
'''"primer cord"''' 
Pynchon makes a common error in this reference; he may only have heard it said, never seen it in writing. This stuff is actually called "Primacord" (a copyrighted name of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensign-Bickford_Company Ensign-Bickford Company]). It's useful stuff, serving not only as a primer, but as a conveniently cord-shaped explosive substance.

'''"the sudden light from behind, the unbearable sight in the mirror"''' 
An atomic explosion.

'''"the hour of the rat"''' 
In Chinese astrology, the [http://library.thinkquest.org/C0113521/lcon.htm hour of the rat] is the two-hour period from 11pm - 1am. The same concept was used in ancient [http://pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Time_in_Old_Japan Japanese timekeeping].

'''"Be groovy or B movie"''' 
Takeoff on [http://ask.yahoo.com/20061113.html "Be there or be square"].

==Page 253==
'''"...becoming its harsh woven shadow..."''' 
Frenesi = light; DL = shadow; together = film. Also, of course, ones and zeros.

==Page 254==
[[Image:ZPoster.jpg|thumb|Poster for ''Z''|right]]
'''"Hasta la proxima, querida mia"''' 
Spanish: "Until next time, my dear." The letter "Z" is, of course, the trademark of Zorro. This steamy scene seems virtually pointless; maybe Pynchon got horny while he was writing. "Perhaps...not unscented" indeed! ([[Chapter 8#Page 118|See also p. 118]], with the smell of DL's "pussy excitation.")

The letter "Z" also stands for Ζει, he lives, which was scrawled on Greek walls in the 1960's to show that the spirit of resistance still lived. This was popularized worldwide in 1969 by the political film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(film) ''Z''].

It pays to remember that one of the main motifs in this book is the unreality of television -gratuitous sex scenes are very much a part of that. The section is intended to be satirical.

==Page 255==
'''"the subroutine Yukai na...a low-order limbic pleasure cycle that would loop over and over"''' 
Interesting use of computer programming lingo in the martial arts world.

More cyberpunk shtick.

'''"the rodent hour"''' 
Given the refs to Daffy and Bugs in the previous sentence, this might refer to the Mickey Mouse Club show on the Tube, but was that one hour or one half hour??

No, go back to [[Chapter_12#Page_252|Page 252]] "They arrived ... well before dawn, the hour of the rat ...". DL is indeed sneaking into the prison camp like a rat stealing some cheese.

'''"one hatchway after another, leading to smaller and smaller volumes."'''

Echoes the structure of the shelter system in Mordecai Roshwald's chilling doomsday novel ''Level 7'' [1959].
==Page 257==
'''Quilbasazos''' 
Arguably Spanish for "Keilbasas"--Eastern European sausages. Possibly Punta Banda in the real world.

==Page 258==
'''"''A llover''"''' 
What a great meal! ''A llover'' is Spanish for, "It's about to rain," but it also refers to the fact that it's "all over" for the outdoor desayuno. Pynchon puns again.

==Page 259==
'''"powder to the people"''' 
Ouch! Punning on the slogan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_to_the_people_%28slogan%29 "Power to the People"] which was a rallying cry of the Black Panthers, as well as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_to_the_People_%28song%29 a song by John Lennon].

'''"Feel like we were running around like little kids with toy weapons, like the camera really was some kind of gun, gave us that kind of power. Shit. How could we lose track like that, about what was real?"''' 
Frenesi has totally bought Vond's line about the powerlessness of film vs. a gun. (And that's how they got her. And us.)

:And yet: 
:"You don't die for no motherfuckin' shadows" page 202 
:"...sold off my only real fortune - my precious anger - for a lot of got-damn shadows" page 291

'''"who'd we save"''' 
Yet another preterite reference, and one that harks back to Hector's speech on [[Chapter 3#Page 28|p. 28]].
[[Image:PurpleOwsleyBear.jpg|thumb|A Purple ''Grateful Dead'' Bear|right]]
'''"Purple Owsley"''' 
Another run of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owsley_Stanley Owsley's] high-grade color-coded LSD. Cf. [[Chapter 12#Page 247|p. 247]]

The same Owsley "Bear" Stanley also worked as soundman for the band [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grateful_dead ''Grateful Dead''], and was one of the inspirations for their dancing bear logo.

==Page 260==
'''"You know what happens when my pussy's runnin' the show."''' 
If this is Frenesi's only motivation for the series of betrayals (including her betrayal of herself) that lie at the heart of ''Vineland'', it's a thin reed on which to build a book. Unless we buy into Sister Rochelle's Eden parable in which Vond represents the snaky seductiveness of authority, and Frenesi stands for a postwar America that's eager to surrender its freedom. Indeed, Frenesi's enjoyment of bondage and discipline games, which free her of responsibility, makes a strong connection with all the S&M sequences in the book (see next note).

These are Frenesi's rationalizations to DL, not Pynchon's explanations for her behavior. Note: "... getting things wrong on purpose, and more and more wrong as it went falling to pieces" and "blaming external drug molecules for each of her failures ...". There is some truth to her excuses, but, as Pynchon indicates, not the whole truth.

'''"behind the Thorazine curtain"''' 
Pynchon on a sadism kick. He does seem to have a weakness for this stuff, as many sequences in Gravity's Rainbow will attest.

'''"5 mg Stelazine plus 50 of Thorazine"''' 
Thorazine and Stelazine are antihallucinatory specifics, usually used to treat schizophrenics.

==Page 261==
'''Las Suegras''' 
"The Mothers-in-law." There is a Las Suegras Vineyard off I-15 near Temecula, CA, but no town of that name.

'''"1,000-watt Mickey-Mole spot"''' 
An open face (lensless) focusing studio light from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole-Richardson Mole-Richardson company]. It rhymes, too.

==Page 263==
'''"out in the zodiac..."''' 
Vond is a Scorpio. What else?

'''"idiolalia"''' 
Pynchon loves these esoteric terms. It means a private language. Here starts the paranoia about 24fps'rs disappearing which echoes people disappearing from the computer ([[Chapter 6#Page 85|p. 85]]), and the Kahuna airplane ([[Chapter 5#Page 65|p. 65]]).

It also echoes the disappearing people in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four Nineteen Eighty-Four] and Philip K. Dick's novel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBIK UBIK]. Cf. [[Chapter_8#Page_111|page 111]].

==Page 264==
'''"Reagan's got it for when he invades Nicaragua,"''' 
DL's prediction of Reagan's invasion of Nicaragua never came true; the closest Reagan ever came was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Contra Iran-Contra]. Cf. [[Chapter_15#Page_353|page 353]]

==Page 265==
'''"Why would he come after us?"''' 
Good question.

'''"The whole Reagan program..."''' 
Yeah! Go, Pynchon, go!

==Page 266==
'''Vond is "after Frenesi...to use her for some task."''' 
OK, what task?

Perhaps to get Prairie, the future. Cf. page 50. Remember that this part of the story is taking place in the Reagan Era, not the Nixon Era. Pynchon's take on the Reagan Era was that the nightmare was beginning all over again.

'''"So the big bad Ninjamobile swept along on the great Ventura [Freeway]...above the heads of TV watchers, lovers under the overpasses, movies at malls letting out, bright gas-station oases in pure fluorescent spill...down the corridors of the surface streets, in nocturnal smog, the adobe air, the smell of distant fireworks, the spilled, the broken world."''' 
What a great paragraph! Yes, the cat can write -- rhyming verse and all: "flirters, deserters, wimps and pimps"

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 12

2011-12-29T03:54:08Z

Pthomas: /* Page 261 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 218==
'''"up over the passes and out long desert arterials, out past the seed and feed houses and country music bars and Mexican joints with Happy Hours featuring 99 cent margaritas out of a hose, under the smog, the dribbling rain, the toxic lens of sky..."''' 
Mr. Pynchon, meet Mr. Chandler.

'''"At first Weed went around feeling like a political defector."''' 
Pun intended.

'''"chartreuse"''' 
An apple-green colour.

==Page 219==
'''"What an evening"''' 
Thanatoid Roast '84 is the "tenth annual get-together" -- which means there have been thanatoids since '75. So what happened in 1974-1975? Patty Hearst kidnapped by SLA. Nixon is impeached over Watergate, and resigns. Motion picture ratings system created. US Bicentenial celebration. Vietnam War ends; last 1,000 Americans evacuated from South Vietnam.

They were around before 1975, but you're on to something. See page 320.

==Page 220==
'''"CAMP"''' [[Image:CAMPlogo.gif|thumb|CAMP Logo|right]] 
[http://www.ag.ca.gov/bne/camp.htm Camp], the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, is a multiagency law-enforcement taskforce set up by California to eradicate illegal marijuana cultivation and trafficking in the state. Although it is state-created, it includes representatives from state, federal, and local law enforcement agencies.

'''"Willis Chunko"''' 
Nice name.

==Page 221==
'''"Pale blue unmarked little planes appeared, on days of VFR unlimited nearly invisible against the sky, flown by a private vigilante squadron of student antidrug activists..."''' 
Cf. [[Chapter_1#Page 3|p.3]] ("squadron of blue jays stomping around on the roof...").

'''"Kommandant Karl Bopp"''' 
Another great name.

'''"pacified territory"''' 
Growers discuss CAMP progress in Vietnam-like terms.

==Page 222==
'''"All right, you parrots, listen up!"''' 
Parrot sale and shared dreams: Magic realism, gorgeous and surreal; tropical colors and flashy imagery.

==Page 223==
'''"can't shit, can't get a hardon"''' 
The Thanatoid Roast rendered from Van Meter's POV; his paranoia is expressed in terms familiar from [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

This passage doesn't concern the atmosphere of the Thanatoid Roast; it describes Van Meter's frustration in failing to lucidly dream his way into the same alternate reality that the children (claim to) perceive. Constipation and impotence are maladies of old age. Van Meter has lost his link to the dreams of the "younger generation" that have been shaped by the parrot media background. Perhaps that's why he's been reduced to playing Thanatoid gigs.

==Page 225==
'''"old-time Combo-Ork arrangements"''' 
There's that lingo again.

'''"rallentando"''' 
A typically obscure Pynchon word, this musical term means exactly the same as ritardando: played with decreasing pace. Perfect for the Thanatoid gig.

==Page 226==
'''"Larry Elasmo"''' 
Cool name. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasticman Plasticman]? Elasmos is Greek for beaten metal (hence elastic) plate. An [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elasmobranchii elasmobranch] is a fish, such as a shark, with a cartilage (not bone) skeleton and [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/elasmobranch tooth-like scales].

But what the fuck is he doing at the Thanatoid Roast? Pynchon is pushing the outside of the coincidence envelope.

Elasmo sequence. Mr. Pynchon, meet Mr. Kafka. This all seems boosted right out of The Trial. Here's Weed, another rebellious American child (like Frenesi), submitting to, or fascinated with, authority. "Because the Doctor says so..." turn your body over to coaches, boys with hardons. Go to the Draft Board Center and sit on the group W bench. Even rational, mathematical, radical Weed does what the dentist tells him to, even if it is manifestly senseless.

Among other questions worth asking: Who authorized Elasmo to issue these compulsory forms that require people to come to his office? And by what mysterious process does Weed's merely waiting around cause him to become confused and dispirited? Maybe the idea is simply to take Weed out of the picture at intervals, so Vond and Frenesi can talk and fuck. There's some hint (from Vond if not from Pynchon) that Weed is collaborating with Vond. If so, we'd expect at least a short scene showing that collaboration. The Elasmo sequence stands in the right position, and serves the same function -- but there's no hint whatsoever of Vond. Pretty weird.

'''"Dr Elasmo's video image had swept, had pixeldanced in"''' 
Image/raster TV techotalk. Pixels = the tiny dots that make up the Tube image.

Another possible explanation of the whole Dr. Larry's World of Discomfort sequence is implied by the passage "Somehow, in Weed's deathstunned memory, Dr. Elasmo's video image had swept, had pixeldanced in, to cover, mercifully, for something else..." Since his commercials were so ubiquitous on TV at the time, is it possible that Weed was doing something else, meeting someone in a bureaucratic building in the city-- meetings that left him feeling stunned, guilty, and sick at heart-- and he has recast and shot these memories as meetings with the faux-celebrity of Dr. Larry Elasmo?

Plasticman indeed.

==Page 227==
'''"Dr. Larry Elasmo, or a person wearing, like a coverall and veil, his ubiquitous screen image grainy, flickering at the edges..."''' 
So not only is the real Elasmo tracking Weed, his TV image is doing it too!

==Page 228==
'''"Ilse, the hygienist..."''' 
Naturally, the dental hygienist in Larry's World of Discomfort is none other than Ilse, the high-heeled Nazi heroine of sixties S&M porno flicks, e.g., Ilse, She-Wolf of the SS.

==Page 230==
'''"...adjusted the pulsing vacuum to meet his own quickening rhythm..."''' 
The scene of Rex adjusting Bruno's carburetors while masturbating in the intakes clearly harks back to certain intimate moments involving Rachel and her MG's gearshift lever in V.

'''"Trash the Xanthocroid"''' 
(See note, [[Chapter 10#Page 197|p. 197]].)

==Page 231==

'''Elliot X''' 

Extremely close to being an anagram for Malcolm X's real last name, Little. Just switch a t for an o?
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_x WIKI]

Also, some believe the name "Elliot" is derived from the French "Elias" which comes from "Elijah" - which would also factor in a reference to Elijah Muhammad [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah_Muhammad WIKI]

==Page 232==

'''"land of the May Events"''' 

Rex is heading to France. May Events refers to the revolts in France in May of 1968. Possibly Rex feels these events going on are more pure in protest/outcome than what is going on with Weed, Frenesi, PR3, etc. especially now that he's feeling high on sacrifice, what with giving up Bruno and all. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_events WIKI]

See [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1#Epigraph epigraph] of ''Inherent Vice''.

'''"Neither one could know how few and fortunate would be any who'd be able to meet in years later than these and smile, relax beneath some single low oak out on an impossible hillside, with sunlight, and the voice of children... drink some chilly gold-green California Chenin Blanc, and laugh, and pour more wine"''' 

Flashsideways (or some-even-stranger-ways) to an imaginary, 4th-dimensional picnic in which Rex, Weed, and Prairie "negotiate an agreeable version of history." This is an important little scene, since it's where the details of the murder are made explicit at last. Or are they? Note the "nearly" in "he nearly blew me away," which seems to suggest that maybe Weed is merely wounded? (It's just Pynchonian smoke; Weed really is killed.) This scene appears to be Rex's fantasy -- except how does he know about Prairie?

I dont think this is necessarily Rex's vision, but Pynchon's foreshadowing (and an alternate version) of the family reunion, kindof a "what if" Weed and Rex had made it, what would they have said, looking back? Obviously, Rex nor Weed will make it to this dreamy "Wineland" (traditional translation of Vineland: see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinland Vinland]). See page 246 where it specifically refers back to this scene.

It is also ''possible'' that this is actually a dream sequence from Prairie's mind after taking in all of the stories and 24fps film (much like she and DL's convo break up the narrative). See pg. 325.

==Page 233==

'''"Weed had found himself a classical pigeon"''' 
The "flashsideways" ends with Pynchon switching from present tense to (mostly) past tense.

==Page 234==

'''The Invaders''' 

Science fiction TV show about alien invasion that aired on ABC for two seasons in 1967-1968. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invaders WIKI] The "aliens infiltrating human institutions", paranoia, etc. seems apt here.

'''chocolate-covered banana''' 

Howie enjoys one here, but also a favorite of Bigfoot Bjornson in ''Inherent Vice''.

==Page 235==

'''Amerikan''' 

From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satiric_misspelling#.E2.80.9CK.E2.80.9D_replacing_.E2.80.9CC.E2.80.9D Wiki]: In the 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, leftists, particularly the Yippies, sometimes used Amerika rather than "America" in referring to the United States. It is still used as a political statement today. It is likely that this was originally an allusion to the German spelling of America, and intended to be suggestive of Nazism, a hypothesis that the Oxford English Dictionary supports.

Note that Franz Kafka's unfinished, first novel, was spelled this way, titled by Max Brod, published posthumously. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerika_(novel) ''Amerika'']

==Page 236==
'''"...he reached for the Tube, popped it on, fastened himself to the screen and began to feed."''' 
A great William Burroughs-style science-fictional, Tube/addictive image.

'''"It's takin his soul, man"''' 
Certain primitive (and not so primitive) tribes believe that when someone takes your photograph it steals your soul. Or maybe Howie means the Tube.
But of course Brock has said that Weed's soul is exactly what he wants.

'''"Culito Canyon"''' 
Spanish for "Little Ass Canyon."

==Page 237==
'''"...might make the Guinness Book someday..."''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_Book Guinness Book of Records], published regularly by the Irish brewery/distillery company, chronicles current achievements in urban sports like phone booth stuffing.

==Page 238==
'''"Famous worms of song"''' 
A play on "The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, the worms play [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinochle pinochle] on your snout," sung to Mozart/Haydn/whoever's requiem. A famous childhood song, right up there with "Great green gobs of greasy grimy monkeymeat" (It's Gopher guts...see the alliteration.) "Hitler he had just one big ball" and the tragic ballad "Found a Peanut." This is kind of a heavy Pynchon hit on Frenesi's knowledge of Weed's impending doom.

==Page 239==
'''Note the asterisk at the top of the page. How come? Pynchon hasn't needed no steenking asterisks before! Can those worms have thrown him so far off balance that he can't carry on without typographic help? (Actually, there is one earlier asterisk occurrence, at the bottom of [[Chapter 1#Page 8|page 8]]. Go figure.)

'''"ND-1 filters"''' 
ND = Neutral Density; the suffix digit tells how many f stops it reduces incoming light (or outgoing baby-blue intensity) without changing color values.

'''"Nixonian reaction...continued to...compromise...what may only in some fading memories ever have been a people's miracle, an army of loving friends..."''' 
Pynchon seems bitter over the ease with which the government (and its media, and its money) destroyed the ideal/idyll.

==Page 240==
'''"'therapy sessions,' Brock called them..."''' 
Brock seems connected with Elasmo. Does this mean that Weed has really turned? Or that Weed's sessions with the tooth-yanker are just Vond's "reality adjustments," in which Weed is somehow osmosified to believe in Brock's version of reality (in which only power counts, and resistance is futile)?

As discussed on [[Chapter_12#Page_226|page 226]], Elasmo is the Freudian-style dream transformation of Brock Vond in Thanatoid Weed's "deathstunned memory". Pynchon, so far, hasn't described how Weed was "turned".

'''"Smith"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Wesson Smith and Wesson], the largest manufacturer of handguns in the United States.

==Page 241==
'''"24-frame-per-second truth"''' 
Hi, [[Chapter 8#Page 114|Jean-Luc Godard]]!

==Page 242==
'''"frogwork"''' 
Frogs are the knots in which ornate cords (like the ones on doormen's uniform coats) are tied. Similar to Buddhist "priest cords" sometimes used as hangings. Here, frogwork is an evocative metaphor for the intricate shadow cast by the tangle of overhead cables and trolley wires and a very apt one, you'll agree, if you've ever seen the rat's nest of wiring suspended above the street in San Francisco or San Diego.

==Page 244==
'''"the Arri and...a wind-up Bolex"''' 
Two small, light, quiet, highly portable 16mm movie cameras. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arriflex Arriflex's] electric motor is powered by a battery pack; the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolex Bolex] is (like Pynchon says) spring-driven.

'''"Howie'd kill them again"''' 
Surely should be "Howie'd kick them again".

No. Howie would kick-on the lights, Weed would chicken-out, Howie would kill the lights, then presumably Frenesi would work on Weed some more, then the cycle would repeat.

==Page 245==
'''"a battered old Auricon"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP-16 Auricon] is another 16mm camera, also battery (or AC) powered, with the handy capability to record live sound right on the film.

==Page 246==
'''"the shirt cloth still burning around the blackly erupted exit, pale flames guttering out..."''' 
Sounds great, but while we're no forensic experts we'd guess that burns would be characteristic of the entry hole of a gunshot wound, not the exit.

'''He would not after all be lucky enough to sit under that oak under that dreamed hillside someday with a miraculously saved Weed Atman, in some 1980s world of the future''' 

Here Rex's actions have changed his "possible" future (see page 232). Now neither Rex nor Weed will be a part of the exodus to Vineland (or Wineland). Also see page 325.

==Page 247==
'''"a Mole-Richardson Series 700 generator ... legendary Eclairs ... Miller heads, Fastaxes ... Norwood Binary light meters"''' 
All deluxe loot from the CotS Film Arts Dept. The "legendary" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclair_%28camera%29 Eclairs] (there you go again, Mr. Pynchon!) are innovative French 16mm cameras, quieter (and producing a steadier image) than the Arri, Bolex or Auricon cameras mentioned above. The Miller fluid head goes on top of a camera tripod and allows very smooth pans.

'''"Blue Cheer concert"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Cheer Blue Cheer] was a popular "acid-rock" band of the time, named after one of underground chemist Owsley Stanley's most popular (and potent) releases of LSD tablets. The tabs got their name because, in the charming flower-power style of the time, Owsley would dye each new release a different color and the blue tinge of this batch reminded users of a well-known laundry detergent.

'''"7242"''' 
16mm Ektachrome EF reversal film, a medium fast (125 ASA) workhorse stock.

==Page 248==
'''"...a handful of persons [were] unaccounted for. In those days it was unthinkable that any North American agency would kill its own civilians and then lie about it.... Vond referred to it humorously as 'rapture.'"''' 
Rapture is a Biblical reference to the Day of Judgment, when the dead and the living will be taken to Heaven. Vond uses the term again, later, to describe winching Prairie up "into the sky" and abducting her ([[Chapter 15#Page 376|p. 376]]). Pynchon may have picked up the term from ''Job'', [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_heinlein Robert Heinlein's] last great fantasy novel.

[[Image:RaptureSticker.png|thumb|Evangelical Bumper Sticker|right]]In the doctrine of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapture Rapture] ''only the Christian believers'' will be abducted by God. For evangelicals, Rapture of the Saved occurs before the time of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribulation Tribulation]. Hence the bumper sticker, "In Case of Rapture This Car Will Be Unmanned". People more like Pynchon's audience used "Beam Me Up, Scotty". Vond believes that, like Frenesi, children of the 1960's secretly long for discipline (cf. [[Chapter_13#Page_269|page 269]]) so his rapture analogy is apt.

'''"Fawning, gazing upward at the zipper of his fly, media toadies..."''' 
Here we see the "official" media, directed by the government, rewriting the Sixties on the spot. The only reporter to challenge Vond is dragged away.

'''"field-gray trucks"''' 
Feldgrau, that popular old Wehrmacht color!

==Page 249==
'''"tenebrous cool light"''' 
tenebrous = dark, gloomy.

'''"Federal Emergency Evacuation Route (FEER)"''' 
What a quintessentially Pynchonian idea, and what a powerful image, and what a great acronym!

==Page 250==
'''"ruins from Camelot"''' 
Little left from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kennedy Kennedy] presidency.

'''"the flagship of the 24fps motor pool, a '57 Chevy Nomad"''' 
Cool wheels, but not mentioned in the semi-extensive description of the 24fps vehicle collection on p. 194.

==Page 251==
'''"Virgil Ploce"''' 
Great name. And count on Pynchon to choose an anti-communist with an exploding cigar! Rumors about this supposedly-CIA-backed anti-Castro plot emerged after the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion Bay of Pigs invasion]. It's never been established whether the gambit was actually put into practice.

Virgil Place is a street in Los Angeles.

==Page 252==
'''"primer cord"''' 
Pynchon makes a common error in this reference; he may only have heard it said, never seen it in writing. This stuff is actually called "Primacord" (a copyrighted name of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensign-Bickford_Company Ensign-Bickford Company]). It's useful stuff, serving not only as a primer, but as a conveniently cord-shaped explosive substance.

'''"the sudden light from behind, the unbearable sight in the mirror"''' 
An atomic explosion.

'''"the hour of the rat"''' 
In Chinese astrology, the [http://library.thinkquest.org/C0113521/lcon.htm hour of the rat] is the two-hour period from 11pm - 1am. The same concept was used in ancient [http://pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Time_in_Old_Japan Japanese timekeeping].

'''"Be groovy or B movie"''' 
Takeoff on [http://ask.yahoo.com/20061113.html "Be there or be square"].

==Page 253==
'''"...becoming its harsh woven shadow..."''' 
Frenesi = light; DL = shadow; together = film. Also, of course, ones and zeros.

==Page 254==
[[Image:ZPoster.jpg|thumb|Poster for ''Z''|right]]
'''"Hasta la proxima, querida mia"''' 
Spanish: "Until next time, my dear." The letter "Z" is, of course, the trademark of Zorro. This steamy scene seems virtually pointless; maybe Pynchon got horny while he was writing. "Perhaps...not unscented" indeed! ([[Chapter 8#Page 118|See also p. 118]], with the smell of DL's "pussy excitation.")

The letter "Z" also stands for Ζει, he lives, which was scrawled on Greek walls in the 1960's to show that the spirit of resistance still lived. This was popularized worldwide in 1969 by the political film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(film) ''Z''].

It pays to remember that one of the main motifs in this book is the unreality of television -gratuitous sex scenes are very much a part of that. The section is intended to be satirical.

==Page 255==
'''"the subroutine Yukai na...a low-order limbic pleasure cycle that would loop over and over"''' 
Interesting use of computer programming lingo in the martial arts world.

More cyberpunk shtick.

'''"the rodent hour"''' 
Given the refs to Daffy and Bugs in the previous sentence, this might refer to the Mickey Mouse Club show on the Tube, but was that one hour or one half hour??

No, go back to [[Chapter_12#Page_252|Page 252]] "They arrived ... well before dawn, the hour of the rat ...". DL is indeed sneaking into the prison camp like a rat stealing some cheese.

'''"one hatchway after another, leading to smaller and smaller volumes."'''

Echoes the structure of the shelter system in Mordecai Roshwald's chilling doomsday novel ''Level 7'' [1959].
==Page 257==
'''Quilbasazos''' 
Arguably Spanish for "Keilbasas"--Eastern European sausages. Possibly Punta Banda in the real world.

==Page 258==
'''"''A llover''"''' 
What a great meal! ''A llover'' is Spanish for, "It's about to rain," but it also refers to the fact that it's "all over" for the outdoor desayuno. Pynchon puns again.

==Page 259==
'''"powder to the people"''' 
Ouch! Punning on the slogan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_to_the_people_%28slogan%29 "Power to the People"] which was a rallying cry of the Black Panthers, as well as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_to_the_People_%28song%29 a song by John Lennon].

'''"Feel like we were running around like little kids with toy weapons, like the camera really was some kind of gun, gave us that kind of power. Shit. How could we lose track like that, about what was real?"''' 
Frenesi has totally bought Vond's line about the powerlessness of film vs. a gun. (And that's how they got her. And us.)

:And yet: 
:"You don't die for no motherfuckin' shadows" page 202 
:"...sold off my only real fortune - my precious anger - for a lot of got-damn shadows" page 291

'''"who'd we save"''' 
Yet another preterite reference, and one that harks back to Hector's speech on [[Chapter 3#Page 28|p. 28]].
[[Image:PurpleOwsleyBear.jpg|thumb|A Purple ''Grateful Dead'' Bear|right]]
'''"Purple Owsley"''' 
Another run of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owsley_Stanley Owsley's] high-grade color-coded LSD. Cf. [[Chapter 12#Page 247|p. 247]]

The same Owsley "Bear" Stanley also worked as soundman for the band [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grateful_dead ''Grateful Dead''], and was one of the inspirations for their dancing bear logo.

==Page 260==
'''"You know what happens when my pussy's runnin' the show."''' 
If this is Frenesi's only motivation for the series of betrayals (including her betrayal of herself) that lie at the heart of ''Vineland'', it's a thin reed on which to build a book. Unless we buy into Sister Rochelle's Eden parable in which Vond represents the snaky seductiveness of authority, and Frenesi stands for a postwar America that's eager to surrender its freedom. Indeed, Frenesi's enjoyment of bondage and discipline games, which free her of responsibility, makes a strong connection with all the S&M sequences in the book (see next note).

These are Frenesi's rationalizations to DL, not Pynchon's explanations for her behavior. Note: "... getting things wrong on purpose, and more and more wrong as it went falling to pieces" and "blaming external drug molecules for each of her failures ...". There is some truth to her excuses, but, as Pynchon indicates, not the whole truth.

'''"behind the Thorazine curtain"''' 
Pynchon on a sadism kick. He does seem to have a weakness for this stuff, as many sequences in Gravity's Rainbow will attest.

'''"5 mg Stelazine plus 50 of Thorazine"''' 
Thorazine and Stelazine are antihallucinatory specifics, usually used to treat schizophrenics.

==Page 261==
'''Las Suegras''' 
"The Mothers-in-law." There is a Las Suegras Vineyard off I-15 near Temecula, CA, but no town of that name.

'''"1,000-watt Mickey-Mole spot"''' 
An open face (lensless) focusing studio light from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole-Richardson Mole-Richardson company]. It rhymes, too.

==Page 263==
'''"out in the zodiac..."''' 
Vond is a Scorpio. What else?

'''"idiolalia"''' 
Pynchon loves these esoteric terms. It means a private language. Here starts the paranoia about 24fps'rs disappearing which echoes people disappearing from the computer ([[Chapter 6#Page 85|p. 85]]), and the Kahuna airplane ([[Chapter 5#Page 65|p. 65]]).

It also echoes the disappearing people in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four Nineteen Eighty-Four] and Philip K. Dick's novel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBIK UBIK]. Cf. [[Chapter_8#Page_111|page 111]].

==Page 264==
'''"Reagan's got it for when he invades Nicaragua,"''' 
DL's prediction of Reagan's invasion of Nicaragua never came true; the closest Reagan ever came was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Contra Iran-Contra]. Cf. [[Chapter_15#Page_353|page 353]]

==Page 265==
'''"Why would he come after us?"''' 
Good question.

'''"The whole Reagan program..."''' 
Yeah! Go, Pynchon, go!

==Page 266==
'''Vond is "after Frenesi...to use her for some task."''' 
OK, what task?

Perhaps to get Prairie, the future. Cf. page 50. Remember that this part of the story is taking place in the Reagan Era, not the Nixon Era. Pynchon's take on the Reagan Era was that the nightmare was beginning all over again.

'''"So the big bad Ninjamobile swept along on the great Ventura [Freeway]...above the heads of TV watchers, lovers under the overpasses, movies at malls letting out, bright gas-station oases in pure fluorescent spill...down the corridors of the surface streets, in nocturnal smog, the adobe air, the smell of distant fireworks, the spilled, the broken world."''' 
What a great paragraph! Yes, the cat can write -- rhyming verse and all: "flirters, deserters, wimps and pimps"

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 12

2011-12-29T02:54:14Z

Pthomas: /* Page 255 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 218==
'''"up over the passes and out long desert arterials, out past the seed and feed houses and country music bars and Mexican joints with Happy Hours featuring 99 cent margaritas out of a hose, under the smog, the dribbling rain, the toxic lens of sky..."''' 
Mr. Pynchon, meet Mr. Chandler.

'''"At first Weed went around feeling like a political defector."''' 
Pun intended.

'''"chartreuse"''' 
An apple-green colour.

==Page 219==
'''"What an evening"''' 
Thanatoid Roast '84 is the "tenth annual get-together" -- which means there have been thanatoids since '75. So what happened in 1974-1975? Patty Hearst kidnapped by SLA. Nixon is impeached over Watergate, and resigns. Motion picture ratings system created. US Bicentenial celebration. Vietnam War ends; last 1,000 Americans evacuated from South Vietnam.

They were around before 1975, but you're on to something. See page 320.

==Page 220==
'''"CAMP"''' [[Image:CAMPlogo.gif|thumb|CAMP Logo|right]] 
[http://www.ag.ca.gov/bne/camp.htm Camp], the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, is a multiagency law-enforcement taskforce set up by California to eradicate illegal marijuana cultivation and trafficking in the state. Although it is state-created, it includes representatives from state, federal, and local law enforcement agencies.

'''"Willis Chunko"''' 
Nice name.

==Page 221==
'''"Pale blue unmarked little planes appeared, on days of VFR unlimited nearly invisible against the sky, flown by a private vigilante squadron of student antidrug activists..."''' 
Cf. [[Chapter_1#Page 3|p.3]] ("squadron of blue jays stomping around on the roof...").

'''"Kommandant Karl Bopp"''' 
Another great name.

'''"pacified territory"''' 
Growers discuss CAMP progress in Vietnam-like terms.

==Page 222==
'''"All right, you parrots, listen up!"''' 
Parrot sale and shared dreams: Magic realism, gorgeous and surreal; tropical colors and flashy imagery.

==Page 223==
'''"can't shit, can't get a hardon"''' 
The Thanatoid Roast rendered from Van Meter's POV; his paranoia is expressed in terms familiar from [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

This passage doesn't concern the atmosphere of the Thanatoid Roast; it describes Van Meter's frustration in failing to lucidly dream his way into the same alternate reality that the children (claim to) perceive. Constipation and impotence are maladies of old age. Van Meter has lost his link to the dreams of the "younger generation" that have been shaped by the parrot media background. Perhaps that's why he's been reduced to playing Thanatoid gigs.

==Page 225==
'''"old-time Combo-Ork arrangements"''' 
There's that lingo again.

'''"rallentando"''' 
A typically obscure Pynchon word, this musical term means exactly the same as ritardando: played with decreasing pace. Perfect for the Thanatoid gig.

==Page 226==
'''"Larry Elasmo"''' 
Cool name. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasticman Plasticman]? Elasmos is Greek for beaten metal (hence elastic) plate. An [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elasmobranchii elasmobranch] is a fish, such as a shark, with a cartilage (not bone) skeleton and [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/elasmobranch tooth-like scales].

But what the fuck is he doing at the Thanatoid Roast? Pynchon is pushing the outside of the coincidence envelope.

Elasmo sequence. Mr. Pynchon, meet Mr. Kafka. This all seems boosted right out of The Trial. Here's Weed, another rebellious American child (like Frenesi), submitting to, or fascinated with, authority. "Because the Doctor says so..." turn your body over to coaches, boys with hardons. Go to the Draft Board Center and sit on the group W bench. Even rational, mathematical, radical Weed does what the dentist tells him to, even if it is manifestly senseless.

Among other questions worth asking: Who authorized Elasmo to issue these compulsory forms that require people to come to his office? And by what mysterious process does Weed's merely waiting around cause him to become confused and dispirited? Maybe the idea is simply to take Weed out of the picture at intervals, so Vond and Frenesi can talk and fuck. There's some hint (from Vond if not from Pynchon) that Weed is collaborating with Vond. If so, we'd expect at least a short scene showing that collaboration. The Elasmo sequence stands in the right position, and serves the same function -- but there's no hint whatsoever of Vond. Pretty weird.

'''"Dr Elasmo's video image had swept, had pixeldanced in"''' 
Image/raster TV techotalk. Pixels = the tiny dots that make up the Tube image.

Another possible explanation of the whole Dr. Larry's World of Discomfort sequence is implied by the passage "Somehow, in Weed's deathstunned memory, Dr. Elasmo's video image had swept, had pixeldanced in, to cover, mercifully, for something else..." Since his commercials were so ubiquitous on TV at the time, is it possible that Weed was doing something else, meeting someone in a bureaucratic building in the city-- meetings that left him feeling stunned, guilty, and sick at heart-- and he has recast and shot these memories as meetings with the faux-celebrity of Dr. Larry Elasmo?

Plasticman indeed.

==Page 227==
'''"Dr. Larry Elasmo, or a person wearing, like a coverall and veil, his ubiquitous screen image grainy, flickering at the edges..."''' 
So not only is the real Elasmo tracking Weed, his TV image is doing it too!

==Page 228==
'''"Ilse, the hygienist..."''' 
Naturally, the dental hygienist in Larry's World of Discomfort is none other than Ilse, the high-heeled Nazi heroine of sixties S&M porno flicks, e.g., Ilse, She-Wolf of the SS.

==Page 230==
'''"...adjusted the pulsing vacuum to meet his own quickening rhythm..."''' 
The scene of Rex adjusting Bruno's carburetors while masturbating in the intakes clearly harks back to certain intimate moments involving Rachel and her MG's gearshift lever in V.

'''"Trash the Xanthocroid"''' 
(See note, [[Chapter 10#Page 197|p. 197]].)

==Page 231==

'''Elliot X''' 

Extremely close to being an anagram for Malcolm X's real last name, Little. Just switch a t for an o?
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_x WIKI]

Also, some believe the name "Elliot" is derived from the French "Elias" which comes from "Elijah" - which would also factor in a reference to Elijah Muhammad [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah_Muhammad WIKI]

==Page 232==

'''"land of the May Events"''' 

Rex is heading to France. May Events refers to the revolts in France in May of 1968. Possibly Rex feels these events going on are more pure in protest/outcome than what is going on with Weed, Frenesi, PR3, etc. especially now that he's feeling high on sacrifice, what with giving up Bruno and all. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_events WIKI]

See [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1#Epigraph epigraph] of ''Inherent Vice''.

'''"Neither one could know how few and fortunate would be any who'd be able to meet in years later than these and smile, relax beneath some single low oak out on an impossible hillside, with sunlight, and the voice of children... drink some chilly gold-green California Chenin Blanc, and laugh, and pour more wine"''' 

Flashsideways (or some-even-stranger-ways) to an imaginary, 4th-dimensional picnic in which Rex, Weed, and Prairie "negotiate an agreeable version of history." This is an important little scene, since it's where the details of the murder are made explicit at last. Or are they? Note the "nearly" in "he nearly blew me away," which seems to suggest that maybe Weed is merely wounded? (It's just Pynchonian smoke; Weed really is killed.) This scene appears to be Rex's fantasy -- except how does he know about Prairie?

I dont think this is necessarily Rex's vision, but Pynchon's foreshadowing (and an alternate version) of the family reunion, kindof a "what if" Weed and Rex had made it, what would they have said, looking back? Obviously, Rex nor Weed will make it to this dreamy "Wineland" (traditional translation of Vineland: see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinland Vinland]). See page 246 where it specifically refers back to this scene.

It is also ''possible'' that this is actually a dream sequence from Prairie's mind after taking in all of the stories and 24fps film (much like she and DL's convo break up the narrative). See pg. 325.

==Page 233==

'''"Weed had found himself a classical pigeon"''' 
The "flashsideways" ends with Pynchon switching from present tense to (mostly) past tense.

==Page 234==

'''The Invaders''' 

Science fiction TV show about alien invasion that aired on ABC for two seasons in 1967-1968. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invaders WIKI] The "aliens infiltrating human institutions", paranoia, etc. seems apt here.

'''chocolate-covered banana''' 

Howie enjoys one here, but also a favorite of Bigfoot Bjornson in ''Inherent Vice''.

==Page 235==

'''Amerikan''' 

From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satiric_misspelling#.E2.80.9CK.E2.80.9D_replacing_.E2.80.9CC.E2.80.9D Wiki]: In the 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, leftists, particularly the Yippies, sometimes used Amerika rather than "America" in referring to the United States. It is still used as a political statement today. It is likely that this was originally an allusion to the German spelling of America, and intended to be suggestive of Nazism, a hypothesis that the Oxford English Dictionary supports.

Note that Franz Kafka's unfinished, first novel, was spelled this way, titled by Max Brod, published posthumously. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerika_(novel) ''Amerika'']

==Page 236==
'''"...he reached for the Tube, popped it on, fastened himself to the screen and began to feed."''' 
A great William Burroughs-style science-fictional, Tube/addictive image.

'''"It's takin his soul, man"''' 
Certain primitive (and not so primitive) tribes believe that when someone takes your photograph it steals your soul. Or maybe Howie means the Tube.
But of course Brock has said that Weed's soul is exactly what he wants.

'''"Culito Canyon"''' 
Spanish for "Little Ass Canyon."

==Page 237==
'''"...might make the Guinness Book someday..."''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_Book Guinness Book of Records], published regularly by the Irish brewery/distillery company, chronicles current achievements in urban sports like phone booth stuffing.

==Page 238==
'''"Famous worms of song"''' 
A play on "The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, the worms play [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinochle pinochle] on your snout," sung to Mozart/Haydn/whoever's requiem. A famous childhood song, right up there with "Great green gobs of greasy grimy monkeymeat" (It's Gopher guts...see the alliteration.) "Hitler he had just one big ball" and the tragic ballad "Found a Peanut." This is kind of a heavy Pynchon hit on Frenesi's knowledge of Weed's impending doom.

==Page 239==
'''Note the asterisk at the top of the page. How come? Pynchon hasn't needed no steenking asterisks before! Can those worms have thrown him so far off balance that he can't carry on without typographic help? (Actually, there is one earlier asterisk occurrence, at the bottom of [[Chapter 1#Page 8|page 8]]. Go figure.)

'''"ND-1 filters"''' 
ND = Neutral Density; the suffix digit tells how many f stops it reduces incoming light (or outgoing baby-blue intensity) without changing color values.

'''"Nixonian reaction...continued to...compromise...what may only in some fading memories ever have been a people's miracle, an army of loving friends..."''' 
Pynchon seems bitter over the ease with which the government (and its media, and its money) destroyed the ideal/idyll.

==Page 240==
'''"'therapy sessions,' Brock called them..."''' 
Brock seems connected with Elasmo. Does this mean that Weed has really turned? Or that Weed's sessions with the tooth-yanker are just Vond's "reality adjustments," in which Weed is somehow osmosified to believe in Brock's version of reality (in which only power counts, and resistance is futile)?

As discussed on [[Chapter_12#Page_226|page 226]], Elasmo is the Freudian-style dream transformation of Brock Vond in Thanatoid Weed's "deathstunned memory". Pynchon, so far, hasn't described how Weed was "turned".

'''"Smith"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Wesson Smith and Wesson], the largest manufacturer of handguns in the United States.

==Page 241==
'''"24-frame-per-second truth"''' 
Hi, [[Chapter 8#Page 114|Jean-Luc Godard]]!

==Page 242==
'''"frogwork"''' 
Frogs are the knots in which ornate cords (like the ones on doormen's uniform coats) are tied. Similar to Buddhist "priest cords" sometimes used as hangings. Here, frogwork is an evocative metaphor for the intricate shadow cast by the tangle of overhead cables and trolley wires and a very apt one, you'll agree, if you've ever seen the rat's nest of wiring suspended above the street in San Francisco or San Diego.

==Page 244==
'''"the Arri and...a wind-up Bolex"''' 
Two small, light, quiet, highly portable 16mm movie cameras. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arriflex Arriflex's] electric motor is powered by a battery pack; the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolex Bolex] is (like Pynchon says) spring-driven.

'''"Howie'd kill them again"''' 
Surely should be "Howie'd kick them again".

No. Howie would kick-on the lights, Weed would chicken-out, Howie would kill the lights, then presumably Frenesi would work on Weed some more, then the cycle would repeat.

==Page 245==
'''"a battered old Auricon"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP-16 Auricon] is another 16mm camera, also battery (or AC) powered, with the handy capability to record live sound right on the film.

==Page 246==
'''"the shirt cloth still burning around the blackly erupted exit, pale flames guttering out..."''' 
Sounds great, but while we're no forensic experts we'd guess that burns would be characteristic of the entry hole of a gunshot wound, not the exit.

'''He would not after all be lucky enough to sit under that oak under that dreamed hillside someday with a miraculously saved Weed Atman, in some 1980s world of the future''' 

Here Rex's actions have changed his "possible" future (see page 232). Now neither Rex nor Weed will be a part of the exodus to Vineland (or Wineland). Also see page 325.

==Page 247==
'''"a Mole-Richardson Series 700 generator ... legendary Eclairs ... Miller heads, Fastaxes ... Norwood Binary light meters"''' 
All deluxe loot from the CotS Film Arts Dept. The "legendary" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclair_%28camera%29 Eclairs] (there you go again, Mr. Pynchon!) are innovative French 16mm cameras, quieter (and producing a steadier image) than the Arri, Bolex or Auricon cameras mentioned above. The Miller fluid head goes on top of a camera tripod and allows very smooth pans.

'''"Blue Cheer concert"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Cheer Blue Cheer] was a popular "acid-rock" band of the time, named after one of underground chemist Owsley Stanley's most popular (and potent) releases of LSD tablets. The tabs got their name because, in the charming flower-power style of the time, Owsley would dye each new release a different color and the blue tinge of this batch reminded users of a well-known laundry detergent.

'''"7242"''' 
16mm Ektachrome EF reversal film, a medium fast (125 ASA) workhorse stock.

==Page 248==
'''"...a handful of persons [were] unaccounted for. In those days it was unthinkable that any North American agency would kill its own civilians and then lie about it.... Vond referred to it humorously as 'rapture.'"''' 
Rapture is a Biblical reference to the Day of Judgment, when the dead and the living will be taken to Heaven. Vond uses the term again, later, to describe winching Prairie up "into the sky" and abducting her ([[Chapter 15#Page 376|p. 376]]). Pynchon may have picked up the term from ''Job'', [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_heinlein Robert Heinlein's] last great fantasy novel.

[[Image:RaptureSticker.png|thumb|Evangelical Bumper Sticker|right]]In the doctrine of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapture Rapture] ''only the Christian believers'' will be abducted by God. For evangelicals, Rapture of the Saved occurs before the time of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribulation Tribulation]. Hence the bumper sticker, "In Case of Rapture This Car Will Be Unmanned". People more like Pynchon's audience used "Beam Me Up, Scotty". Vond believes that, like Frenesi, children of the 1960's secretly long for discipline (cf. [[Chapter_13#Page_269|page 269]]) so his rapture analogy is apt.

'''"Fawning, gazing upward at the zipper of his fly, media toadies..."''' 
Here we see the "official" media, directed by the government, rewriting the Sixties on the spot. The only reporter to challenge Vond is dragged away.

'''"field-gray trucks"''' 
Feldgrau, that popular old Wehrmacht color!

==Page 249==
'''"tenebrous cool light"''' 
tenebrous = dark, gloomy.

'''"Federal Emergency Evacuation Route (FEER)"''' 
What a quintessentially Pynchonian idea, and what a powerful image, and what a great acronym!

==Page 250==
'''"ruins from Camelot"''' 
Little left from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kennedy Kennedy] presidency.

'''"the flagship of the 24fps motor pool, a '57 Chevy Nomad"''' 
Cool wheels, but not mentioned in the semi-extensive description of the 24fps vehicle collection on p. 194.

==Page 251==
'''"Virgil Ploce"''' 
Great name. And count on Pynchon to choose an anti-communist with an exploding cigar! Rumors about this supposedly-CIA-backed anti-Castro plot emerged after the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion Bay of Pigs invasion]. It's never been established whether the gambit was actually put into practice.

Virgil Place is a street in Los Angeles.

==Page 252==
'''"primer cord"''' 
Pynchon makes a common error in this reference; he may only have heard it said, never seen it in writing. This stuff is actually called "Primacord" (a copyrighted name of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensign-Bickford_Company Ensign-Bickford Company]). It's useful stuff, serving not only as a primer, but as a conveniently cord-shaped explosive substance.

'''"the sudden light from behind, the unbearable sight in the mirror"''' 
An atomic explosion.

'''"the hour of the rat"''' 
In Chinese astrology, the [http://library.thinkquest.org/C0113521/lcon.htm hour of the rat] is the two-hour period from 11pm - 1am. The same concept was used in ancient [http://pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Time_in_Old_Japan Japanese timekeeping].

'''"Be groovy or B movie"''' 
Takeoff on [http://ask.yahoo.com/20061113.html "Be there or be square"].

==Page 253==
'''"...becoming its harsh woven shadow..."''' 
Frenesi = light; DL = shadow; together = film. Also, of course, ones and zeros.

==Page 254==
[[Image:ZPoster.jpg|thumb|Poster for ''Z''|right]]
'''"Hasta la proxima, querida mia"''' 
Spanish: "Until next time, my dear." The letter "Z" is, of course, the trademark of Zorro. This steamy scene seems virtually pointless; maybe Pynchon got horny while he was writing. "Perhaps...not unscented" indeed! ([[Chapter 8#Page 118|See also p. 118]], with the smell of DL's "pussy excitation.")

The letter "Z" also stands for Ζει, he lives, which was scrawled on Greek walls in the 1960's to show that the spirit of resistance still lived. This was popularized worldwide in 1969 by the political film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(film) ''Z''].

It pays to remember that one of the main motifs in this book is the unreality of television -gratuitous sex scenes are very much a part of that. The section is intended to be satirical.

==Page 255==
'''"the subroutine Yukai na...a low-order limbic pleasure cycle that would loop over and over"''' 
Interesting use of computer programming lingo in the martial arts world.

More cyberpunk shtick.

'''"the rodent hour"''' 
Given the refs to Daffy and Bugs in the previous sentence, this might refer to the Mickey Mouse Club show on the Tube, but was that one hour or one half hour??

No, go back to [[Chapter_12#Page_252|Page 252]] "They arrived ... well before dawn, the hour of the rat ...". DL is indeed sneaking into the prison camp like a rat stealing some cheese.

'''"one hatchway after another, leading to smaller and smaller volumes."'''

Echoes the structure of the shelter system in Mordecai Roshwald's chilling doomsday novel ''Level 7'' [1959].
==Page 257==
'''Quilbasazos''' 
Arguably Spanish for "Keilbasas"--Eastern European sausages. Possibly Punta Banda in the real world.

==Page 258==
'''"''A llover''"''' 
What a great meal! ''A llover'' is Spanish for, "It's about to rain," but it also refers to the fact that it's "all over" for the outdoor desayuno. Pynchon puns again.

==Page 259==
'''"powder to the people"''' 
Ouch! Punning on the slogan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_to_the_people_%28slogan%29 "Power to the People"] which was a rallying cry of the Black Panthers, as well as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_to_the_People_%28song%29 a song by John Lennon].

'''"Feel like we were running around like little kids with toy weapons, like the camera really was some kind of gun, gave us that kind of power. Shit. How could we lose track like that, about what was real?"''' 
Frenesi has totally bought Vond's line about the powerlessness of film vs. a gun. (And that's how they got her. And us.)

:And yet: 
:"You don't die for no motherfuckin' shadows" page 202 
:"...sold off my only real fortune - my precious anger - for a lot of got-damn shadows" page 291

'''"who'd we save"''' 
Yet another preterite reference, and one that harks back to Hector's speech on [[Chapter 3#Page 28|p. 28]].
[[Image:PurpleOwsleyBear.jpg|thumb|A Purple ''Grateful Dead'' Bear|right]]
'''"Purple Owsley"''' 
Another run of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owsley_Stanley Owsley's] high-grade color-coded LSD. Cf. [[Chapter 12#Page 247|p. 247]]

The same Owsley "Bear" Stanley also worked as soundman for the band [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grateful_dead ''Grateful Dead''], and was one of the inspirations for their dancing bear logo.

==Page 260==
'''"You know what happens when my pussy's runnin' the show."''' 
If this is Frenesi's only motivation for the series of betrayals (including her betrayal of herself) that lie at the heart of ''Vineland'', it's a thin reed on which to build a book. Unless we buy into Sister Rochelle's Eden parable in which Vond represents the snaky seductiveness of authority, and Frenesi stands for a postwar America that's eager to surrender its freedom. Indeed, Frenesi's enjoyment of bondage and discipline games, which free her of responsibility, makes a strong connection with all the S&M sequences in the book (see next note).

These are Frenesi's rationalizations to DL, not Pynchon's explanations for her behavior. Note: "... getting things wrong on purpose, and more and more wrong as it went falling to pieces" and "blaming external drug molecules for each of her failures ...". There is some truth to her excuses, but, as Pynchon indicates, not the whole truth.

'''"behind the Thorazine curtain"''' 
Pynchon on a sadism kick. He does seem to have a weakness for this stuff, as many sequences in Gravity's Rainbow will attest.

'''"5 mg Stelazine plus 50 of Thorazine"''' 
Thorazine and Stelazine are antihallucinatory specifics, usually used to treat schizophrenics.

==Page 261==
'''"1,000-watt Mickey-Mole spot"''' 
An open face (lensless) focusing studio light from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole-Richardson Mole-Richardson company]. It rhymes, too.

==Page 263==
'''"out in the zodiac..."''' 
Vond is a Scorpio. What else?

'''"idiolalia"''' 
Pynchon loves these esoteric terms. It means a private language. Here starts the paranoia about 24fps'rs disappearing which echoes people disappearing from the computer ([[Chapter 6#Page 85|p. 85]]), and the Kahuna airplane ([[Chapter 5#Page 65|p. 65]]).

It also echoes the disappearing people in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four Nineteen Eighty-Four] and Philip K. Dick's novel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBIK UBIK]. Cf. [[Chapter_8#Page_111|page 111]].

==Page 264==
'''"Reagan's got it for when he invades Nicaragua,"''' 
DL's prediction of Reagan's invasion of Nicaragua never came true; the closest Reagan ever came was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Contra Iran-Contra]. Cf. [[Chapter_15#Page_353|page 353]]

==Page 265==
'''"Why would he come after us?"''' 
Good question.

'''"The whole Reagan program..."''' 
Yeah! Go, Pynchon, go!

==Page 266==
'''Vond is "after Frenesi...to use her for some task."''' 
OK, what task?

Perhaps to get Prairie, the future. Cf. page 50. Remember that this part of the story is taking place in the Reagan Era, not the Nixon Era. Pynchon's take on the Reagan Era was that the nightmare was beginning all over again.

'''"So the big bad Ninjamobile swept along on the great Ventura [Freeway]...above the heads of TV watchers, lovers under the overpasses, movies at malls letting out, bright gas-station oases in pure fluorescent spill...down the corridors of the surface streets, in nocturnal smog, the adobe air, the smell of distant fireworks, the spilled, the broken world."''' 
What a great paragraph! Yes, the cat can write -- rhyming verse and all: "flirters, deserters, wimps and pimps"

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 12

2011-12-29T02:06:28Z

Pthomas:

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 218==
'''"up over the passes and out long desert arterials, out past the seed and feed houses and country music bars and Mexican joints with Happy Hours featuring 99 cent margaritas out of a hose, under the smog, the dribbling rain, the toxic lens of sky..."''' 
Mr. Pynchon, meet Mr. Chandler.

'''"At first Weed went around feeling like a political defector."''' 
Pun intended.

'''"chartreuse"''' 
An apple-green colour.

==Page 219==
'''"What an evening"''' 
Thanatoid Roast '84 is the "tenth annual get-together" -- which means there have been thanatoids since '75. So what happened in 1974-1975? Patty Hearst kidnapped by SLA. Nixon is impeached over Watergate, and resigns. Motion picture ratings system created. US Bicentenial celebration. Vietnam War ends; last 1,000 Americans evacuated from South Vietnam.

They were around before 1975, but you're on to something. See page 320.

==Page 220==
'''"CAMP"''' [[Image:CAMPlogo.gif|thumb|CAMP Logo|right]] 
[http://www.ag.ca.gov/bne/camp.htm Camp], the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, is a multiagency law-enforcement taskforce set up by California to eradicate illegal marijuana cultivation and trafficking in the state. Although it is state-created, it includes representatives from state, federal, and local law enforcement agencies.

'''"Willis Chunko"''' 
Nice name.

==Page 221==
'''"Pale blue unmarked little planes appeared, on days of VFR unlimited nearly invisible against the sky, flown by a private vigilante squadron of student antidrug activists..."''' 
Cf. [[Chapter_1#Page 3|p.3]] ("squadron of blue jays stomping around on the roof...").

'''"Kommandant Karl Bopp"''' 
Another great name.

'''"pacified territory"''' 
Growers discuss CAMP progress in Vietnam-like terms.

==Page 222==
'''"All right, you parrots, listen up!"''' 
Parrot sale and shared dreams: Magic realism, gorgeous and surreal; tropical colors and flashy imagery.

==Page 223==
'''"can't shit, can't get a hardon"''' 
The Thanatoid Roast rendered from Van Meter's POV; his paranoia is expressed in terms familiar from [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

This passage doesn't concern the atmosphere of the Thanatoid Roast; it describes Van Meter's frustration in failing to lucidly dream his way into the same alternate reality that the children (claim to) perceive. Constipation and impotence are maladies of old age. Van Meter has lost his link to the dreams of the "younger generation" that have been shaped by the parrot media background. Perhaps that's why he's been reduced to playing Thanatoid gigs.

==Page 225==
'''"old-time Combo-Ork arrangements"''' 
There's that lingo again.

'''"rallentando"''' 
A typically obscure Pynchon word, this musical term means exactly the same as ritardando: played with decreasing pace. Perfect for the Thanatoid gig.

==Page 226==
'''"Larry Elasmo"''' 
Cool name. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasticman Plasticman]? Elasmos is Greek for beaten metal (hence elastic) plate. An [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elasmobranchii elasmobranch] is a fish, such as a shark, with a cartilage (not bone) skeleton and [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/elasmobranch tooth-like scales].

But what the fuck is he doing at the Thanatoid Roast? Pynchon is pushing the outside of the coincidence envelope.

Elasmo sequence. Mr. Pynchon, meet Mr. Kafka. This all seems boosted right out of The Trial. Here's Weed, another rebellious American child (like Frenesi), submitting to, or fascinated with, authority. "Because the Doctor says so..." turn your body over to coaches, boys with hardons. Go to the Draft Board Center and sit on the group W bench. Even rational, mathematical, radical Weed does what the dentist tells him to, even if it is manifestly senseless.

Among other questions worth asking: Who authorized Elasmo to issue these compulsory forms that require people to come to his office? And by what mysterious process does Weed's merely waiting around cause him to become confused and dispirited? Maybe the idea is simply to take Weed out of the picture at intervals, so Vond and Frenesi can talk and fuck. There's some hint (from Vond if not from Pynchon) that Weed is collaborating with Vond. If so, we'd expect at least a short scene showing that collaboration. The Elasmo sequence stands in the right position, and serves the same function -- but there's no hint whatsoever of Vond. Pretty weird.

'''"Dr Elasmo's video image had swept, had pixeldanced in"''' 
Image/raster TV techotalk. Pixels = the tiny dots that make up the Tube image.

Another possible explanation of the whole Dr. Larry's World of Discomfort sequence is implied by the passage "Somehow, in Weed's deathstunned memory, Dr. Elasmo's video image had swept, had pixeldanced in, to cover, mercifully, for something else..." Since his commercials were so ubiquitous on TV at the time, is it possible that Weed was doing something else, meeting someone in a bureaucratic building in the city-- meetings that left him feeling stunned, guilty, and sick at heart-- and he has recast and shot these memories as meetings with the faux-celebrity of Dr. Larry Elasmo?

Plasticman indeed.

==Page 227==
'''"Dr. Larry Elasmo, or a person wearing, like a coverall and veil, his ubiquitous screen image grainy, flickering at the edges..."''' 
So not only is the real Elasmo tracking Weed, his TV image is doing it too!

==Page 228==
'''"Ilse, the hygienist..."''' 
Naturally, the dental hygienist in Larry's World of Discomfort is none other than Ilse, the high-heeled Nazi heroine of sixties S&M porno flicks, e.g., Ilse, She-Wolf of the SS.

==Page 230==
'''"...adjusted the pulsing vacuum to meet his own quickening rhythm..."''' 
The scene of Rex adjusting Bruno's carburetors while masturbating in the intakes clearly harks back to certain intimate moments involving Rachel and her MG's gearshift lever in V.

'''"Trash the Xanthocroid"''' 
(See note, [[Chapter 10#Page 197|p. 197]].)

==Page 231==

'''Elliot X''' 

Extremely close to being an anagram for Malcolm X's real last name, Little. Just switch a t for an o?
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_x WIKI]

Also, some believe the name "Elliot" is derived from the French "Elias" which comes from "Elijah" - which would also factor in a reference to Elijah Muhammad [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah_Muhammad WIKI]

==Page 232==

'''"land of the May Events"''' 

Rex is heading to France. May Events refers to the revolts in France in May of 1968. Possibly Rex feels these events going on are more pure in protest/outcome than what is going on with Weed, Frenesi, PR3, etc. especially now that he's feeling high on sacrifice, what with giving up Bruno and all. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_events WIKI]

See [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1#Epigraph epigraph] of ''Inherent Vice''.

'''"Neither one could know how few and fortunate would be any who'd be able to meet in years later than these and smile, relax beneath some single low oak out on an impossible hillside, with sunlight, and the voice of children... drink some chilly gold-green California Chenin Blanc, and laugh, and pour more wine"''' 

Flashsideways (or some-even-stranger-ways) to an imaginary, 4th-dimensional picnic in which Rex, Weed, and Prairie "negotiate an agreeable version of history." This is an important little scene, since it's where the details of the murder are made explicit at last. Or are they? Note the "nearly" in "he nearly blew me away," which seems to suggest that maybe Weed is merely wounded? (It's just Pynchonian smoke; Weed really is killed.) This scene appears to be Rex's fantasy -- except how does he know about Prairie?

I dont think this is necessarily Rex's vision, but Pynchon's foreshadowing (and an alternate version) of the family reunion, kindof a "what if" Weed and Rex had made it, what would they have said, looking back? Obviously, Rex nor Weed will make it to this dreamy "Wineland" (traditional translation of Vineland: see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinland Vinland]). See page 246 where it specifically refers back to this scene.

It is also ''possible'' that this is actually a dream sequence from Prairie's mind after taking in all of the stories and 24fps film (much like she and DL's convo break up the narrative). See pg. 325.

==Page 233==

'''"Weed had found himself a classical pigeon"''' 
The "flashsideways" ends with Pynchon switching from present tense to (mostly) past tense.

==Page 234==

'''The Invaders''' 

Science fiction TV show about alien invasion that aired on ABC for two seasons in 1967-1968. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invaders WIKI] The "aliens infiltrating human institutions", paranoia, etc. seems apt here.

'''chocolate-covered banana''' 

Howie enjoys one here, but also a favorite of Bigfoot Bjornson in ''Inherent Vice''.

==Page 235==

'''Amerikan''' 

From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satiric_misspelling#.E2.80.9CK.E2.80.9D_replacing_.E2.80.9CC.E2.80.9D Wiki]: In the 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, leftists, particularly the Yippies, sometimes used Amerika rather than "America" in referring to the United States. It is still used as a political statement today. It is likely that this was originally an allusion to the German spelling of America, and intended to be suggestive of Nazism, a hypothesis that the Oxford English Dictionary supports.

Note that Franz Kafka's unfinished, first novel, was spelled this way, titled by Max Brod, published posthumously. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerika_(novel) ''Amerika'']

==Page 236==
'''"...he reached for the Tube, popped it on, fastened himself to the screen and began to feed."''' 
A great William Burroughs-style science-fictional, Tube/addictive image.

'''"It's takin his soul, man"''' 
Certain primitive (and not so primitive) tribes believe that when someone takes your photograph it steals your soul. Or maybe Howie means the Tube.
But of course Brock has said that Weed's soul is exactly what he wants.

'''"Culito Canyon"''' 
Spanish for "Little Ass Canyon."

==Page 237==
'''"...might make the Guinness Book someday..."''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_Book Guinness Book of Records], published regularly by the Irish brewery/distillery company, chronicles current achievements in urban sports like phone booth stuffing.

==Page 238==
'''"Famous worms of song"''' 
A play on "The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, the worms play [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinochle pinochle] on your snout," sung to Mozart/Haydn/whoever's requiem. A famous childhood song, right up there with "Great green gobs of greasy grimy monkeymeat" (It's Gopher guts...see the alliteration.) "Hitler he had just one big ball" and the tragic ballad "Found a Peanut." This is kind of a heavy Pynchon hit on Frenesi's knowledge of Weed's impending doom.

==Page 239==
'''Note the asterisk at the top of the page. How come? Pynchon hasn't needed no steenking asterisks before! Can those worms have thrown him so far off balance that he can't carry on without typographic help? (Actually, there is one earlier asterisk occurrence, at the bottom of [[Chapter 1#Page 8|page 8]]. Go figure.)

'''"ND-1 filters"''' 
ND = Neutral Density; the suffix digit tells how many f stops it reduces incoming light (or outgoing baby-blue intensity) without changing color values.

'''"Nixonian reaction...continued to...compromise...what may only in some fading memories ever have been a people's miracle, an army of loving friends..."''' 
Pynchon seems bitter over the ease with which the government (and its media, and its money) destroyed the ideal/idyll.

==Page 240==
'''"'therapy sessions,' Brock called them..."''' 
Brock seems connected with Elasmo. Does this mean that Weed has really turned? Or that Weed's sessions with the tooth-yanker are just Vond's "reality adjustments," in which Weed is somehow osmosified to believe in Brock's version of reality (in which only power counts, and resistance is futile)?

As discussed on [[Chapter_12#Page_226|page 226]], Elasmo is the Freudian-style dream transformation of Brock Vond in Thanatoid Weed's "deathstunned memory". Pynchon, so far, hasn't described how Weed was "turned".

'''"Smith"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Wesson Smith and Wesson], the largest manufacturer of handguns in the United States.

==Page 241==
'''"24-frame-per-second truth"''' 
Hi, [[Chapter 8#Page 114|Jean-Luc Godard]]!

==Page 242==
'''"frogwork"''' 
Frogs are the knots in which ornate cords (like the ones on doormen's uniform coats) are tied. Similar to Buddhist "priest cords" sometimes used as hangings. Here, frogwork is an evocative metaphor for the intricate shadow cast by the tangle of overhead cables and trolley wires and a very apt one, you'll agree, if you've ever seen the rat's nest of wiring suspended above the street in San Francisco or San Diego.

==Page 244==
'''"the Arri and...a wind-up Bolex"''' 
Two small, light, quiet, highly portable 16mm movie cameras. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arriflex Arriflex's] electric motor is powered by a battery pack; the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolex Bolex] is (like Pynchon says) spring-driven.

'''"Howie'd kill them again"''' 
Surely should be "Howie'd kick them again".

No. Howie would kick-on the lights, Weed would chicken-out, Howie would kill the lights, then presumably Frenesi would work on Weed some more, then the cycle would repeat.

==Page 245==
'''"a battered old Auricon"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP-16 Auricon] is another 16mm camera, also battery (or AC) powered, with the handy capability to record live sound right on the film.

==Page 246==
'''"the shirt cloth still burning around the blackly erupted exit, pale flames guttering out..."''' 
Sounds great, but while we're no forensic experts we'd guess that burns would be characteristic of the entry hole of a gunshot wound, not the exit.

'''He would not after all be lucky enough to sit under that oak under that dreamed hillside someday with a miraculously saved Weed Atman, in some 1980s world of the future''' 

Here Rex's actions have changed his "possible" future (see page 232). Now neither Rex nor Weed will be a part of the exodus to Vineland (or Wineland). Also see page 325.

==Page 247==
'''"a Mole-Richardson Series 700 generator ... legendary Eclairs ... Miller heads, Fastaxes ... Norwood Binary light meters"''' 
All deluxe loot from the CotS Film Arts Dept. The "legendary" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclair_%28camera%29 Eclairs] (there you go again, Mr. Pynchon!) are innovative French 16mm cameras, quieter (and producing a steadier image) than the Arri, Bolex or Auricon cameras mentioned above. The Miller fluid head goes on top of a camera tripod and allows very smooth pans.

'''"Blue Cheer concert"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Cheer Blue Cheer] was a popular "acid-rock" band of the time, named after one of underground chemist Owsley Stanley's most popular (and potent) releases of LSD tablets. The tabs got their name because, in the charming flower-power style of the time, Owsley would dye each new release a different color and the blue tinge of this batch reminded users of a well-known laundry detergent.

'''"7242"''' 
16mm Ektachrome EF reversal film, a medium fast (125 ASA) workhorse stock.

==Page 248==
'''"...a handful of persons [were] unaccounted for. In those days it was unthinkable that any North American agency would kill its own civilians and then lie about it.... Vond referred to it humorously as 'rapture.'"''' 
Rapture is a Biblical reference to the Day of Judgment, when the dead and the living will be taken to Heaven. Vond uses the term again, later, to describe winching Prairie up "into the sky" and abducting her ([[Chapter 15#Page 376|p. 376]]). Pynchon may have picked up the term from ''Job'', [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_heinlein Robert Heinlein's] last great fantasy novel.

[[Image:RaptureSticker.png|thumb|Evangelical Bumper Sticker|right]]In the doctrine of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapture Rapture] ''only the Christian believers'' will be abducted by God. For evangelicals, Rapture of the Saved occurs before the time of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribulation Tribulation]. Hence the bumper sticker, "In Case of Rapture This Car Will Be Unmanned". People more like Pynchon's audience used "Beam Me Up, Scotty". Vond believes that, like Frenesi, children of the 1960's secretly long for discipline (cf. [[Chapter_13#Page_269|page 269]]) so his rapture analogy is apt.

'''"Fawning, gazing upward at the zipper of his fly, media toadies..."''' 
Here we see the "official" media, directed by the government, rewriting the Sixties on the spot. The only reporter to challenge Vond is dragged away.

'''"field-gray trucks"''' 
Feldgrau, that popular old Wehrmacht color!

==Page 249==
'''"tenebrous cool light"''' 
tenebrous = dark, gloomy.

'''"Federal Emergency Evacuation Route (FEER)"''' 
What a quintessentially Pynchonian idea, and what a powerful image, and what a great acronym!

==Page 250==
'''"ruins from Camelot"''' 
Little left from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kennedy Kennedy] presidency.

'''"the flagship of the 24fps motor pool, a '57 Chevy Nomad"''' 
Cool wheels, but not mentioned in the semi-extensive description of the 24fps vehicle collection on p. 194.

==Page 251==
'''"Virgil Ploce"''' 
Great name. And count on Pynchon to choose an anti-communist with an exploding cigar! Rumors about this supposedly-CIA-backed anti-Castro plot emerged after the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion Bay of Pigs invasion]. It's never been established whether the gambit was actually put into practice.

Virgil Place is a street in Los Angeles.

==Page 252==
'''"primer cord"''' 
Pynchon makes a common error in this reference; he may only have heard it said, never seen it in writing. This stuff is actually called "Primacord" (a copyrighted name of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensign-Bickford_Company Ensign-Bickford Company]). It's useful stuff, serving not only as a primer, but as a conveniently cord-shaped explosive substance.

'''"the sudden light from behind, the unbearable sight in the mirror"''' 
An atomic explosion.

'''"the hour of the rat"''' 
In Chinese astrology, the [http://library.thinkquest.org/C0113521/lcon.htm hour of the rat] is the two-hour period from 11pm - 1am. The same concept was used in ancient [http://pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Time_in_Old_Japan Japanese timekeeping].

'''"Be groovy or B movie"''' 
Takeoff on [http://ask.yahoo.com/20061113.html "Be there or be square"].

==Page 253==
'''"...becoming its harsh woven shadow..."''' 
Frenesi = light; DL = shadow; together = film. Also, of course, ones and zeros.

==Page 254==
[[Image:ZPoster.jpg|thumb|Poster for ''Z''|right]]
'''"Hasta la proxima, querida mia"''' 
Spanish: "Until next time, my dear." The letter "Z" is, of course, the trademark of Zorro. This steamy scene seems virtually pointless; maybe Pynchon got horny while he was writing. "Perhaps...not unscented" indeed! ([[Chapter 8#Page 118|See also p. 118]], with the smell of DL's "pussy excitation.")

The letter "Z" also stands for Ζει, he lives, which was scrawled on Greek walls in the 1960's to show that the spirit of resistance still lived. This was popularized worldwide in 1969 by the political film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(film) ''Z''].

It pays to remember that one of the main motifs in this book is the unreality of television -gratuitous sex scenes are very much a part of that. The section is intended to be satirical.

==Page 255==
'''"the subroutine Yukai na...a low-order limbic pleasure cycle that would loop over and over"''' 
Interesting use of computer programming lingo in the martial arts world.

More cyberpunk shtick.

'''"the rodent hour"''' 
Given the refs to Daffy and Bugs in the previous sentence, this might refer to the Mickey Mouse Club show on the Tube, but was that one hour or one half hour??

No, go back to [[Chapter_12#Page_252|Page 252]] "They arrived ... well before dawn, the hour of the rat ...". DL is indeed sneaking into the prison camp like a rat stealing some cheese.

'''"one hatchway after another, leading to smaller and smaller volumes."'''

Echoes the structure of the shelter system in Mordecai Roshwald's chilling doomsday novel ''Level 7'' [1959].

==Page 258==
'''"''A llover''"''' 
What a great meal! ''A llover'' is Spanish for, "It's about to rain," but it also refers to the fact that it's "all over" for the outdoor desayuno. Pynchon puns again.

==Page 259==
'''"powder to the people"''' 
Ouch! Punning on the slogan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_to_the_people_%28slogan%29 "Power to the People"] which was a rallying cry of the Black Panthers, as well as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_to_the_People_%28song%29 a song by John Lennon].

'''"Feel like we were running around like little kids with toy weapons, like the camera really was some kind of gun, gave us that kind of power. Shit. How could we lose track like that, about what was real?"''' 
Frenesi has totally bought Vond's line about the powerlessness of film vs. a gun. (And that's how they got her. And us.)

:And yet: 
:"You don't die for no motherfuckin' shadows" page 202 
:"...sold off my only real fortune - my precious anger - for a lot of got-damn shadows" page 291

'''"who'd we save"''' 
Yet another preterite reference, and one that harks back to Hector's speech on [[Chapter 3#Page 28|p. 28]].
[[Image:PurpleOwsleyBear.jpg|thumb|A Purple ''Grateful Dead'' Bear|right]]
'''"Purple Owsley"''' 
Another run of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owsley_Stanley Owsley's] high-grade color-coded LSD. Cf. [[Chapter 12#Page 247|p. 247]]

The same Owsley "Bear" Stanley also worked as soundman for the band [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grateful_dead ''Grateful Dead''], and was one of the inspirations for their dancing bear logo.

==Page 260==
'''"You know what happens when my pussy's runnin' the show."''' 
If this is Frenesi's only motivation for the series of betrayals (including her betrayal of herself) that lie at the heart of ''Vineland'', it's a thin reed on which to build a book. Unless we buy into Sister Rochelle's Eden parable in which Vond represents the snaky seductiveness of authority, and Frenesi stands for a postwar America that's eager to surrender its freedom. Indeed, Frenesi's enjoyment of bondage and discipline games, which free her of responsibility, makes a strong connection with all the S&M sequences in the book (see next note).

These are Frenesi's rationalizations to DL, not Pynchon's explanations for her behavior. Note: "... getting things wrong on purpose, and more and more wrong as it went falling to pieces" and "blaming external drug molecules for each of her failures ...". There is some truth to her excuses, but, as Pynchon indicates, not the whole truth.

'''"behind the Thorazine curtain"''' 
Pynchon on a sadism kick. He does seem to have a weakness for this stuff, as many sequences in Gravity's Rainbow will attest.

'''"5 mg Stelazine plus 50 of Thorazine"''' 
Thorazine and Stelazine are antihallucinatory specifics, usually used to treat schizophrenics.

==Page 261==
'''"1,000-watt Mickey-Mole spot"''' 
An open face (lensless) focusing studio light from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole-Richardson Mole-Richardson company]. It rhymes, too.

==Page 263==
'''"out in the zodiac..."''' 
Vond is a Scorpio. What else?

'''"idiolalia"''' 
Pynchon loves these esoteric terms. It means a private language. Here starts the paranoia about 24fps'rs disappearing which echoes people disappearing from the computer ([[Chapter 6#Page 85|p. 85]]), and the Kahuna airplane ([[Chapter 5#Page 65|p. 65]]).

It also echoes the disappearing people in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four Nineteen Eighty-Four] and Philip K. Dick's novel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBIK UBIK]. Cf. [[Chapter_8#Page_111|page 111]].

==Page 264==
'''"Reagan's got it for when he invades Nicaragua,"''' 
DL's prediction of Reagan's invasion of Nicaragua never came true; the closest Reagan ever came was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Contra Iran-Contra]. Cf. [[Chapter_15#Page_353|page 353]]

==Page 265==
'''"Why would he come after us?"''' 
Good question.

'''"The whole Reagan program..."''' 
Yeah! Go, Pynchon, go!

==Page 266==
'''Vond is "after Frenesi...to use her for some task."''' 
OK, what task?

Perhaps to get Prairie, the future. Cf. page 50. Remember that this part of the story is taking place in the Reagan Era, not the Nixon Era. Pynchon's take on the Reagan Era was that the nightmare was beginning all over again.

'''"So the big bad Ninjamobile swept along on the great Ventura [Freeway]...above the heads of TV watchers, lovers under the overpasses, movies at malls letting out, bright gas-station oases in pure fluorescent spill...down the corridors of the surface streets, in nocturnal smog, the adobe air, the smell of distant fireworks, the spilled, the broken world."''' 
What a great paragraph! Yes, the cat can write -- rhyming verse and all: "flirters, deserters, wimps and pimps"

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==Page 192==
'''"Zero Profile Paint & Body"''' 
Another zero.

'''"proprietary lacquer"'''[[Image:InvisiblePlane.jpg|thumb|Wonder Woman's Invisible Airplane|right]] 
makes Trans-Am invisible. A distant echo of Imipolex G in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow'']?

A not-so-distant echo of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_woman Wonder Woman's] invisible airplane.

==Page 193==
'''"little robot fridge [named Raoul], with two round video screens...each with an image of a cartoon eye."''' 
This is so cute! And, significantly, this robot icebox delivers "refrigerator tunes."

'''"tachyon chamber"''' 
Science fiction window dressing, presumably an imaginary subassembly of the make-believe time machine. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachyons Tachyons] are whimsical sub-atomic particles; the root is from the Greek = swift.

'''"exactly a tenth of a second after the warranty ran out, the 'sucker blew..."''' 
Clearly a hair-trigger critical-need-detector.

==Page 194==
'''"distant wash of freeway sound, the concrete surf"''' 
Nice writing. Is this the sound beer-riders hear? Or Chuck Berry's "highway sound" (from [[Chapter 15#Page 328|"Maybelline"]])?

==Page 195==
'''"ECO stock"''' 
See note, [[Chapter 8#Page 116|p. 116]].

==Page 196==
'''"grown up in New York City and, except for geographically, never left it..."''' 
Ah, we know the type.

==Page 197==
'''"Xanthocroid looks"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Huxley Thomas Henry Huxley] (1825-1895) classified mankind into types, according to physical appearance. Xanthochroi, one of his classes, is a subdivision of the Leiotrichi, or smooth-haired type, having yellow or light-colored hair and a pale complexion. This is the prevailing type in Northern Europe. Aryan. Either Pynchon, his editor, or his typesetter has dropped the "h" in "chroi."

'''"Sledge Poteet"''' 
Poteet, Texas is a small town south of San Antonio. Comic-strip hero Steve Canyon's ward was adopted from an orphanage there, and bore the name "Poteet Canyon."

==Page 198==
'''"Tsuris"''' 
Yiddish for "trouble."

'''"Tzimmes"''' 
Yiddish for "a state of confusion." Yiddish is very rich in words for trouble and confusion.

'''"When backs were left uncovered and chores undone..."''' 
The interpersonal dynamics of 24fps are very convincing.

==Page 199==
'''"shaygetz"''' 
Yiddish for "non-Jewish man." This one happens to be Brock Vond.

==Page 200==
'''"her faithful 16mm Canon Scoopic"'''[[Image:Scoopic.jpg|thumb|Canon Scoopic 16|right]] 
The [http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/camera/cine/data/1956-1970/1965_sc16.html?lang=undefined&categ=crn&page=1956-1970 Canon Scoopic 16], introduced in 1965, was the first 16mm movie camera with a built-in zoom lens. It has a phallic appearance.

'''"this one [shot] of Brock ended up on a bedsheet"''' 
Specifically, this means projected on an improvised bedsheet screen, but of course it also foreshadows the smell of sexual developments before the fact.

'''"...you got some real pretty takes of this creep..."''' 
DL catches on right away that Frenesi is falling for Vond.

'''"The roll ended."''' 
But the flashback continues. Very smooth transition.

==Page 201==
'''"Then a man in a uniform, with a big pistol, would have to make you come"''' 
Sinister/sexy wordplay foreshadows the rapid development of Vond's takeover of Frenesi, and her infatuation with him. It's actually a microcosmic bondage scene, in which Frenesi, the bound partner, is freed of responsibility and guilt.

'''"arguments about light"''' 

Here Pynchon exposes the arguments that 24fps have about light. Though they believe they are all working for one cause, this seems to be their major argument, something they cannot agree upon. Meaning-of-life/origin-of-life/religious metaphor? See also p. 185.

'''"grid-access devices"''' 
Some resonance here to Gravity's Rainbow, and the tale of Byron the Bulb.

==Page 202==
'''"Central Power itself, merciless as a tornado ... only become, for a while, less visible"''' 
This is a clue about what it is about Brock Vond that attracts Frenesi.

'''"You don't die for no motherfuckin' shadows"''' 
Good advice.

==Page 203==
'''"CZ gas"''' 
High-powered tear gas but note that the initials are the same as DL's Czech motorcycle.

The riot control gas [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CS_gas CS] was used in the 1960's to break-up demonstrations in Berkeley. I can't find any references to an actual [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incapacitating_agent incapacitating agent] called "CZ".

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==Page 130==
'''"Fresson process studio photograph"''' 
Photographic printing process that uses coal to produce paper prints with a unique luminosity and grain. Fresson printing produces an image that is characteristically diffused and subtle, reminiscent of the "pointillism" of Impressionist painting. The image is extremely stable; Fresson printing is considered the most archival of any color procedure in use today.

==Page 131==
'''"If you want real ninja product..."''' 
The whole sequence about hiring an assassin is pure cyberpunk schtick.

'''"The Vibrating Palm"''' 
This may be a subtle reference to the old joke-store "buzzer" or "shocker" -- and resonates nicely with the rubber scampi on the previous page. The Vibrating Palm is an actual - though romanticized - technique in Asian martial arts (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_of_Death Touch of Death]).

'''"YakMaf"''' 
Yakuza/Mafia.

==Page 133==
'''"legendary in the dopers' community"''' 
Olympic Boulevard, in Los Angeles, is a major arterial road stretching from 4th Street on the western end of Santa Monica to East Los Angeles -- farther than Wilshire Boulevard and most other streets. Why is the gas station toilet legendary? And why would DL care anyway? All she needs to do is change into her disguise.

In his 2009 psychedelic noir novel ''Inherent Vice'', Pynchon mentions another legendary restroom near Los Angeles:

:"the notorious Oscar's, right across the border from Tijuana, where the toilets were seething round the clock with junkies new and old who'd just scored in Mexico, put the product inside rubber balloons and swallowed them, then crossed back into the U.S. to vomit them back up again." (p.37)

Because this restroom is right across the border, it's not the "legendary" toilet on Olympic Boulevard.

'''KFWB'''

980 AM in Los Angeles. Went to an all news/talk format in March, 1968.

[[image:dinos.jpg|right|thumb|Cabazon dinosaurs]]'''dinosaurs'''

Just another roadside attraction--life-size plaster dinosaurs on I-10 at Cabazon, California, about ten miles west of Palm Springs.

'''"baby-blue shadows..."''' 
Nice description and a precursor to the color of Frenesi's eyes.

==Page 134==
'''"beige hose, white underwear..."''' 
Pynchon's description of DL's Clark Kent outfits is surprisingly accurate, especially for a male. It's like giving the O-O (see note, [[Chapter_6#Page_79|p. 79]]) to a nice Midwestern girl, circa 1960.

==Page 135==
'''"She wasn't sure right away that being sold into white slavery would turn out to be at all beneficial as a career step..."''' 
The kidnap-and-auction sequence is good, fast-moving storytelling: breathless, tense, gripping, light on flashy effects. This is also familiar cyberpunk territory, especially the interview with Wayvone.

'''Lobelia'''

Another botanical character name.

==Page 136==
'''"older gentlemen with fingertip deficiencies..."''' 
Yakuza who have screwed up, and demonstrated their remorse by cutting off a fingertip.

==Page 139==
'''"Ufa, mi tratt' a pesci in faccia..."''' 
Literally, "Oof, you've thrown a fish in my face!" It's an ominous Sicilian warning meaning, "You've insulted me most unpleasantly, treated me in the worst possible way!"

==Page 141==
'''"I knew it!"''' 
Prairie breaking into the seamless narrative is almost a Brechtian alienation effect. By now the story is moving so strongly that we've totally forgotten the "as-told-to" frame.

'''"How could [Frenesi] have ever gone near somebody like this Brock guy?"''' 
Good question. Pynchon never really answers it -- unless we accept the idea of Frenesi embodying America's fatal fascination with authority.

'''"what-is-reality exercises"''' 
Reminiscent of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick.

'''"Ninja Death Touch calculator"''' 
This joke strikes another false note. The entire sub-plot revolving around the Vibrating Palm is broad comedy, of course, but this smart-ass gag is severely out-of-scale.

==Page 142==
'''"might as well stay home -- watch a Run Run Shaw movie!"''' 
Hong-Kong-based Run-Run Shaw produced the popular (and violent) Bruce Lee karate flicks, also lots of action-packed swords and sorcery adventures (like the ones that clearly inspired a lot of the DL and Takeshi sub-plot).

'''"yellow headlamps of the tech squads..."''' 
The scene in the Footprint is reminiscent of the monolith excavation on the moon in 2001. Also, most of the Japanese dialogue is phrased in Pynchon's unique, sounds-just-like-a-movie style.

Hai! Pynchon usually ends the Japanese characters' lines with exclamation points, so they sound like actors screaming at each other in poorly dubbed Japanese movies. Hai! Or people on meth?

'''"...the shadowy world conglomerate Chipco..."''' 
This imaginary entity (an echo, perhaps of the sinister YoYoDyne Corporation in The Crying of Lot 49) is presumably some Intel-like company whose microprocessor chips are sold world wide. No doubt the chips are designed to keep a covert watch on everything, and report back to Chipco -- similar to Byron the Bulb and his fellow gridmates in Gravity's Rainbow.

'''"gigantic animal footprint"'''[[Image:Godzilla.jpg|thumb|Poster for ''Godzilla'' (1954)|right]] 
Godzilla's size is pretty well known, and this (as we shall see) sauroid footprint is too large to be that of the big G. However, Godzilla is a product of Japanese movie model technology of the fifties, so who knows what the eighties might bring?

In the ''Godzilla'' poster to the right, the face on the lower left is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashi_Shimura Takashi Shimura], Takeshi's namesake (cf. [[Chapter_5#Page_65|page 65 notes]]), who plays the scientist sent to investigate Godzilla-sightings in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla_(1954_film) movie].

'''"Wawazume Life & Non-Life"''' 
Is this a joke? And what kind? Maybe they insure things other than lives. Maybe Thanatoids get "non-life" insurance. Or it could just be a satirically "tactful" Japanese way of referring to death.

It's a joke. They also insure property and liability (zume sounds like "sue me").

==Page 144==
'''"Eastern bloc...South African"''' 
If you turn "RSA", Republic of South Africa, upside down it looks like Cyrillic writing. A political joke.

Hardly. Turned upside down you would get jibberish. If you look at "RSA" in a mirror you would get a (slight) Cyrillic effect. Anyway, Pynchon knows enough Russian (see GR) not to have made this mistake. It is not a political joke, but a geographic joke, if anything.

==Page 143==
'''"By the time...gods of the sky."''' 
Note that this immensely long and complicated sentence takes up more than half the page!

==Page 145==
'''"Singapore Sling"''' 
A frivolous cocktail with a pleasant flavor and a lethal punch: the signature drink of the bar at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, a British colony taken by the Japanese in WWII. Conceivably, Minoru might have been stationed there, and picked up a liking for this tourist syrup.

==Page 146==
'''"Chuck, the world's most invisible robot"''' 
Like the fastest draw in the West. Want to see it again?

'''"some planet-wide struggle had been going on for years"''' 
More Pynchonian paranoia.

'''"the Himalayan caper"''' 
Story is written in mock Le Carre shorthand. Here (as elsewhere) Pynchon penetrates to the essence of a genre and gives us a few masterly strokes that evoke the same effect as an entire novel by a lesser writer.

'''"Semtex"''' 
For many years, Semtex has been the plastic explosive of choice for sophisticated aircraft bombers and other terrorists.

'''"pirate ships of the stratosphere"''' 
Presumably, they mount attacks like the one on the Kahuna flight.

==Page 147==
'''"Kutsushita-san!"''' 
lit. "Mr. Socks!"

'''"We called you the Kid."''' 
As in, "I never did the Kenosha Kid?" (See Gravity's Rainbow, p. 60.)

'''"disco music coming out the club doors"''' 
Cyberpunk atmosphere.

==Page 148==
'''"The Yak Doc Workshop"''' 
This may be a riff on Doc Yak, a comic book character.

Or Yakusa Documents.

'''"Takeshi...saw Vond...and thought...it was himself..."''' 
Vond and Takeshi look alike. Does this, as they say, signify? Takeshi as anti-Vond? It's hard to imagine a dark Japanese and a light Caucasian looking alike, but anyway, there's one for each of the tomatoes: an adjuster (insurance or karma, ma'am?) for DL, and a badass for Frenesi.

I guess that's the joke.

'''"''gaijin''"''' 
Japanese for foreigner, stranger, outsider.

==Page 149==
'''"Found a cab"''' 
Once again Prairie startles us by breaking into the gripping flashback narrative, but this time the present-tense Takeshi breaks in with her, having just arrived at the SKA retreat. Very cinematic. Takeshi moves instantaneously from past to present, a double-exposure match-dissolve effect.

'''"Moe!"'''[[Image:ThreeStooges.jpg|thumb|The Three Stooges|right]] 
The first of several references to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_stooges The Three Stooges], a nothing-if-not-preterite comedy trio specializing in crude, cruel slapstick.

'''"fingering its smooth rigid contours"''' 
The mock-porno is cute.

==Page 151==
'''"I couldn't see shit."''' 
DL mistakes Takeshi for Vond because of her fuzzy contact lenses. This mistaken-identity riff is worthy of Shakespeare at his most far-fetched and funny.

'''"Eeoo!"''' 
Flash! Pynchon's ear fails! This just isn't as close to the Valspeak expression of disgust as we expect from our boy. The transliteration needs a little more "u" or something.

Totally disagree with above, for what it's worth. "Eeoo" is perfect, as "oo" automatically brings about "too" sound. Also looks much better than anything with a "u" would.

==Page 152==
'''"Takeshi with a softoff..."'''

Opposite of a hardon.

==Page 153==
'''"Fuckin' Vond. He's the Roadrunner."''' 
Yes, he is.

'''Kunoichi Retreat''' 
see [[Chapter_8#Page 107|page 107]]

==Page 154==
'''"Licensed DOM's"''' 
Doctor of Medicine?

Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Cf. page 176

Also, in S&M slang, a male dominant.

==Page 155==
'''"Ninjette Coffee Mess"''' 
Navspeak. In the military, particularly the Navy, coffee mess is a little area where the coffee maker, cups, etc. are kept.

==Page 156==
'''"dorai kuriiningu"''' 
"dry cleaning" More Jive Japlish.

'''"perchloroethylene"''' 
A highly toxic chemical often used for cleaning movie film.

'''"croaker"''' 
A company doctor ([http://books.google.com/books?id=4YfsEgHLjboC&pg=PA514&lpg=PA514&dq=croaker+company+doctor&source=bl&ots=7JQCJ2j_2g&sig=OXn9PZtc22j-wLKaVNKHEld_Z0g&hl=en&ei=kRbATq-uPKTRiAKo0cSQAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=croaker%20company%20doctor&f=false def]).

==Page 157==
'''"Not a bar, Fumimota-san."''' 
Silly joke, nicely placed.

==Page 158==
'''"Evoex"''' 
The etymology of this new tranquilizer is clearly from the bacchanalian ejaculation (and crossword puzzle word) "evoe!"

==Page 159==
'''"Michiko Yomama"''' 
A nasty pun, based on the black insult, "Yo' mama!" Let your guard down for a second, and the guy slips in one of these every time.

==Page 160==
'''"Nukey"''' 
Orgasm and atomic detonation meet in one of Pynchon's most awful/wonderful puns (nuke = nookey).

'''sleep ... shave''' 
Meth-logic. Also a parody of the movie situation where a character must stay awake to live.

The classic film-noir [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.O.A._(1950_film) ''DOA''], where a man is given a slow-acting poison and must find his own murderer, is also relevant to this chapter.

==Page 161==
'''"technically dead"''' 
Since Takeshi lives without fear, this makes him a perfect samurai, and echoes the idea on p. 29 about how a samurai is always prepared to die.

==Page 162==
'''"Just Like a William Powell"''' 
Echoes "Like a Meat Loaf" (p. 363), and, of course, Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues."

Movie references in the song:

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thin_Man_(film) ''The Thin Man'']
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lassie_Come_Home ''Lassie Come Home'']
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarzan_Finds_a_Son! ''Tarzan Finds a Son!'']

Also, Flatfoot Floogie refers to the 1938 [http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-musicians/gaillard-slim-biography Slim Gaillard] song [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Foot_Floogie_(with_a_Floy_Floy) ''Flatfoot Floogie with a Floy, Floy''] (original recording on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFVeJ4wHWdQ YouTube]). The use of "real McCoy" may be entirely innocent, or a reference to the television show [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_McCoys ''The Real McCoys''].

==Page 163==
'''"Which reminds me, about your PX bill..."''' 
If you had any doubts about the samurai/ninjette subplot being for laughs, this page should convince you.

==Page 164==
'''"Puncutron"''' 
An imaginary therapeutic device whose name suggests an infernal combination of eastern medicine (acupuncture) and high-energy western technology (cyclotron). There's a bit of "punk" in there, too.

'''"Detractors included...managed to keep."''' 
A silly sentence, written in painful mock-German syntax for no discernible reason.

'''"Taiwanese Healthy Brain Aerobics"''' 
More foolishness, this time mixed with music. The selection of tapes for Puncutron listening includes The All-Regimental Bagpipes play Prime Time Favorites (the Tube again!), and perhaps Pynchon's best judgmental title: The Chipmunks Sing Marvin Hamlisch.

==Page 166==
'''Jaime Sommers''' 
Jaime Sommers is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bionic_Woman Bionic Woman].

'''Eve and her sister, Lilith''' 
According to an ancient legend, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith Lilith] was not Eve's sister but was Adam's first wife. But Lilith haunts many different fables, traditions, stories in many different cultures.

Lilith is the eponym for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith_Fair Lilith Fair], a music festival (1997-1999) of only female artists.

Rochelle is using "sister" in the feminist sense, as in "Sisters are doing it for themselves".

This is also interesting in the context that this is one of the only stories the reader gets in regard to what secrets/stories/philosophies are possibly taught at the Kunoichi Retreat. What seems clear is that over the years, they are more interested in making money than spiritually healing folks, so this is a nice tidbit, probably used to hook women into this Ninjette Retreat, and facilitate a mainline into their pocketbooks. Here used in a comical, and opposite way, re: Takeshi/DL.

Actually, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunoichi Kunoichi] Retreat is a parody of the many Zen retreats in Northern California, such as the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Gulch_Farm Green Gulch Farm]. People pay to stay there and do manual farming labor to chill-out. In Pynchon's parody, the retreat is feminist and faintly BDSM. As Pynchon points out on page 107, they had to seek "cash flow" in order to avoid the financial fate of their predecessors, but there's no indication that they've given up their principles (whatever they are) entirely. See also [[Chapter_8#Page 107|page 107]].

'''"...men convinced us that we were the natural administrators of this thing 'morality'..."''' 
Sister Rochelle's feminist Eden parable suggests an interesting modern scenario: Frenesi = Eve, DL = Lilith, Vond = Serpent. This would help explain Frenesi/America's irresistible attraction for the authoritarian Vond.

'''Oscar Goldman''' 
Oscar Goldman is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bionic_Woman Bionic Woman]'s boss.

==Page 167==
'''"The Ordeal of the Thousand Broadway Show Tunes"''' 
Transcendental malarkey.

'''"YOUR MAMA EATS, how can we resist?"''' 
Aggro dining.

==Page 169==
'''"Cheapsat"''' 
Preterite communications personified.

==Page 170==
'''"Like Death, Only Different."''' 
While this is a nice definition of the "oid" suffix, it begs the question of exactly what Thanatoid's are.

'''"But we watch a lot of Tube"''' 
Thanatoids watch lots of TV, trying to advance further into the condition of death. This makes them Reaganite kids? Couch potatoes? Embittered hippies? Everyone in America? Anyway, advancing further into the condition of death is only a restatement of the law of entropy, which may mean that everyone in the universe is a Thanatoid.

People watching television in a darkened room look dead. They are immobile, and their faces have a blue tinge from the light of the TV screen.

At first Pynchon makes it sound like a lifestyle, similar to Goths. The name of a public Goth dance party in Berkeley was "Not Dead Yet". But gradually he makes himself clearer...

==Page 171==
'''"checking the edges of the frame."''' 
Does this mean Takeshi's in a film? Or is Pynchon just grabbing a handy cinema term?

The latter.

'''"go the opposite way! Back to life!"''' 
This anti-entropic movement makes Takeshi a great hero, a symbol of intelligence (the only truly anti-entropic entity), the life force. Cf. [[Chapter_9#Page_148|page 148]]

==Page 172==
'''"Shade"''' 
(as in Shade Creek) = ghost.

One can become invisible in the shadows.

'''"thick fluids in flexible containers"''' 
i.e., scumbags

'''"The Woodbine Motel"''' 
Harks back, perchance, to the 1870's, the Union Pacific railroad scandal, and the Credit Mobilier. When one party was asked, under oath, where the money was, he replied that it had "gone where the woodbine twineth."

Pynchon, just as Fisk in the above quote, is most likely referring to the song [http://www.musicofyesterday.com/sheetmusic/G/Gone_Where_The_Woodbine_Twineth.php ''Gone Where the Woodbine Twineth''], an elegy for dead Civil War soldiers. It was written by Apsley Street, a pseudonym of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apsley_Street Septimus Winner], a 19th Century songwriter who was arrested for treason. Also, let's not forget the scary episode of ''The Alfred Hitchcock Hour'' called [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0394103/ ''Where the Woodbine Twineth''].

'''"The Zero Inn"''' 
Very thanatoid, preterite and Zoyd-like. Also another zero.

Also, "zero in" = to acquire a target, to adjust one's aim.

==Page 173==
'''Thanatoids are "victims of karmic imbalances unanswered blows, unredeemed suffering..."''' 
So are the Thanatoids victims of the Seventies? Or another version of the preterites in Gravity's Rainbow? Maybe they're just over-determined ghosts of some sort. This description is similar to the kind of thing that psychics talk about when they're trying to make your poltergeists go away; it's the unresolved baggage that keeps the ghosties on the move, and out of wherever they belong. Remember, too, that Shade Creek is "a psychic jumping-off town" where the Thanatoids wait "for the data necessary to pursue their needs and aims (i.e., ghostlike revenge) among the still living..." ([[#Page 171|p. 171]])

'''"... they're ghosts."''' 
Here Pynchon flat-out tells you what the Thanatoids are.

'''"Although the streets were irregular and steeply pitched..."''' 
The description is an attempt to capture the effect of an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._C._Escher M.C. Escher] drawing or perhaps the Expressionist sets in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caligari ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari''] [1920].

==Page 174==
'''Thanatoids are injured by "what was done to them."''' 
Here they seem like left-over hippies, Vietnam vets, America's victims. Preterites who want revenge.

'''"The amount of memory on a chip doubles every year and a half!"''' 
Sounds like a variant on Moore's Law, that the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law

'''"In traditional karmic adjustment ..."''' 
The Thanatoids are a combination of Christian purgatory (where souls wait before proceeding to heaven), and European folkloric poltergeists (which haunt a particular location where they have been wronged, until they see that their injury is avenged). Takeshi offers these Western ghosts the Eastern idea of karma, roughly, supernatural justice over multiple reincarnations. But this is America, so Takeshi's hustle is to offer Modern Karmic Adjustment, which speeds-up the process by avoiding the cycles of birth-death-reincarnation. If this fails, there's always the reincarnation route.

Since this is all a parody of California Zen and the Human Potential Movement, the question is do the Thanatoids actually need to be avenged, or only to feel avenged, i.e. to be at peace, in order to advance to the next level of Death? Does watching television dramas where revenge is achieved and justice triumphs dissipate their righteous anger, lead to inaction, and further their advance into Death?

==Page 175==
'''"Karmic adjustment"''' 
Well, yes, it's a nice progression from insurance adjustment, but what does Takeshi actually do? Prairie is still wondering on page 192, and DL never lets on. In any case, it looks like these Thanatoids are dead California yuppies; a resource to be exploited by preterite tradesmen.

Offered only as speculation: Perhaps Takeshi and DL take real-world, physical action against those by whom their Thanatoid clients were wronged, thus "clearing the books." Considering DL's ninjette training, this could include inflicting major trauma or even death. Don't believe it, myself.

'''"interesting work with airplanes"''' 
So, during World War II Takeshi was a kamikaze hence the same Takeshi who's in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow'']! (See Viking edition, [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_674-700 page 690]) This brings up an interesting, though peripheral issue: As a Kamikaze, Takeshi flew a Zero. A-and there's a reference on [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_663-673 page 672] (of ''GR'') to "Zeros bearing comrades away," reminding us of those human lives as binary code in God's PC. As noted, there are lots of other "zero" reverences (that's a pun, not a typo) in ''Vineland''.

==Page 176==
'''"Domo komarimashita!"''' 
Japanese for "Thanks a lot!" or "You're welcome."

==Page 178==
'''"Interpersonal Programming and the Problem Towee"''' 
Pynchon definitely has an attitude on this kind of California stuff. He also seems to have a grudge against Mercedes drivers.

'''"Sounds like the team I bet on last week."''' 
Vato gets to make the bad pun this time. This is a great montage of the growing relationship between Vato, Blood, Takeshi, and DL.

==Page 179==
'''"Vato wanted it to be a sitcom."''' 
Another example of how deeply TV has invaded our thoughts.

==Page 180==
'''"I'm Chip! I'm Dale!"''' 
A sly comparison of chipmunks: Disney's cartoonic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_%27n_Dale Chip 'n Dale] v. Bagdasarian's sonic Alvin, Simon, and Theodore ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chipmunks "Alvin and the Chipmunks"]).

==Page 181==
'''"a cement lounge deep within the Long Binh complex"''' 
So Vato and Blood either worked at, or were incarcerated in, the Long Binh military prison. Cf. [[Chapter_6#Page_87|page 87]].

==Page 185==

'''"less light on it than the space I'm in"''' 

Here Vato and Blood are having an "argument about light" - see p. 201

Also, it's a paranoid flashback from past combat in Vietnam.

==Page 186==
'''"octogenarihexation"''' 
86'd = thrown out, usually in reference to a drinking establishment. Is it a coincidence that this occurs on page 186? [[Chapter_15#Page_342|See also 43'd, p.342...]]

'''"Yuroks"''' 
The native American Yurok tribe lives along the lower 36 miles of the Klamath River, and along the California coast from Wilson Creek to Trinidad Bay. This may provide a clue to the location of Vineland County. Being Indians, the Yuroks are, naturally, preterite in the Pynchon universe. The woge (note lower case) seem to be Yurok thanatoids, therefore ultra-preterite.

==Page 187==
'''"Bernard Herrmann"''' 
The famous film composer, whose credits include, among many other great picture soundtracks, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock's] classics [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho_%281960_film%29 ''Psycho''] [1960] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo_%28film%29 ''Vertigo''] [1958].

Listen to Bernard Herrmann's music from ''Psycho'' on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDtJUSYoLDE&feature=related YouTube].

'''"A Toyota in the treetops"''' 
Is this a tip of the hat to the boat in the tree in Marquez's famous novel of magic realism, ''One Hundred Years of Solitude''?

As surreal as it may seem, in California cars frequently drive off of mountain roads and fall into canyons. They are pulled out using teams of tow trucks. But they usually crush the trees beneath.

'''"...vanish unaccountably between Shade Creek and the V & B pound, as Thanatoid units...had been known to do..."''' 
Vanishing Thanatoid cars may push the envelope of fantasy a bit too far. And yet, and yet... They wind up in the tops of trees, you see. It's kind of like 'toon cars: 'toons can drive real cars, real people can drive 'toon cars. Plus, it sets up (much later) the disappearance of Vond's ride in Chapter 15.

==Page 188==
'''Sate..."''' 
A totally abrupt scene-change to Takeshi's, a literary jump cut.

'''"Weed Atman"''' 
Another great name. Weed = marijuana. And [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weed,_California Weed] is a city in Northern California. Also perhaps, an echo of Steven Weed, abandoned boyfriend of heiress Patty Hearst, which raises a very faint reverberation of Frenesi as Patty-in-reverse. Atman = Hindu for breath, the principle of life, the World Soul.

Cf [[Chapter_11#Page_206| page 206]] for more on Weed's name.

'''"Prairie was hearing this, in her turn, from DL..."''' 
Prairie breaks into the narrative, bouncing us unexpectedly back to the present. These abrupt break-ins by Prairie are fun.

==Page 189==
'''"Variety Loaves...not, as once supposed, safely dead but no, only, queerly, sleeping..."''' 
Thanatoid lunch meat!

==Page 190==
'''"Me gotta go"''' 
A line from Richard Berry's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louie_Louie "Louie Louie"], made famous by the Kingsmen.

==Page 191==
'''"FFAR"''' 
Folding Fin Aircraft Rocket Launcher, a rather nasty device attached to Apache helicopters around about the time Pynchon was writing Vineland.

'''"Kick Out the Jambs"''' 
Definitely a reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MC_5 the MC 5] tune "Kick Out the Jams." But is "jambs" a typo or a pun?

Definitely a pun, and a genius one. Thoughts of ninjas, or FBI, or whoever, kicking doors in. Also, apt that the MC5 were affiliated with the far left, anti-establishment, counterculture, etc.

Listen on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM6nasmkg7A YouTube].

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 9

2011-12-28T02:53:44Z

Pthomas: /* Page 172 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 130==
'''"Fresson process studio photograph"''' 
Photographic printing process that uses coal to produce paper prints with a unique luminosity and grain. Fresson printing produces an image that is characteristically diffused and subtle, reminiscent of the "pointillism" of Impressionist painting. The image is extremely stable; Fresson printing is considered the most archival of any color procedure in use today.

==Page 131==
'''"If you want real ninja product..."''' 
The whole sequence about hiring an assassin is pure cyberpunk schtick.

'''"The Vibrating Palm"''' 
This may be a subtle reference to the old joke-store "buzzer" or "shocker" -- and resonates nicely with the rubber scampi on the previous page. The Vibrating Palm is an actual - though romanticized - technique in Asian martial arts (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_of_Death Touch of Death]).

'''"YakMaf"''' 
Yakuza/Mafia.

==Page 133==
'''"legendary in the dopers' community"''' 
Olympic Boulevard, in Los Angeles, is a major arterial road stretching from 4th Street on the western end of Santa Monica to East Los Angeles -- farther than Wilshire Boulevard and most other streets. Why is the gas station toilet legendary? And why would DL care anyway? All she needs to do is change into her disguise.

In his 2009 psychedelic noir novel ''Inherent Vice'', Pynchon mentions another legendary restroom near Los Angeles:

:"the notorious Oscar's, right across the border from Tijuana, where the toilets were seething round the clock with junkies new and old who'd just scored in Mexico, put the product inside rubber balloons and swallowed them, then crossed back into the U.S. to vomit them back up again." (p.37)

Because this restroom is right across the border, it's not the "legendary" toilet on Olympic Boulevard.

'''KFWB'''

980 AM in Los Angeles. Went to an all news/talk format in March, 1968.

[[image:dinos.jpg|right|thumb|Cabazon dinosaurs]]'''dinosaurs'''

Just another roadside attraction--life-size plaster dinosaurs on I-10 at Cabazon, California, about ten miles west of Palm Springs.

'''"baby-blue shadows..."''' 
Nice description and a precursor to the color of Frenesi's eyes.

==Page 134==
'''"beige hose, white underwear..."''' 
Pynchon's description of DL's Clark Kent outfits is surprisingly accurate, especially for a male. It's like giving the O-O (see note, [[Chapter_6#Page_79|p. 79]]) to a nice Midwestern girl, circa 1960.

==Page 135==
'''"She wasn't sure right away that being sold into white slavery would turn out to be at all beneficial as a career step..."''' 
The kidnap-and-auction sequence is good, fast-moving storytelling: breathless, tense, gripping, light on flashy effects. This is also familiar cyberpunk territory, especially the interview with Wayvone.

'''Lobelia'''

Another botanical character name.

==Page 136==
'''"older gentlemen with fingertip deficiencies..."''' 
Yakuza who have screwed up, and demonstrated their remorse by cutting off a fingertip.

==Page 139==
'''"Ufa, mi tratt' a pesci in faccia..."''' 
Literally, "Oof, you've thrown a fish in my face!" It's an ominous Sicilian warning meaning, "You've insulted me most unpleasantly, treated me in the worst possible way!"

==Page 141==
'''"I knew it!"''' 
Prairie breaking into the seamless narrative is almost a Brechtian alienation effect. By now the story is moving so strongly that we've totally forgotten the "as-told-to" frame.

'''"How could [Frenesi] have ever gone near somebody like this Brock guy?"''' 
Good question. Pynchon never really answers it -- unless we accept the idea of Frenesi embodying America's fatal fascination with authority.

'''"what-is-reality exercises"''' 
Reminiscent of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick.

'''"Ninja Death Touch calculator"''' 
This joke strikes another false note. The entire sub-plot revolving around the Vibrating Palm is broad comedy, of course, but this smart-ass gag is severely out-of-scale.

==Page 142==
'''"might as well stay home -- watch a Run Run Shaw movie!"''' 
Hong-Kong-based Run-Run Shaw produced the popular (and violent) Bruce Lee karate flicks, also lots of action-packed swords and sorcery adventures (like the ones that clearly inspired a lot of the DL and Takeshi sub-plot).

'''"yellow headlamps of the tech squads..."''' 
The scene in the Footprint is reminiscent of the monolith excavation on the moon in 2001. Also, most of the Japanese dialogue is phrased in Pynchon's unique, sounds-just-like-a-movie style.

Hai! Pynchon usually ends the Japanese characters' lines with exclamation points, so they sound like actors screaming at each other in poorly dubbed Japanese movies. Hai! Or people on meth?

'''"...the shadowy world conglomerate Chipco..."''' 
This imaginary entity (an echo, perhaps of the sinister YoYoDyne Corporation in The Crying of Lot 49) is presumably some Intel-like company whose microprocessor chips are sold world wide. No doubt the chips are designed to keep a covert watch on everything, and report back to Chipco -- similar to Byron the Bulb and his fellow gridmates in Gravity's Rainbow.

'''"gigantic animal footprint"'''[[Image:Godzilla.jpg|thumb|Poster for ''Godzilla'' (1954)|right]] 
Godzilla's size is pretty well known, and this (as we shall see) sauroid footprint is too large to be that of the big G. However, Godzilla is a product of Japanese movie model technology of the fifties, so who knows what the eighties might bring?

In the ''Godzilla'' poster to the right, the face on the lower left is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashi_Shimura Takashi Shimura], Takeshi's namesake (cf. [[Chapter_5#Page_65|page 65 notes]]), who plays the scientist sent to investigate Godzilla-sightings in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla_(1954_film) movie].

'''"Wawazume Life & Non-Life"''' 
Is this a joke? And what kind? Maybe they insure things other than lives. Maybe Thanatoids get "non-life" insurance. Or it could just be a satirically "tactful" Japanese way of referring to death.

It's a joke. They also insure property and liability (zume sounds like "sue me").

==Page 144==
'''"Eastern bloc...South African"''' 
If you turn "RSA", Republic of South Africa, upside down it looks like Cyrillic writing. A political joke.

Hardly. Turned upside down you would get jibberish. If you look at "RSA" in a mirror you would get a (slight) Cyrillic effect. Anyway, Pynchon knows enough Russian (see GR) not to have made this mistake. It is not a political joke, but a geographic joke, if anything.

==Page 143==
'''"By the time...gods of the sky."''' 
Note that this immensely long and complicated sentence takes up more than half the page!

==Page 145==
'''"Singapore Sling"''' 
A frivolous cocktail with a pleasant flavor and a lethal punch: the signature drink of the bar at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, a British colony taken by the Japanese in WWII. Conceivably, Minoru might have been stationed there, and picked up a liking for this tourist syrup.

==Page 146==
'''"Chuck, the world's most invisible robot"''' 
Like the fastest draw in the West. Want to see it again?

'''"some planet-wide struggle had been going on for years"''' 
More Pynchonian paranoia.

'''"the Himalayan caper"''' 
Story is written in mock Le Carre shorthand. Here (as elsewhere) Pynchon penetrates to the essence of a genre and gives us a few masterly strokes that evoke the same effect as an entire novel by a lesser writer.

'''"Semtex"''' 
For many years, Semtex has been the plastic explosive of choice for sophisticated aircraft bombers and other terrorists.

'''"pirate ships of the stratosphere"''' 
Presumably, they mount attacks like the one on the Kahuna flight.

==Page 147==
'''"Kutsushita-san!"''' 
lit. "Mr. Socks!"

'''"We called you the Kid."''' 
As in, "I never did the Kenosha Kid?" (See Gravity's Rainbow, p. 60.)

'''"disco music coming out the club doors"''' 
Cyberpunk atmosphere.

==Page 148==
'''"The Yak Doc Workshop"''' 
This may be a riff on Doc Yak, a comic book character.

Or Yakusa Documents.

'''"Takeshi...saw Vond...and thought...it was himself..."''' 
Vond and Takeshi look alike. Does this, as they say, signify? Takeshi as anti-Vond? It's hard to imagine a dark Japanese and a light Caucasian looking alike, but anyway, there's one for each of the tomatoes: an adjuster (insurance or karma, ma'am?) for DL, and a badass for Frenesi.

I guess that's the joke.

'''"''gaijin''"''' 
Japanese for foreigner, stranger, outsider.

==Page 149==
'''"Found a cab"''' 
Once again Prairie startles us by breaking into the gripping flashback narrative, but this time the present-tense Takeshi breaks in with her, having just arrived at the SKA retreat. Very cinematic. Takeshi moves instantaneously from past to present, a double-exposure match-dissolve effect.

'''"Moe!"'''[[Image:ThreeStooges.jpg|thumb|The Three Stooges|right]] 
The first of several references to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_stooges The Three Stooges], a nothing-if-not-preterite comedy trio specializing in crude, cruel slapstick.

'''"fingering its smooth rigid contours"''' 
The mock-porno is cute.

==Page 151==
'''"I couldn't see shit."''' 
DL mistakes Takeshi for Vond because of her fuzzy contact lenses. This mistaken-identity riff is worthy of Shakespeare at his most far-fetched and funny.

'''"Eeoo!"''' 
Flash! Pynchon's ear fails! This just isn't as close to the Valspeak expression of disgust as we expect from our boy. The transliteration needs a little more "u" or something.

Totally disagree with above, for what it's worth. "Eeoo" is perfect, as "oo" automatically brings about "too" sound. Also looks much better than anything with a "u" would.

==Page 152==
'''"Takeshi with a softoff..."'''

Opposite of a hardon.

==Page 153==
'''"Fuckin' Vond. He's the Roadrunner."''' 
Yes, he is.

'''Kunoichi Retreat''' 
see [[Chapter_8#Page 107|page 107]]

==Page 154==
'''"Licensed DOM's"''' 
Doctor of Medicine?

Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Cf. page 176

Also, in S&M slang, a male dominant.

==Page 155==
'''"Ninjette Coffee Mess"''' 
Navspeak. In the military, particularly the Navy, coffee mess is a little area where the coffee maker, cups, etc. are kept.

==Page 156==
'''"dorai kuriiningu"''' 
"dry cleaning" More Jive Japlish.

'''"perchloroethylene"''' 
A highly toxic chemical often used for cleaning movie film.

'''"croaker"''' 
A company doctor ([http://books.google.com/books?id=4YfsEgHLjboC&pg=PA514&lpg=PA514&dq=croaker+company+doctor&source=bl&ots=7JQCJ2j_2g&sig=OXn9PZtc22j-wLKaVNKHEld_Z0g&hl=en&ei=kRbATq-uPKTRiAKo0cSQAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=croaker%20company%20doctor&f=false def]).

==Page 157==
'''"Not a bar, Fumimota-san."''' 
Silly joke, nicely placed.

==Page 158==
'''"Evoex"''' 
The etymology of this new tranquilizer is clearly from the bacchanalian ejaculation (and crossword puzzle word) "evoe!"

==Page 159==
'''"Michiko Yomama"''' 
A nasty pun, based on the black insult, "Yo' mama!" Let your guard down for a second, and the guy slips in one of these every time.

==Page 160==
'''"Nukey"''' 
Orgasm and atomic detonation meet in one of Pynchon's most awful/wonderful puns (nuke = nookey).

'''sleep ... shave''' 
Meth-logic. Also a parody of the movie situation where a character must stay awake to live.

The classic film-noir [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.O.A._(1950_film) ''DOA''], where a man is given a slow-acting poison and must find his own murderer, is also relevant to this chapter.

==Page 161==
'''"technically dead"''' 
Since Takeshi lives without fear, this makes him a perfect samurai, and echoes the idea on p. 29 about how a samurai is always prepared to die.

==Page 162==
'''"Just Like a William Powell"''' 
Echoes "Like a Meat Loaf" (p. 363), and, of course, Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues."

Movie references in the song:

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thin_Man_(film) ''The Thin Man'']
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lassie_Come_Home ''Lassie Come Home'']
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarzan_Finds_a_Son! ''Tarzan Finds a Son!'']

Also, Flatfoot Floogie refers to the 1938 [http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-musicians/gaillard-slim-biography Slim Gaillard] song [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Foot_Floogie_(with_a_Floy_Floy) ''Flatfoot Floogie with a Floy, Floy''] (original recording on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFVeJ4wHWdQ YouTube]). The use of "real McCoy" may be entirely innocent, or a reference to the television show [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_McCoys ''The Real McCoys''].

==Page 163==
'''"Which reminds me, about your PX bill..."''' 
If you had any doubts about the samurai/ninjette subplot being for laughs, this page should convince you.

==Page 164==
'''"Puncutron"''' 
An imaginary therapeutic device whose name suggests an infernal combination of eastern medicine (acupuncture) and high-energy western technology (cyclotron). There's a bit of "punk" in there, too.

'''"Detractors included...managed to keep."''' 
A silly sentence, written in painful mock-German syntax for no discernible reason.

'''"Taiwanese Healthy Brain Aerobics"''' 
More foolishness, this time mixed with music. The selection of tapes for Puncutron listening includes The All-Regimental Bagpipes play Prime Time Favorites (the Tube again!), and perhaps Pynchon's best judgmental title: The Chipmunks Sing Marvin Hamlisch.

==Page 166==
'''Jaime Sommers''' 
Jaime Sommers is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bionic_Woman Bionic Woman].

'''Eve and her sister, Lilith''' 
According to an ancient legend, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith Lilith] was not Eve's sister but was Adam's first wife. But Lilith haunts many different fables, traditions, stories in many different cultures.

Lilith is the eponym for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith_Fair Lilith Fair], a music festival (1997-1999) of only female artists.

Rochelle is using "sister" in the feminist sense, as in "Sisters are doing it for themselves".

This is also interesting in the context that this is one of the only stories the reader gets in regard to what secrets/stories/philosophies are possibly taught at the Kunoichi Retreat. What seems clear is that over the years, they are more interested in making money than spiritually healing folks, so this is a nice tidbit, probably used to hook women into this Ninjette Retreat, and facilitate a mainline into their pocketbooks. Here used in a comical, and opposite way, re: Takeshi/DL.

Actually, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunoichi Kunoichi] Retreat is a parody of the many Zen retreats in Northern California, such as the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Gulch_Farm Green Gulch Farm]. People pay to stay there and do manual farming labor to chill-out. In Pynchon's parody, the retreat is feminist and faintly BDSM. As Pynchon points out on page 107, they had to seek "cash flow" in order to avoid the financial fate of their predecessors, but there's no indication that they've given up their principles (whatever they are) entirely. See also [[Chapter_8#Page 107|page 107]].

'''"...men convinced us that we were the natural administrators of this thing 'morality'..."''' 
Sister Rochelle's feminist Eden parable suggests an interesting modern scenario: Frenesi = Eve, DL = Lilith, Vond = Serpent. This would help explain Frenesi/America's irresistible attraction for the authoritarian Vond.

'''Oscar Goldman''' 
Oscar Goldman is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bionic_Woman Bionic Woman]'s boss.

==Page 167==
'''"The Ordeal of the Thousand Broadway Show Tunes"''' 
Transcendental malarkey.

'''"YOUR MAMA EATS, how can we resist?"''' 
Aggro dining.

==Page 169==
'''"Cheapsat"''' 
Preterite communications personified.

==Page 170==
'''"Like Death, Only Different."''' 
While this is a nice definition of the "oid" suffix, it begs the question of exactly what Thanatoid's are.

'''"But we watch a lot of Tube"''' 
Thanatoids watch lots of TV, trying to advance further into the condition of death. This makes them Reaganite kids? Couch potatoes? Embittered hippies? Everyone in America? Anyway, advancing further into the condition of death is only a restatement of the law of entropy, which may mean that everyone in the universe is a Thanatoid.

People watching television in a darkened room look dead. They are immobile, and their faces have a blue tinge from the light of the TV screen.

At first Pynchon makes it sound like a lifestyle, similar to Goths. The name of a public Goth dance party in Berkeley was "Not Dead Yet". But gradually he makes himself clearer...

==Page 171==
'''"checking the edges of the frame."''' 
Does this mean Takeshi's in a film? Or is Pynchon just grabbing a handy cinema term?

The latter.

'''"go the opposite way! Back to life!"''' 
This anti-entropic movement makes Takeshi a great hero, a symbol of intelligence (the only truly anti-entropic entity), the life force. Cf. [[Chapter_9#Page_148|page 148]]

==Page 172==
'''"Shade"''' 
(as in Shade Creek) = ghost.

One can become invisible in the shadows.

'''"thick fluids in flexible containers"''' 
i.e., scumbags

'''"The Woodbine Motel"''' 
Harks back, perchance, to the 1870's, the Union Pacific railroad scandal, and the Credit Mobilier. When one party was asked, under oath, where the money was, he replied that it had "gone where the woodbine twineth."

Pynchon, just as Fisk in the above quote, is most likely referring to the song [http://www.musicofyesterday.com/sheetmusic/G/Gone_Where_The_Woodbine_Twineth.php ''Gone Where the Woodbine Twineth''], an elegy for dead Civil War soldiers. It was written by Apsley Street, a pseudonym of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apsley_Street Septimus Winner], a 19th Century songwriter who was arrested for treason. Also, let's not forget the scary episode of ''The Alfred Hitchcock Hour'' called [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0394103/ ''Where the Woodbine Twineth''].

'''"The Zero Inn"''' 
Very thanatoid, preterite and Zoyd-like. Also another zero.

Also, "zero in" = to acquire a target, to adjust one's aim.

==Page 173==
'''Thanatoids are "victims of karmic imbalances unanswered blows, unredeemed suffering..."''' 
So are the Thanatoids victims of the Seventies? Or another version of the preterites in Gravity's Rainbow? Maybe they're just over-determined ghosts of some sort. This description is similar to the kind of thing that psychics talk about when they're trying to make your poltergeists go away; it's the unresolved baggage that keeps the ghosties on the move, and out of wherever they belong. Remember, too, that Shade Creek is "a psychic jumping-off town" where the Thanatoids wait "for the data necessary to pursue their needs and aims (i.e., ghostlike revenge) among the still living..." ([[#Page 171|p. 171]])

'''"... they're ghosts."''' 
Here Pynchon flat-out tells you what the Thanatoids are.

'''"Although the streets were irregular and steeply pitched..."''' 
The description is an attempt to capture the effect of an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._C._Escher M.C. Escher] drawing or perhaps the Expressionist sets in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caligari ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari''] [1920].

==Page 174==
'''Thanatoids are injured by "what was done to them."''' 
Here they seem like left-over hippies, Vietnam vets, America's victims. Preterites who want revenge.

'''"The amount of memory on a chip doubles every year and a half!"''' 
Sounds like a variant on Moore's Law, that the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law

'''"In traditional karmic adjustment ..."''' 
The Thanatoids are a combination of Christian purgatory (where souls wait before proceeding to heaven), and European folkloric poltergeists (which haunt a particular location where they have been wronged, until they see that their injury is avenged). Takeshi offers these Western ghosts the Eastern idea of karma, roughly, supernatural justice over multiple reincarnations. But this is America, so Takeshi's hustle is to offer Modern Karmic Adjustment, which speeds-up the process by avoiding the cycles of birth-death-reincarnation. If this fails, there's always the reincarnation route.

Since this is all a parody of California Zen and the Human Potential Movement, the question is do the Thanatoids actually need to be avenged, or only to feel avenged, i.e. to be at peace, in order to advance to the next level of Death? Does watching television dramas where revenge is achieved and justice triumphs dissipate their righteous anger, lead to inaction, and further their advance into Death?

==Page 175==
'''"Karmic adjustment"''' 
Well, yes, it's a nice progression from insurance adjustment, but what does Takeshi actually do? Prairie is still wondering on page 192, and DL never lets on. In any case, it looks like these Thanatoids are dead California yuppies; a resource to be exploited by preterite tradesmen.

'''"interesting work with airplanes"''' 
So, during World War II Takeshi was a kamikaze hence the same Takeshi who's in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow'']! (See Viking edition, [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_674-700 page 690]) This brings up an interesting, though peripheral issue: As a Kamikaze, Takeshi flew a Zero. A-and there's a reference on [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_663-673 page 672] (of ''GR'') to "Zeros bearing comrades away," reminding us of those human lives as binary code in God's PC. As noted, there are lots of other "zero" reverences (that's a pun, not a typo) in ''Vineland''.

==Page 176==
'''"Domo komarimashita!"''' 
Japanese for "Thanks a lot!" or "You're welcome."

==Page 178==
'''"Interpersonal Programming and the Problem Towee"''' 
Pynchon definitely has an attitude on this kind of California stuff. He also seems to have a grudge against Mercedes drivers.

'''"Sounds like the team I bet on last week."''' 
Vato gets to make the bad pun this time. This is a great montage of the growing relationship between Vato, Blood, Takeshi, and DL.

==Page 179==
'''"Vato wanted it to be a sitcom."''' 
Another example of how deeply TV has invaded our thoughts.

==Page 180==
'''"I'm Chip! I'm Dale!"''' 
A sly comparison of chipmunks: Disney's cartoonic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_%27n_Dale Chip 'n Dale] v. Bagdasarian's sonic Alvin, Simon, and Theodore ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chipmunks "Alvin and the Chipmunks"]).

==Page 181==
'''"a cement lounge deep within the Long Binh complex"''' 
So Vato and Blood either worked at, or were incarcerated in, the Long Binh military prison. Cf. [[Chapter_6#Page_87|page 87]].

==Page 185==

'''"less light on it than the space I'm in"''' 

Here Vato and Blood are having an "argument about light" - see p. 201

Also, it's a paranoid flashback from past combat in Vietnam.

==Page 186==
'''"octogenarihexation"''' 
86'd = thrown out, usually in reference to a drinking establishment. Is it a coincidence that this occurs on page 186? [[Chapter_15#Page_342|See also 43'd, p.342...]]

'''"Yuroks"''' 
The native American Yurok tribe lives along the lower 36 miles of the Klamath River, and along the California coast from Wilson Creek to Trinidad Bay. This may provide a clue to the location of Vineland County. Being Indians, the Yuroks are, naturally, preterite in the Pynchon universe. The woge (note lower case) seem to be Yurok thanatoids, therefore ultra-preterite.

==Page 187==
'''"Bernard Herrmann"''' 
The famous film composer, whose credits include, among many other great picture soundtracks, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock's] classics [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho_%281960_film%29 ''Psycho''] [1960] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo_%28film%29 ''Vertigo''] [1958].

Listen to Bernard Herrmann's music from ''Psycho'' on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDtJUSYoLDE&feature=related YouTube].

'''"A Toyota in the treetops"''' 
Is this a tip of the hat to the boat in the tree in Marquez's famous novel of magic realism, ''One Hundred Years of Solitude''?

As surreal as it may seem, in California cars frequently drive off of mountain roads and fall into canyons. They are pulled out using teams of tow trucks. But they usually crush the trees beneath.

'''"...vanish unaccountably between Shade Creek and the V & B pound, as Thanatoid units...had been known to do..."''' 
Vanishing Thanatoid cars may push the envelope of fantasy a bit too far. And yet, and yet... They wind up in the tops of trees, you see. It's kind of like 'toon cars: 'toons can drive real cars, real people can drive 'toon cars. Plus, it sets up (much later) the disappearance of Vond's ride in Chapter 15.

==Page 188==
'''Sate..."''' 
A totally abrupt scene-change to Takeshi's, a literary jump cut.

'''"Weed Atman"''' 
Another great name. Weed = marijuana. And [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weed,_California Weed] is a city in Northern California. Also perhaps, an echo of Steven Weed, abandoned boyfriend of heiress Patty Hearst, which raises a very faint reverberation of Frenesi as Patty-in-reverse. Atman = Hindu for breath, the principle of life, the World Soul.

Cf [[Chapter_11#Page_206| page 206]] for more on Weed's name.

'''"Prairie was hearing this, in her turn, from DL..."''' 
Prairie breaks into the narrative, bouncing us unexpectedly back to the present. These abrupt break-ins by Prairie are fun.

==Page 189==
'''"Variety Loaves...not, as once supposed, safely dead but no, only, queerly, sleeping..."''' 
Thanatoid lunch meat!

==Page 190==
'''"Me gotta go"''' 
A line from Richard Berry's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louie_Louie "Louie Louie"], made famous by the Kingsmen.

==Page 191==
'''"FFAR"''' 
Folding Fin Aircraft Rocket Launcher, a rather nasty device attached to Apache helicopters around about the time Pynchon was writing Vineland.

'''"Kick Out the Jambs"''' 
Definitely a reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MC_5 the MC 5] tune "Kick Out the Jams." But is "jambs" a typo or a pun?

Definitely a pun, and a genius one. Thoughts of ninjas, or FBI, or whoever, kicking doors in. Also, apt that the MC5 were affiliated with the far left, anti-establishment, counterculture, etc.

Listen on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM6nasmkg7A YouTube].

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 9

2011-12-27T03:35:14Z

Pthomas:

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 130==
'''"Fresson process studio photograph"''' 
Photographic printing process that uses coal to produce paper prints with a unique luminosity and grain. Fresson printing produces an image that is characteristically diffused and subtle, reminiscent of the "pointillism" of Impressionist painting. The image is extremely stable; Fresson printing is considered the most archival of any color procedure in use today.

==Page 131==
'''"If you want real ninja product..."''' 
The whole sequence about hiring an assassin is pure cyberpunk schtick.

'''"The Vibrating Palm"''' 
This may be a subtle reference to the old joke-store "buzzer" or "shocker" -- and resonates nicely with the rubber scampi on the previous page. The Vibrating Palm is an actual - though romanticized - technique in Asian martial arts (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_of_Death Touch of Death]).

'''"YakMaf"''' 
Yakuza/Mafia.

==Page 133==
'''"legendary in the dopers' community"''' 
Olympic Boulevard, in Los Angeles, is a major arterial road stretching from 4th Street on the western end of Santa Monica to East Los Angeles -- farther than Wilshire Boulevard and most other streets. Why is the gas station toilet legendary? And why would DL care anyway? All she needs to do is change into her disguise.

In his 2009 psychedelic noir novel ''Inherent Vice'', Pynchon mentions another legendary restroom near Los Angeles:

:"the notorious Oscar's, right across the border from Tijuana, where the toilets were seething round the clock with junkies new and old who'd just scored in Mexico, put the product inside rubber balloons and swallowed them, then crossed back into the U.S. to vomit them back up again." (p.37)

Because this restroom is right across the border, it's not the "legendary" toilet on Olympic Boulevard.

'''KFWB'''

980 AM in Los Angeles. Went to an all news/talk format in March, 1968.

[[image:dinos.jpg|right|thumb|Cabazon dinosaurs]]'''dinosaurs'''

Just another roadside attraction--life-size plaster dinosaurs on I-10 at Cabazon, California, about ten miles west of Palm Springs.

'''"baby-blue shadows..."''' 
Nice description and a precursor to the color of Frenesi's eyes.

==Page 134==
'''"beige hose, white underwear..."''' 
Pynchon's description of DL's Clark Kent outfits is surprisingly accurate, especially for a male. It's like giving the O-O (see note, [[Chapter_6#Page_79|p. 79]]) to a nice Midwestern girl, circa 1960.

==Page 135==
'''"She wasn't sure right away that being sold into white slavery would turn out to be at all beneficial as a career step..."''' 
The kidnap-and-auction sequence is good, fast-moving storytelling: breathless, tense, gripping, light on flashy effects. This is also familiar cyberpunk territory, especially the interview with Wayvone.

'''Lobelia'''

Another botanical character name.

==Page 136==
'''"older gentlemen with fingertip deficiencies..."''' 
Yakuza who have screwed up, and demonstrated their remorse by cutting off a fingertip.

==Page 139==
'''"Ufa, mi tratt' a pesci in faccia..."''' 
Literally, "Oof, you've thrown a fish in my face!" It's an ominous Sicilian warning meaning, "You've insulted me most unpleasantly, treated me in the worst possible way!"

==Page 141==
'''"I knew it!"''' 
Prairie breaking into the seamless narrative is almost a Brechtian alienation effect. By now the story is moving so strongly that we've totally forgotten the "as-told-to" frame.

'''"How could [Frenesi] have ever gone near somebody like this Brock guy?"''' 
Good question. Pynchon never really answers it -- unless we accept the idea of Frenesi embodying America's fatal fascination with authority.

'''"what-is-reality exercises"''' 
Reminiscent of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick.

'''"Ninja Death Touch calculator"''' 
This joke strikes another false note. The entire sub-plot revolving around the Vibrating Palm is broad comedy, of course, but this smart-ass gag is severely out-of-scale.

==Page 142==
'''"might as well stay home -- watch a Run Run Shaw movie!"''' 
Hong-Kong-based Run-Run Shaw produced the popular (and violent) Bruce Lee karate flicks, also lots of action-packed swords and sorcery adventures (like the ones that clearly inspired a lot of the DL and Takeshi sub-plot).

'''"yellow headlamps of the tech squads..."''' 
The scene in the Footprint is reminiscent of the monolith excavation on the moon in 2001. Also, most of the Japanese dialogue is phrased in Pynchon's unique, sounds-just-like-a-movie style.

Hai! Pynchon usually ends the Japanese characters' lines with exclamation points, so they sound like actors screaming at each other in poorly dubbed Japanese movies. Hai! Or people on meth?

'''"...the shadowy world conglomerate Chipco..."''' 
This imaginary entity (an echo, perhaps of the sinister YoYoDyne Corporation in The Crying of Lot 49) is presumably some Intel-like company whose microprocessor chips are sold world wide. No doubt the chips are designed to keep a covert watch on everything, and report back to Chipco -- similar to Byron the Bulb and his fellow gridmates in Gravity's Rainbow.

'''"gigantic animal footprint"'''[[Image:Godzilla.jpg|thumb|Poster for ''Godzilla'' (1954)|right]] 
Godzilla's size is pretty well known, and this (as we shall see) sauroid footprint is too large to be that of the big G. However, Godzilla is a product of Japanese movie model technology of the fifties, so who knows what the eighties might bring?

In the ''Godzilla'' poster to the right, the face on the lower left is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashi_Shimura Takashi Shimura], Takeshi's namesake (cf. [[Chapter_5#Page_65|page 65 notes]]), who plays the scientist sent to investigate Godzilla-sightings in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla_(1954_film) movie].

'''"Wawazume Life & Non-Life"''' 
Is this a joke? And what kind? Maybe they insure things other than lives. Maybe Thanatoids get "non-life" insurance. Or it could just be a satirically "tactful" Japanese way of referring to death.

It's a joke. They also insure property and liability (zume sounds like "sue me").

==Page 144==
'''"Eastern bloc...South African"''' 
If you turn "RSA", Republic of South Africa, upside down it looks like Cyrillic writing. A political joke.

Hardly. Turned upside down you would get jibberish. If you look at "RSA" in a mirror you would get a (slight) Cyrillic effect. Anyway, Pynchon knows enough Russian (see GR) not to have made this mistake. It is not a political joke, but a geographic joke, if anything.

==Page 143==
'''"By the time...gods of the sky."''' 
Note that this immensely long and complicated sentence takes up more than half the page!

==Page 145==
'''"Singapore Sling"''' 
A frivolous cocktail with a pleasant flavor and a lethal punch: the signature drink of the bar at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, a British colony taken by the Japanese in WWII. Conceivably, Minoru might have been stationed there, and picked up a liking for this tourist syrup.

==Page 146==
'''"Chuck, the world's most invisible robot"''' 
Like the fastest draw in the West. Want to see it again?

'''"some planet-wide struggle had been going on for years"''' 
More Pynchonian paranoia.

'''"the Himalayan caper"''' 
Story is written in mock Le Carre shorthand. Here (as elsewhere) Pynchon penetrates to the essence of a genre and gives us a few masterly strokes that evoke the same effect as an entire novel by a lesser writer.

'''"Semtex"''' 
For many years, Semtex has been the plastic explosive of choice for sophisticated aircraft bombers and other terrorists.

'''"pirate ships of the stratosphere"''' 
Presumably, they mount attacks like the one on the Kahuna flight.

==Page 147==
'''"Kutsushita-san!"''' 
lit. "Mr. Socks!"

'''"We called you the Kid."''' 
As in, "I never did the Kenosha Kid?" (See Gravity's Rainbow, p. 60.)

'''"disco music coming out the club doors"''' 
Cyberpunk atmosphere.

==Page 148==
'''"The Yak Doc Workshop"''' 
This may be a riff on Doc Yak, a comic book character.

Or Yakusa Documents.

'''"Takeshi...saw Vond...and thought...it was himself..."''' 
Vond and Takeshi look alike. Does this, as they say, signify? Takeshi as anti-Vond? It's hard to imagine a dark Japanese and a light Caucasian looking alike, but anyway, there's one for each of the tomatoes: an adjuster (insurance or karma, ma'am?) for DL, and a badass for Frenesi.

I guess that's the joke.

'''"''gaijin''"''' 
Japanese for foreigner, stranger, outsider.

==Page 149==
'''"Found a cab"''' 
Once again Prairie startles us by breaking into the gripping flashback narrative, but this time the present-tense Takeshi breaks in with her, having just arrived at the SKA retreat. Very cinematic. Takeshi moves instantaneously from past to present, a double-exposure match-dissolve effect.

'''"Moe!"'''[[Image:ThreeStooges.jpg|thumb|The Three Stooges|right]] 
The first of several references to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_stooges The Three Stooges], a nothing-if-not-preterite comedy trio specializing in crude, cruel slapstick.

'''"fingering its smooth rigid contours"''' 
The mock-porno is cute.

==Page 151==
'''"I couldn't see shit."''' 
DL mistakes Takeshi for Vond because of her fuzzy contact lenses. This mistaken-identity riff is worthy of Shakespeare at his most far-fetched and funny.

'''"Eeoo!"''' 
Flash! Pynchon's ear fails! This just isn't as close to the Valspeak expression of disgust as we expect from our boy. The transliteration needs a little more "u" or something.

Totally disagree with above, for what it's worth. "Eeoo" is perfect, as "oo" automatically brings about "too" sound. Also looks much better than anything with a "u" would.

==Page 152==
'''"Takeshi with a softoff..."'''

Opposite of a hardon.

==Page 153==
'''"Fuckin' Vond. He's the Roadrunner."''' 
Yes, he is.

'''Kunoichi Retreat''' 
see [[Chapter_8#Page 107|page 107]]

==Page 154==
'''"Licensed DOM's"''' 
Doctor of Medicine?

Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Cf. page 176

Also, in S&M slang, a male dominant.

==Page 155==
'''"Ninjette Coffee Mess"''' 
Navspeak. In the military, particularly the Navy, coffee mess is a little area where the coffee maker, cups, etc. are kept.

==Page 156==
'''"dorai kuriiningu"''' 
"dry cleaning" More Jive Japlish.

'''"perchloroethylene"''' 
A highly toxic chemical often used for cleaning movie film.

'''"croaker"''' 
A company doctor ([http://books.google.com/books?id=4YfsEgHLjboC&pg=PA514&lpg=PA514&dq=croaker+company+doctor&source=bl&ots=7JQCJ2j_2g&sig=OXn9PZtc22j-wLKaVNKHEld_Z0g&hl=en&ei=kRbATq-uPKTRiAKo0cSQAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=croaker%20company%20doctor&f=false def]).

==Page 157==
'''"Not a bar, Fumimota-san."''' 
Silly joke, nicely placed.

==Page 158==
'''"Evoex"''' 
The etymology of this new tranquilizer is clearly from the bacchanalian ejaculation (and crossword puzzle word) "evoe!"

==Page 159==
'''"Michiko Yomama"''' 
A nasty pun, based on the black insult, "Yo' mama!" Let your guard down for a second, and the guy slips in one of these every time.

==Page 160==
'''"Nukey"''' 
Orgasm and atomic detonation meet in one of Pynchon's most awful/wonderful puns (nuke = nookey).

'''sleep ... shave''' 
Meth-logic. Also a parody of the movie situation where a character must stay awake to live.

The classic film-noir [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.O.A._(1950_film) ''DOA''], where a man is given a slow-acting poison and must find his own murderer, is also relevant to this chapter.

==Page 161==
'''"technically dead"''' 
Since Takeshi lives without fear, this makes him a perfect samurai, and echoes the idea on p. 29 about how a samurai is always prepared to die.

==Page 162==
'''"Just Like a William Powell"''' 
Echoes "Like a Meat Loaf" (p. 363), and, of course, Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues."

Movie references in the song:

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thin_Man_(film) ''The Thin Man'']
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lassie_Come_Home ''Lassie Come Home'']
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarzan_Finds_a_Son! ''Tarzan Finds a Son!'']

Also, Flatfoot Floogie refers to the 1938 [http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-musicians/gaillard-slim-biography Slim Gaillard] song [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Foot_Floogie_(with_a_Floy_Floy) ''Flatfoot Floogie with a Floy, Floy''] (original recording on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFVeJ4wHWdQ YouTube]). The use of "real McCoy" may be entirely innocent, or a reference to the television show [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_McCoys ''The Real McCoys''].

==Page 163==
'''"Which reminds me, about your PX bill..."''' 
If you had any doubts about the samurai/ninjette subplot being for laughs, this page should convince you.

==Page 164==
'''"Puncutron"''' 
An imaginary therapeutic device whose name suggests an infernal combination of eastern medicine (acupuncture) and high-energy western technology (cyclotron). There's a bit of "punk" in there, too.

'''"Detractors included...managed to keep."''' 
A silly sentence, written in painful mock-German syntax for no discernible reason.

'''"Taiwanese Healthy Brain Aerobics"''' 
More foolishness, this time mixed with music. The selection of tapes for Puncutron listening includes The All-Regimental Bagpipes play Prime Time Favorites (the Tube again!), and perhaps Pynchon's best judgmental title: The Chipmunks Sing Marvin Hamlisch.

==Page 166==
'''Jaime Sommers''' 
Jaime Sommers is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bionic_Woman Bionic Woman].

'''Eve and her sister, Lilith''' 
According to an ancient legend, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith Lilith] was not Eve's sister but was Adam's first wife. But Lilith haunts many different fables, traditions, stories in many different cultures.

Lilith is the eponym for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith_Fair Lilith Fair], a music festival (1997-1999) of only female artists.

Rochelle is using "sister" in the feminist sense, as in "Sisters are doing it for themselves".

This is also interesting in the context that this is one of the only stories the reader gets in regard to what secrets/stories/philosophies are possibly taught at the Kunoichi Retreat. What seems clear is that over the years, they are more interested in making money than spiritually healing folks, so this is a nice tidbit, probably used to hook women into this Ninjette Retreat, and facilitate a mainline into their pocketbooks. Here used in a comical, and opposite way, re: Takeshi/DL.

Actually, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunoichi Kunoichi] Retreat is a parody of the many Zen retreats in Northern California, such as the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Gulch_Farm Green Gulch Farm]. People pay to stay there and do manual farming labor to chill-out. In Pynchon's parody, the retreat is feminist and faintly BDSM. As Pynchon points out on page 107, they had to seek "cash flow" in order to avoid the financial fate of their predecessors, but there's no indication that they've given up their principles (whatever they are) entirely. See also [[Chapter_8#Page 107|page 107]].

'''"...men convinced us that we were the natural administrators of this thing 'morality'..."''' 
Sister Rochelle's feminist Eden parable suggests an interesting modern scenario: Frenesi = Eve, DL = Lilith, Vond = Serpent. This would help explain Frenesi/America's irresistible attraction for the authoritarian Vond.

'''Oscar Goldman''' 
Oscar Goldman is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bionic_Woman Bionic Woman]'s boss.

==Page 167==
'''"The Ordeal of the Thousand Broadway Show Tunes"''' 
Transcendental malarkey.

'''"YOUR MAMA EATS, how can we resist?"''' 
Aggro dining.

==Page 169==
'''"Cheapsat"''' 
Preterite communications personified.

==Page 170==
'''"Like Death, Only Different."''' 
While this is a nice definition of the "oid" suffix, it begs the question of exactly what Thanatoid's are.

'''"But we watch a lot of Tube"''' 
Thanatoids watch lots of TV, trying to advance further into the condition of death. This makes them Reaganite kids? Couch potatoes? Embittered hippies? Everyone in America? Anyway, advancing further into the condition of death is only a restatement of the law of entropy, which may mean that everyone in the universe is a Thanatoid.

People watching television in a darkened room look dead. They are immobile, and their faces have a blue tinge from the light of the TV screen.

At first Pynchon makes it sound like a lifestyle, similar to Goths. The name of a public Goth dance party in Berkeley was "Not Dead Yet". But gradually he makes himself clearer...

==Page 171==
'''"checking the edges of the frame."''' 
Does this mean Takeshi's in a film? Or is Pynchon just grabbing a handy cinema term?

The latter.

'''"go the opposite way! Back to life!"''' 
This anti-entropic movement makes Takeshi a great hero, a symbol of intelligence (the only truly anti-entropic entity), the life force. Cf. [[Chapter_9#Page_148|page 148]]

==Page 172==
'''"Shade"''' 
(as in Shade Creek) = ghost.

One can become invisible in the shadows.

'''"thick fluids in flexible containers"''' 
i.e., scumbags

'''"The Woodbine Motel"''' 
Harks back, perchance, to the 1870's, the Union Pacific railroad scandal, and the Credit Mobilier. When one party was asked, under oath, where the money was, he replied that it had "gone where the woodbine twineth."

Pynchon, just as Fisk in the above quote, is most likely referring to the song [http://www.musicofyesterday.com/sheetmusic/G/Gone_Where_The_Woodbine_Twineth.php ''Gone Where the Woodbine Twineth''], an elegy for dead Civil War soldiers. It was written by Apsley Street, a pseudonym of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apsley_Street Septimus Winner], a 19th Century songwriter who was arrested for treason. Also, let's not forget the scary episode of ''The Alfred Hitchcock Hour'' called [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0394103/ ''Where the Woodbine Twineth''].

'''"The Zero Inn"''' 
Very thanatoid, preterite and Zoyd-like. Also another zero.

Also, "zero in" = to acquire a target.

==Page 173==
'''Thanatoids are "victims of karmic imbalances unanswered blows, unredeemed suffering..."''' 
So are the Thanatoids victims of the Seventies? Or another version of the preterites in Gravity's Rainbow? Maybe they're just over-determined ghosts of some sort. This description is similar to the kind of thing that psychics talk about when they're trying to make your poltergeists go away; it's the unresolved baggage that keeps the ghosties on the move, and out of wherever they belong. Remember, too, that Shade Creek is "a psychic jumping-off town" where the Thanatoids wait "for the data necessary to pursue their needs and aims (i.e., ghostlike revenge) among the still living..." ([[#Page 171|p. 171]])

'''"... they're ghosts."''' 
Here Pynchon flat-out tells you what the Thanatoids are.

'''"Although the streets were irregular and steeply pitched..."''' 
The description is an attempt to capture the effect of an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._C._Escher M.C. Escher] drawing or perhaps the Expressionist sets in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caligari ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari''] [1920].

==Page 174==
'''Thanatoids are injured by "what was done to them."''' 
Here they seem like left-over hippies, Vietnam vets, America's victims. Preterites who want revenge.

'''"The amount of memory on a chip doubles every year and a half!"''' 
Sounds like a variant on Moore's Law, that the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law

'''"In traditional karmic adjustment ..."''' 
The Thanatoids are a combination of Christian purgatory (where souls wait before proceeding to heaven), and European folkloric poltergeists (which haunt a particular location where they have been wronged, until they see that their injury is avenged). Takeshi offers these Western ghosts the Eastern idea of karma, roughly, supernatural justice over multiple reincarnations. But this is America, so Takeshi's hustle is to offer Modern Karmic Adjustment, which speeds-up the process by avoiding the cycles of birth-death-reincarnation. If this fails, there's always the reincarnation route.

Since this is all a parody of California Zen and the Human Potential Movement, the question is do the Thanatoids actually need to be avenged, or only to feel avenged, i.e. to be at peace, in order to advance to the next level of Death? Does watching television dramas where revenge is achieved and justice triumphs dissipate their righteous anger, lead to inaction, and further their advance into Death?

==Page 175==
'''"Karmic adjustment"''' 
Well, yes, it's a nice progression from insurance adjustment, but what does Takeshi actually do? Prairie is still wondering on page 192, and DL never lets on. In any case, it looks like these Thanatoids are dead California yuppies; a resource to be exploited by preterite tradesmen.

'''"interesting work with airplanes"''' 
So, during World War II Takeshi was a kamikaze hence the same Takeshi who's in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow'']! (See Viking edition, [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_674-700 page 690]) This brings up an interesting, though peripheral issue: As a Kamikaze, Takeshi flew a Zero. A-and there's a reference on [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_663-673 page 672] (of ''GR'') to "Zeros bearing comrades away," reminding us of those human lives as binary code in God's PC. As noted, there are lots of other "zero" reverences (that's a pun, not a typo) in ''Vineland''.

==Page 176==
'''"Domo komarimashita!"''' 
Japanese for "Thanks a lot!" or "You're welcome."

==Page 178==
'''"Interpersonal Programming and the Problem Towee"''' 
Pynchon definitely has an attitude on this kind of California stuff. He also seems to have a grudge against Mercedes drivers.

'''"Sounds like the team I bet on last week."''' 
Vato gets to make the bad pun this time. This is a great montage of the growing relationship between Vato, Blood, Takeshi, and DL.

==Page 179==
'''"Vato wanted it to be a sitcom."''' 
Another example of how deeply TV has invaded our thoughts.

==Page 180==
'''"I'm Chip! I'm Dale!"''' 
A sly comparison of chipmunks: Disney's cartoonic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_%27n_Dale Chip 'n Dale] v. Bagdasarian's sonic Alvin, Simon, and Theodore ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chipmunks "Alvin and the Chipmunks"]).

==Page 181==
'''"a cement lounge deep within the Long Binh complex"''' 
So Vato and Blood either worked at, or were incarcerated in, the Long Binh military prison. Cf. [[Chapter_6#Page_87|page 87]].

==Page 185==

'''"less light on it than the space I'm in"''' 

Here Vato and Blood are having an "argument about light" - see p. 201

Also, it's a paranoid flashback from past combat in Vietnam.

==Page 186==
'''"octogenarihexation"''' 
86'd = thrown out, usually in reference to a drinking establishment. Is it a coincidence that this occurs on page 186? [[Chapter_15#Page_342|See also 43'd, p.342...]]

'''"Yuroks"''' 
The native American Yurok tribe lives along the lower 36 miles of the Klamath River, and along the California coast from Wilson Creek to Trinidad Bay. This may provide a clue to the location of Vineland County. Being Indians, the Yuroks are, naturally, preterite in the Pynchon universe. The woge (note lower case) seem to be Yurok thanatoids, therefore ultra-preterite.

==Page 187==
'''"Bernard Herrmann"''' 
The famous film composer, whose credits include, among many other great picture soundtracks, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock's] classics [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho_%281960_film%29 ''Psycho''] [1960] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo_%28film%29 ''Vertigo''] [1958].

Listen to Bernard Herrmann's music from ''Psycho'' on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDtJUSYoLDE&feature=related YouTube].

'''"A Toyota in the treetops"''' 
Is this a tip of the hat to the boat in the tree in Marquez's famous novel of magic realism, ''One Hundred Years of Solitude''?

As surreal as it may seem, in California cars frequently drive off of mountain roads and fall into canyons. They are pulled out using teams of tow trucks. But they usually crush the trees beneath.

'''"...vanish unaccountably between Shade Creek and the V & B pound, as Thanatoid units...had been known to do..."''' 
Vanishing Thanatoid cars may push the envelope of fantasy a bit too far. And yet, and yet... They wind up in the tops of trees, you see. It's kind of like 'toon cars: 'toons can drive real cars, real people can drive 'toon cars. Plus, it sets up (much later) the disappearance of Vond's ride in Chapter 15.

==Page 188==
'''Sate..."''' 
A totally abrupt scene-change to Takeshi's, a literary jump cut.

'''"Weed Atman"''' 
Another great name. Weed = marijuana. And [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weed,_California Weed] is a city in Northern California. Also perhaps, an echo of Steven Weed, abandoned boyfriend of heiress Patty Hearst, which raises a very faint reverberation of Frenesi as Patty-in-reverse. Atman = Hindu for breath, the principle of life, the World Soul.

Cf [[Chapter_11#Page_206| page 206]] for more on Weed's name.

'''"Prairie was hearing this, in her turn, from DL..."''' 
Prairie breaks into the narrative, bouncing us unexpectedly back to the present. These abrupt break-ins by Prairie are fun.

==Page 189==
'''"Variety Loaves...not, as once supposed, safely dead but no, only, queerly, sleeping..."''' 
Thanatoid lunch meat!

==Page 190==
'''"Me gotta go"''' 
A line from Richard Berry's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louie_Louie "Louie Louie"], made famous by the Kingsmen.

==Page 191==
'''"FFAR"''' 
Folding Fin Aircraft Rocket Launcher, a rather nasty device attached to Apache helicopters around about the time Pynchon was writing Vineland.

'''"Kick Out the Jambs"''' 
Definitely a reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MC_5 the MC 5] tune "Kick Out the Jams." But is "jambs" a typo or a pun?

Definitely a pun, and a genius one. Thoughts of ninjas, or FBI, or whoever, kicking doors in. Also, apt that the MC5 were affiliated with the far left, anti-establishment, counterculture, etc.

Listen on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM6nasmkg7A YouTube].

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 9

2011-12-26T18:54:06Z

Pthomas: /* Page 172 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 130==
'''"Fresson process studio photograph"''' 
Photographic printing process that uses coal to produce paper prints with a unique luminosity and grain. Fresson printing produces an image that is characteristically diffused and subtle, reminiscent of the "pointillism" of Impressionist painting. The image is extremely stable; Fresson printing is considered the most archival of any color procedure in use today.

==Page 131==
'''"If you want real ninja product..."''' 
The whole sequence about hiring an assassin is pure cyberpunk schtick.

'''"The Vibrating Palm"''' 
This may be a subtle reference to the old joke-store "buzzer" or "shocker" -- and resonates nicely with the rubber scampi on the previous page. The Vibrating Palm is an actual - though romanticized - technique in Asian martial arts (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_of_Death Touch of Death]).

'''"YakMaf"''' 
Yakuza/Mafia.

==Page 133==
'''"legendary in the dopers' community"''' 
Olympic Boulevard, in Los Angeles, is a major arterial road stretching from 4th Street on the western end of Santa Monica to East Los Angeles -- farther than Wilshire Boulevard and most other streets. Why is the gas station toilet legendary? And why would DL care anyway? All she needs to do is change into her disguise.

In his 2009 psychedelic noir novel ''Inherent Vice'', Pynchon mentions another legendary restroom near Los Angeles:

:"the notorious Oscar's, right across the border from Tijuana, where the toilets were seething round the clock with junkies new and old who'd just scored in Mexico, put the product inside rubber balloons and swallowed them, then crossed back into the U.S. to vomit them back up again." (p.37)

Because this restroom is right across the border, it's not the "legendary" toilet on Olympic Boulevard.

'''KFWB'''

980 AM in Los Angeles. Went to an all news/talk format in March, 1968.

[[image:dinos.jpg|right|thumb|Cabazon dinosaurs]]'''dinosaurs'''

Just another roadside attraction--life-size plaster dinosaurs on I-10 at Cabazon, California, about ten miles west of Palm Springs.

'''"baby-blue shadows..."''' 
Nice description and a precursor to the color of Frenesi's eyes.

==Page 134==
'''"beige hose, white underwear..."''' 
Pynchon's description of DL's Clark Kent outfits is surprisingly accurate, especially for a male. It's like giving the O-O (see note, [[Chapter_6#Page_79|p. 79]]) to a nice Midwestern girl, circa 1960.

==Page 135==
'''"She wasn't sure right away that being sold into white slavery would turn out to be at all beneficial as a career step..."''' 
The kidnap-and-auction sequence is good, fast-moving storytelling: breathless, tense, gripping, light on flashy effects. This is also familiar cyberpunk territory, especially the interview with Wayvone.

'''Lobelia'''

Another botanical character name.

==Page 136==
'''"older gentlemen with fingertip deficiencies..."''' 
Yakuza who have screwed up, and demonstrated their remorse by cutting off a fingertip.

==Page 139==
'''"Ufa, mi tratt' a pesci in faccia..."''' 
Literally, "Oof, you've thrown a fish in my face!" It's an ominous Sicilian warning meaning, "You've insulted me most unpleasantly, treated me in the worst possible way!"

==Page 141==
'''"I knew it!"''' 
Prairie breaking into the seamless narrative is almost a Brechtian alienation effect. By now the story is moving so strongly that we've totally forgotten the "as-told-to" frame.

'''"How could [Frenesi] have ever gone near somebody like this Brock guy?"''' 
Good question. Pynchon never really answers it -- unless we accept the idea of Frenesi embodying America's fatal fascination with authority.

'''"what-is-reality exercises"''' 
Reminiscent of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick.

'''"Ninja Death Touch calculator"''' 
This joke strikes another false note. The entire sub-plot revolving around the Vibrating Palm is broad comedy, of course, but this smart-ass gag is severely out-of-scale.

==Page 142==
'''"might as well stay home -- watch a Run Run Shaw movie!"''' 
Hong-Kong-based Run-Run Shaw produced the popular (and violent) Bruce Lee karate flicks, also lots of action-packed swords and sorcery adventures (like the ones that clearly inspired a lot of the DL and Takeshi sub-plot).

'''"yellow headlamps of the tech squads..."''' 
The scene in the Footprint is reminiscent of the monolith excavation on the moon in 2001. Also, most of the Japanese dialogue is phrased in Pynchon's unique, sounds-just-like-a-movie style.

Hai! Pynchon usually ends the Japanese characters' lines with exclamation points, so they sound like actors screaming at each other in poorly dubbed Japanese movies. Hai! Or people on meth?

'''"...the shadowy world conglomerate Chipco..."''' 
This imaginary entity (an echo, perhaps of the sinister YoYoDyne Corporation in The Crying of Lot 49) is presumably some Intel-like company whose microprocessor chips are sold world wide. No doubt the chips are designed to keep a covert watch on everything, and report back to Chipco -- similar to Byron the Bulb and his fellow gridmates in Gravity's Rainbow.

'''"gigantic animal footprint"'''[[Image:Godzilla.jpg|thumb|Poster for ''Godzilla'' (1954)|right]] 
Godzilla's size is pretty well known, and this (as we shall see) sauroid footprint is too large to be that of the big G. However, Godzilla is a product of Japanese movie model technology of the fifties, so who knows what the eighties might bring?

In the ''Godzilla'' poster to the right, the face on the lower left is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashi_Shimura Takashi Shimura], Takeshi's namesake (cf. [[Chapter_5#Page_65|page 65 notes]]), who plays the scientist sent to investigate Godzilla-sightings in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla_(1954_film) movie].

'''"Wawazume Life & Non-Life"''' 
Is this a joke? And what kind? Maybe they insure things other than lives. Maybe Thanatoids get "non-life" insurance. Or it could just be a satirically "tactful" Japanese way of referring to death.

It's a joke. They also insure property and liability (zume sounds like "sue me").

==Page 144==
'''"Eastern bloc...South African"''' 
If you turn "RSA", Republic of South Africa, upside down it looks like Cyrillic writing. A political joke.

Hardly. Turned upside down you would get jibberish. If you look at "RSA" in a mirror you would get a (slight) Cyrillic effect. Anyway, Pynchon knows enough Russian (see GR) not to have made this mistake. It is not a political joke, but a geographic joke, if anything.

==Page 143==
'''"By the time...gods of the sky."''' 
Note that this immensely long and complicated sentence takes up more than half the page!

==Page 145==
'''"Singapore Sling"''' 
A frivolous cocktail with a pleasant flavor and a lethal punch: the signature drink of the bar at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, a British colony taken by the Japanese in WWII. Conceivably, Minoru might have been stationed there, and picked up a liking for this tourist syrup.

==Page 146==
'''"Chuck, the world's most invisible robot"''' 
Like the fastest draw in the West. Want to see it again?

'''"some planet-wide struggle had been going on for years"''' 
More Pynchonian paranoia.

'''"the Himalayan caper"''' 
Story is written in mock Le Carre shorthand. Here (as elsewhere) Pynchon penetrates to the essence of a genre and gives us a few masterly strokes that evoke the same effect as an entire novel by a lesser writer.

'''"Semtex"''' 
For many years, Semtex has been the plastic explosive of choice for sophisticated aircraft bombers and other terrorists.

'''"pirate ships of the stratosphere"''' 
Presumably, they mount attacks like the one on the Kahuna flight.

==Page 147==
'''"Kutsushita-san!"''' 
lit. "Mr. Socks!"

'''"We called you the Kid."''' 
As in, "I never did the Kenosha Kid?" (See Gravity's Rainbow, p. 60.)

'''"disco music coming out the club doors"''' 
Cyberpunk atmosphere.

==Page 148==
'''"The Yak Doc Workshop"''' 
This may be a riff on Doc Yak, a comic book character.

Or Yakusa Documents.

'''"Takeshi...saw Vond...and thought...it was himself..."''' 
Vond and Takeshi look alike. Does this, as they say, signify? Takeshi as anti-Vond? It's hard to imagine a dark Japanese and a light Caucasian looking alike, but anyway, there's one for each of the tomatoes: an adjuster (insurance or karma, ma'am?) for DL, and a badass for Frenesi.

I guess that's the joke.

'''"''gaijin''"''' 
Japanese for foreigner, stranger, outsider.

==Page 149==
'''"Found a cab"''' 
Once again Prairie startles us by breaking into the gripping flashback narrative, but this time the present-tense Takeshi breaks in with her, having just arrived at the SKA retreat. Very cinematic. Takeshi moves instantaneously from past to present, a double-exposure match-dissolve effect.

'''"Moe!"'''[[Image:ThreeStooges.jpg|thumb|The Three Stooges|right]] 
The first of several references to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_stooges The Three Stooges], a nothing-if-not-preterite comedy trio specializing in crude, cruel slapstick.

'''"fingering its smooth rigid contours"''' 
The mock-porno is cute.

==Page 151==
'''"I couldn't see shit."''' 
DL mistakes Takeshi for Vond because of her fuzzy contact lenses. This mistaken-identity riff is worthy of Shakespeare at his most far-fetched and funny.

'''"Eeoo!"''' 
Flash! Pynchon's ear fails! This just isn't as close to the Valspeak expression of disgust as we expect from our boy. The transliteration needs a little more "u" or something.

Totally disagree with above, for what it's worth. "Eeoo" is perfect, as "oo" automatically brings about "too" sound. Also looks much better than anything with a "u" would.

==Page 153==
'''"Fuckin' Vond. He's the Roadrunner."''' 
Yes, he is.

'''Kunoichi Retreat''' 
see [[Chapter_8#Page 107|page 107]]

==Page 154==
'''"Licensed DOM's"''' 
Doctor of Medicine?

Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Cf. page 176

Also, in S&M slang, a male dominant.

==Page 155==
'''"Ninjette Coffee Mess"''' 
Navspeak. In the military, particularly the Navy, coffee mess is a little area where the coffee maker, cups, etc. are kept.

==Page 156==
'''"dorai kuriiningu"''' 
"dry cleaning" More Jive Japlish.

'''"perchloroethylene"''' 
A highly toxic chemical often used for cleaning movie film.

'''"croaker"''' 
A company doctor ([http://books.google.com/books?id=4YfsEgHLjboC&pg=PA514&lpg=PA514&dq=croaker+company+doctor&source=bl&ots=7JQCJ2j_2g&sig=OXn9PZtc22j-wLKaVNKHEld_Z0g&hl=en&ei=kRbATq-uPKTRiAKo0cSQAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=croaker%20company%20doctor&f=false def]).

==Page 157==
'''"Not a bar, Fumimota-san."''' 
Silly joke, nicely placed.

==Page 158==
'''"Evoex"''' 
The etymology of this new tranquilizer is clearly from the bacchanalian ejaculation (and crossword puzzle word) "evoe!"

==Page 159==
'''"Michiko Yomama"''' 
A nasty pun, based on the black insult, "Yo' mama!" Let your guard down for a second, and the guy slips in one of these every time.

==Page 160==
'''"Nukey"''' 
Orgasm and atomic detonation meet in one of Pynchon's most awful/wonderful puns (nuke = nookey).

'''sleep ... shave''' 
Meth-logic. Also a parody of the movie situation where a character must stay awake to live.

The classic film-noir [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.O.A._(1950_film) ''DOA''], where a man is given a slow-acting poison and must find his own murderer, is also relevant to this chapter.

==Page 161==
'''"technically dead"''' 
Since Takeshi lives without fear, this makes him a perfect samurai, and echoes the idea on p. 29 about how a samurai is always prepared to die.

==Page 162==
'''"Just Like a William Powell"''' 
Echoes "Like a Meat Loaf" (p. 363), and, of course, Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues."

Movie references in the song:

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thin_Man_(film) ''The Thin Man'']
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lassie_Come_Home ''Lassie Come Home'']
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarzan_Finds_a_Son! ''Tarzan Finds a Son!'']

Also, Flatfoot Floogie refers to the 1938 [http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-musicians/gaillard-slim-biography Slim Gaillard] song [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Foot_Floogie_(with_a_Floy_Floy) ''Flatfoot Floogie with a Floy, Floy''] (original recording on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFVeJ4wHWdQ YouTube]). The use of "real McCoy" may be entirely innocent, or a reference to the television show [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_McCoys ''The Real McCoys''].

==Page 163==
'''"Which reminds me, about your PX bill..."''' 
If you had any doubts about the samurai/ninjette subplot being for laughs, this page should convince you.

==Page 164==
'''"Puncutron"''' 
An imaginary therapeutic device whose name suggests an infernal combination of eastern medicine (acupuncture) and high-energy western technology (cyclotron). There's a bit of "punk" in there, too.

'''"Detractors included...managed to keep."''' 
A silly sentence, written in painful mock-German syntax for no discernible reason.

'''"Taiwanese Healthy Brain Aerobics"''' 
More foolishness, this time mixed with music. The selection of tapes for Puncutron listening includes The All-Regimental Bagpipes play Prime Time Favorites (the Tube again!), and perhaps Pynchon's best judgmental title: The Chipmunks Sing Marvin Hamlisch.

==Page 166==
'''Jaime Sommers''' 
Jaime Sommers is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bionic_Woman Bionic Woman].

'''Eve and her sister, Lilith''' 
According to an ancient legend, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith Lilith] was not Eve's sister but was Adam's first wife. But Lilith haunts many different fables, traditions, stories in many different cultures.

Lilith is the eponym for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith_Fair Lilith Fair], a music festival (1997-1999) of only female artists.

Rochelle is using "sister" in the feminist sense, as in "Sisters are doing it for themselves".

This is also interesting in the context that this is one of the only stories the reader gets in regard to what secrets/stories/philosophies are possibly taught at the Kunoichi Retreat. What seems clear is that over the years, they are more interested in making money than spiritually healing folks, so this is a nice tidbit, probably used to hook women into this Ninjette Retreat, and facilitate a mainline into their pocketbooks. Here used in a comical, and opposite way, re: Takeshi/DL.

Actually, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunoichi Kunoichi] Retreat is a parody of the many Zen retreats in Northern California, such as the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Gulch_Farm Green Gulch Farm]. People pay to stay there and do manual farming labor to chill-out. In Pynchon's parody, the retreat is feminist and faintly BDSM. As Pynchon points out on page 107, they had to seek "cash flow" in order to avoid the financial fate of their predecessors, but there's no indication that they've given up their principles (whatever they are) entirely. See also [[Chapter_8#Page 107|page 107]].

'''"...men convinced us that we were the natural administrators of this thing 'morality'..."''' 
Sister Rochelle's feminist Eden parable suggests an interesting modern scenario: Frenesi = Eve, DL = Lilith, Vond = Serpent. This would help explain Frenesi/America's irresistible attraction for the authoritarian Vond.

'''Oscar Goldman''' 
Oscar Goldman is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bionic_Woman Bionic Woman]'s boss.

==Page 167==
'''"The Ordeal of the Thousand Broadway Show Tunes"''' 
Transcendental malarkey.

'''"YOUR MAMA EATS, how can we resist?"''' 
Aggro dining.

==Page 169==
'''"Cheapsat"''' 
Preterite communications personified.

==Page 170==
'''"Like Death, Only Different."''' 
While this is a nice definition of the "oid" suffix, it begs the question of exactly what Thanatoid's are.

'''"But we watch a lot of Tube"''' 
Thanatoids watch lots of TV, trying to advance further into the condition of death. This makes them Reaganite kids? Couch potatoes? Embittered hippies? Everyone in America? Anyway, advancing further into the condition of death is only a restatement of the law of entropy, which may mean that everyone in the universe is a Thanatoid.

People watching television in a darkened room look dead. They are immobile, and their faces have a blue tinge from the light of the TV screen.

At first Pynchon makes it sound like a lifestyle, similar to Goths. The name of a public Goth dance party in Berkeley was "Not Dead Yet". But gradually he makes himself clearer...

==Page 171==
'''"checking the edges of the frame."''' 
Does this mean Takeshi's in a film? Or is Pynchon just grabbing a handy cinema term?

The latter.

'''"go the opposite way! Back to life!"''' 
This anti-entropic movement makes Takeshi a great hero, a symbol of intelligence (the only truly anti-entropic entity), the life force. Cf. [[Chapter_9#Page_148|page 148]]

==Page 172==
'''"Shade"''' 
(as in Shade Creek) = ghost.

One can become invisible in the shadows.

'''"thick fluids in flexible containers"''' 
i.e., scumbags

'''"The Woodbine Motel"''' 
Harks back, perchance, to the 1870's, the Union Pacific railroad scandal, and the Credit Mobilier. When one party was asked, under oath, where the money was, he replied that it had "gone where the woodbine twineth."

Pynchon, just as Fisk in the above quote, is most likely referring to the song [http://www.musicofyesterday.com/sheetmusic/G/Gone_Where_The_Woodbine_Twineth.php ''Gone Where the Woodbine Twineth''], an elegy for dead Civil War soldiers. It was written by Apsley Street, a pseudonym of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apsley_Street Septimus Winner], a 19th Century songwriter who was arrested for treason. Also, let's not forget the scary episode of ''The Alfred Hitchcock Hour'' called [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0394103/ ''Where the Woodbine Twineth''].

'''"The Zero Inn"''' 
Very thanatoid, preterite and Zoyd-like. Also another zero.

Also, "zero in" = to acquire a target.

==Page 173==
'''Thanatoids are "victims of karmic imbalances unanswered blows, unredeemed suffering..."''' 
So are the Thanatoids victims of the Seventies? Or another version of the preterites in Gravity's Rainbow? Maybe they're just over-determined ghosts of some sort. This description is similar to the kind of thing that psychics talk about when they're trying to make your poltergeists go away; it's the unresolved baggage that keeps the ghosties on the move, and out of wherever they belong. Remember, too, that Shade Creek is "a psychic jumping-off town" where the Thanatoids wait "for the data necessary to pursue their needs and aims (i.e., ghostlike revenge) among the still living..." ([[#Page 171|p. 171]])

'''"... they're ghosts."''' 
Here Pynchon flat-out tells you what the Thanatoids are.

'''"Although the streets were irregular and steeply pitched..."''' 
The description is an attempt to capture the effect of an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._C._Escher M.C. Escher] drawing or perhaps the Expressionist sets in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caligari ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari''] [1920].

==Page 174==
'''Thanatoids are injured by "what was done to them."''' 
Here they seem like left-over hippies, Vietnam vets, America's victims. Preterites who want revenge.

'''"The amount of memory on a chip doubles every year and a half!"''' 
Sounds like a variant on Moore's Law, that the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law

'''"In traditional karmic adjustment ..."''' 
The Thanatoids are a combination of Christian purgatory (where souls wait before proceeding to heaven), and European folkloric poltergeists (which haunt a particular location where they have been wronged, until they see that their injury is avenged). Takeshi offers these Western ghosts the Eastern idea of karma, roughly, supernatural justice over multiple reincarnations. But this is America, so Takeshi's hustle is to offer Modern Karmic Adjustment, which speeds-up the process by avoiding the cycles of birth-death-reincarnation. If this fails, there's always the reincarnation route.

Since this is all a parody of California Zen and the Human Potential Movement, the question is do the Thanatoids actually need to be avenged, or only to feel avenged, i.e. to be at peace, in order to advance to the next level of Death? Does watching television dramas where revenge is achieved and justice triumphs dissipate their righteous anger, lead to inaction, and further their advance into Death?

==Page 175==
'''"Karmic adjustment"''' 
Well, yes, it's a nice progression from insurance adjustment, but what does Takeshi actually do? Prairie is still wondering on page 192, and DL never lets on. In any case, it looks like these Thanatoids are dead California yuppies; a resource to be exploited by preterite tradesmen.

'''"interesting work with airplanes"''' 
So, during World War II Takeshi was a kamikaze hence the same Takeshi who's in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow'']! (See Viking edition, [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_674-700 page 690]) This brings up an interesting, though peripheral issue: As a Kamikaze, Takeshi flew a Zero. A-and there's a reference on [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_663-673 page 672] (of ''GR'') to "Zeros bearing comrades away," reminding us of those human lives as binary code in God's PC. As noted, there are lots of other "zero" reverences (that's a pun, not a typo) in ''Vineland''.

==Page 176==
'''"Domo komarimashita!"''' 
Japanese for "Thanks a lot!" or "You're welcome."

==Page 178==
'''"Interpersonal Programming and the Problem Towee"''' 
Pynchon definitely has an attitude on this kind of California stuff. He also seems to have a grudge against Mercedes drivers.

'''"Sounds like the team I bet on last week."''' 
Vato gets to make the bad pun this time. This is a great montage of the growing relationship between Vato, Blood, Takeshi, and DL.

==Page 179==
'''"Vato wanted it to be a sitcom."''' 
Another example of how deeply TV has invaded our thoughts.

==Page 180==
'''"I'm Chip! I'm Dale!"''' 
A sly comparison of chipmunks: Disney's cartoonic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_%27n_Dale Chip 'n Dale] v. Bagdasarian's sonic Alvin, Simon, and Theodore ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chipmunks "Alvin and the Chipmunks"]).

==Page 181==
'''"a cement lounge deep within the Long Binh complex"''' 
So Vato and Blood either worked at, or were incarcerated in, the Long Binh military prison. Cf. [[Chapter_6#Page_87|page 87]].

==Page 185==

'''"less light on it than the space I'm in"''' 

Here Vato and Blood are having an "argument about light" - see p. 201

Also, it's a paranoid flashback from past combat in Vietnam.

==Page 186==
'''"octogenarihexation"''' 
86'd = thrown out, usually in reference to a drinking establishment. Is it a coincidence that this occurs on page 186? [[Chapter_15#Page_342|See also 43'd, p.342...]]

'''"Yuroks"''' 
The native American Yurok tribe lives along the lower 36 miles of the Klamath River, and along the California coast from Wilson Creek to Trinidad Bay. This may provide a clue to the location of Vineland County. Being Indians, the Yuroks are, naturally, preterite in the Pynchon universe. The woge (note lower case) seem to be Yurok thanatoids, therefore ultra-preterite.

==Page 187==
'''"Bernard Herrmann"''' 
The famous film composer, whose credits include, among many other great picture soundtracks, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock's] classics [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho_%281960_film%29 ''Psycho''] [1960] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo_%28film%29 ''Vertigo''] [1958].

Listen to Bernard Herrmann's music from ''Psycho'' on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDtJUSYoLDE&feature=related YouTube].

'''"A Toyota in the treetops"''' 
Is this a tip of the hat to the boat in the tree in Marquez's famous novel of magic realism, ''One Hundred Years of Solitude''?

As surreal as it may seem, in California cars frequently drive off of mountain roads and fall into canyons. They are pulled out using teams of tow trucks. But they usually crush the trees beneath.

'''"...vanish unaccountably between Shade Creek and the V & B pound, as Thanatoid units...had been known to do..."''' 
Vanishing Thanatoid cars may push the envelope of fantasy a bit too far. And yet, and yet... They wind up in the tops of trees, you see. It's kind of like 'toon cars: 'toons can drive real cars, real people can drive 'toon cars. Plus, it sets up (much later) the disappearance of Vond's ride in Chapter 15.

==Page 188==
'''Sate..."''' 
A totally abrupt scene-change to Takeshi's, a literary jump cut.

'''"Weed Atman"''' 
Another great name. Weed = marijuana. And [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weed,_California Weed] is a city in Northern California. Also perhaps, an echo of Steven Weed, abandoned boyfriend of heiress Patty Hearst, which raises a very faint reverberation of Frenesi as Patty-in-reverse. Atman = Hindu for breath, the principle of life, the World Soul.

Cf [[Chapter_11#Page_206| page 206]] for more on Weed's name.

'''"Prairie was hearing this, in her turn, from DL..."''' 
Prairie breaks into the narrative, bouncing us unexpectedly back to the present. These abrupt break-ins by Prairie are fun.

==Page 189==
'''"Variety Loaves...not, as once supposed, safely dead but no, only, queerly, sleeping..."''' 
Thanatoid lunch meat!

==Page 190==
'''"Me gotta go"''' 
A line from Richard Berry's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louie_Louie "Louie Louie"], made famous by the Kingsmen.

==Page 191==
'''"FFAR"''' 
Folding Fin Aircraft Rocket Launcher, a rather nasty device attached to Apache helicopters around about the time Pynchon was writing Vineland.

'''"Kick Out the Jambs"''' 
Definitely a reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MC_5 the MC 5] tune "Kick Out the Jams." But is "jambs" a typo or a pun?

Definitely a pun, and a genius one. Thoughts of ninjas, or FBI, or whoever, kicking doors in. Also, apt that the MC5 were affiliated with the far left, anti-establishment, counterculture, etc.

Listen on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM6nasmkg7A YouTube].

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 9

2011-12-26T18:45:03Z

Pthomas: /* Page 135 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 130==
'''"Fresson process studio photograph"''' 
Photographic printing process that uses coal to produce paper prints with a unique luminosity and grain. Fresson printing produces an image that is characteristically diffused and subtle, reminiscent of the "pointillism" of Impressionist painting. The image is extremely stable; Fresson printing is considered the most archival of any color procedure in use today.

==Page 131==
'''"If you want real ninja product..."''' 
The whole sequence about hiring an assassin is pure cyberpunk schtick.

'''"The Vibrating Palm"''' 
This may be a subtle reference to the old joke-store "buzzer" or "shocker" -- and resonates nicely with the rubber scampi on the previous page. The Vibrating Palm is an actual - though romanticized - technique in Asian martial arts (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_of_Death Touch of Death]).

'''"YakMaf"''' 
Yakuza/Mafia.

==Page 133==
'''"legendary in the dopers' community"''' 
Olympic Boulevard, in Los Angeles, is a major arterial road stretching from 4th Street on the western end of Santa Monica to East Los Angeles -- farther than Wilshire Boulevard and most other streets. Why is the gas station toilet legendary? And why would DL care anyway? All she needs to do is change into her disguise.

In his 2009 psychedelic noir novel ''Inherent Vice'', Pynchon mentions another legendary restroom near Los Angeles:

:"the notorious Oscar's, right across the border from Tijuana, where the toilets were seething round the clock with junkies new and old who'd just scored in Mexico, put the product inside rubber balloons and swallowed them, then crossed back into the U.S. to vomit them back up again." (p.37)

Because this restroom is right across the border, it's not the "legendary" toilet on Olympic Boulevard.

'''KFWB'''

980 AM in Los Angeles. Went to an all news/talk format in March, 1968.

[[image:dinos.jpg|right|thumb|Cabazon dinosaurs]]'''dinosaurs'''

Just another roadside attraction--life-size plaster dinosaurs on I-10 at Cabazon, California, about ten miles west of Palm Springs.

'''"baby-blue shadows..."''' 
Nice description and a precursor to the color of Frenesi's eyes.

==Page 134==
'''"beige hose, white underwear..."''' 
Pynchon's description of DL's Clark Kent outfits is surprisingly accurate, especially for a male. It's like giving the O-O (see note, [[Chapter_6#Page_79|p. 79]]) to a nice Midwestern girl, circa 1960.

==Page 135==
'''"She wasn't sure right away that being sold into white slavery would turn out to be at all beneficial as a career step..."''' 
The kidnap-and-auction sequence is good, fast-moving storytelling: breathless, tense, gripping, light on flashy effects. This is also familiar cyberpunk territory, especially the interview with Wayvone.

'''Lobelia'''

Another botanical character name.

==Page 136==
'''"older gentlemen with fingertip deficiencies..."''' 
Yakuza who have screwed up, and demonstrated their remorse by cutting off a fingertip.

==Page 139==
'''"Ufa, mi tratt' a pesci in faccia..."''' 
Literally, "Oof, you've thrown a fish in my face!" It's an ominous Sicilian warning meaning, "You've insulted me most unpleasantly, treated me in the worst possible way!"

==Page 141==
'''"I knew it!"''' 
Prairie breaking into the seamless narrative is almost a Brechtian alienation effect. By now the story is moving so strongly that we've totally forgotten the "as-told-to" frame.

'''"How could [Frenesi] have ever gone near somebody like this Brock guy?"''' 
Good question. Pynchon never really answers it -- unless we accept the idea of Frenesi embodying America's fatal fascination with authority.

'''"what-is-reality exercises"''' 
Reminiscent of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick.

'''"Ninja Death Touch calculator"''' 
This joke strikes another false note. The entire sub-plot revolving around the Vibrating Palm is broad comedy, of course, but this smart-ass gag is severely out-of-scale.

==Page 142==
'''"might as well stay home -- watch a Run Run Shaw movie!"''' 
Hong-Kong-based Run-Run Shaw produced the popular (and violent) Bruce Lee karate flicks, also lots of action-packed swords and sorcery adventures (like the ones that clearly inspired a lot of the DL and Takeshi sub-plot).

'''"yellow headlamps of the tech squads..."''' 
The scene in the Footprint is reminiscent of the monolith excavation on the moon in 2001. Also, most of the Japanese dialogue is phrased in Pynchon's unique, sounds-just-like-a-movie style.

Hai! Pynchon usually ends the Japanese characters' lines with exclamation points, so they sound like actors screaming at each other in poorly dubbed Japanese movies. Hai! Or people on meth?

'''"...the shadowy world conglomerate Chipco..."''' 
This imaginary entity (an echo, perhaps of the sinister YoYoDyne Corporation in The Crying of Lot 49) is presumably some Intel-like company whose microprocessor chips are sold world wide. No doubt the chips are designed to keep a covert watch on everything, and report back to Chipco -- similar to Byron the Bulb and his fellow gridmates in Gravity's Rainbow.

'''"gigantic animal footprint"'''[[Image:Godzilla.jpg|thumb|Poster for ''Godzilla'' (1954)|right]] 
Godzilla's size is pretty well known, and this (as we shall see) sauroid footprint is too large to be that of the big G. However, Godzilla is a product of Japanese movie model technology of the fifties, so who knows what the eighties might bring?

In the ''Godzilla'' poster to the right, the face on the lower left is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashi_Shimura Takashi Shimura], Takeshi's namesake (cf. [[Chapter_5#Page_65|page 65 notes]]), who plays the scientist sent to investigate Godzilla-sightings in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla_(1954_film) movie].

'''"Wawazume Life & Non-Life"''' 
Is this a joke? And what kind? Maybe they insure things other than lives. Maybe Thanatoids get "non-life" insurance. Or it could just be a satirically "tactful" Japanese way of referring to death.

It's a joke. They also insure property and liability (zume sounds like "sue me").

==Page 144==
'''"Eastern bloc...South African"''' 
If you turn "RSA", Republic of South Africa, upside down it looks like Cyrillic writing. A political joke.

Hardly. Turned upside down you would get jibberish. If you look at "RSA" in a mirror you would get a (slight) Cyrillic effect. Anyway, Pynchon knows enough Russian (see GR) not to have made this mistake. It is not a political joke, but a geographic joke, if anything.

==Page 143==
'''"By the time...gods of the sky."''' 
Note that this immensely long and complicated sentence takes up more than half the page!

==Page 145==
'''"Singapore Sling"''' 
A frivolous cocktail with a pleasant flavor and a lethal punch: the signature drink of the bar at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, a British colony taken by the Japanese in WWII. Conceivably, Minoru might have been stationed there, and picked up a liking for this tourist syrup.

==Page 146==
'''"Chuck, the world's most invisible robot"''' 
Like the fastest draw in the West. Want to see it again?

'''"some planet-wide struggle had been going on for years"''' 
More Pynchonian paranoia.

'''"the Himalayan caper"''' 
Story is written in mock Le Carre shorthand. Here (as elsewhere) Pynchon penetrates to the essence of a genre and gives us a few masterly strokes that evoke the same effect as an entire novel by a lesser writer.

'''"Semtex"''' 
For many years, Semtex has been the plastic explosive of choice for sophisticated aircraft bombers and other terrorists.

'''"pirate ships of the stratosphere"''' 
Presumably, they mount attacks like the one on the Kahuna flight.

==Page 147==
'''"Kutsushita-san!"''' 
lit. "Mr. Socks!"

'''"We called you the Kid."''' 
As in, "I never did the Kenosha Kid?" (See Gravity's Rainbow, p. 60.)

'''"disco music coming out the club doors"''' 
Cyberpunk atmosphere.

==Page 148==
'''"The Yak Doc Workshop"''' 
This may be a riff on Doc Yak, a comic book character.

Or Yakusa Documents.

'''"Takeshi...saw Vond...and thought...it was himself..."''' 
Vond and Takeshi look alike. Does this, as they say, signify? Takeshi as anti-Vond? It's hard to imagine a dark Japanese and a light Caucasian looking alike, but anyway, there's one for each of the tomatoes: an adjuster (insurance or karma, ma'am?) for DL, and a badass for Frenesi.

I guess that's the joke.

'''"''gaijin''"''' 
Japanese for foreigner, stranger, outsider.

==Page 149==
'''"Found a cab"''' 
Once again Prairie startles us by breaking into the gripping flashback narrative, but this time the present-tense Takeshi breaks in with her, having just arrived at the SKA retreat. Very cinematic. Takeshi moves instantaneously from past to present, a double-exposure match-dissolve effect.

'''"Moe!"'''[[Image:ThreeStooges.jpg|thumb|The Three Stooges|right]] 
The first of several references to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_stooges The Three Stooges], a nothing-if-not-preterite comedy trio specializing in crude, cruel slapstick.

'''"fingering its smooth rigid contours"''' 
The mock-porno is cute.

==Page 151==
'''"I couldn't see shit."''' 
DL mistakes Takeshi for Vond because of her fuzzy contact lenses. This mistaken-identity riff is worthy of Shakespeare at his most far-fetched and funny.

'''"Eeoo!"''' 
Flash! Pynchon's ear fails! This just isn't as close to the Valspeak expression of disgust as we expect from our boy. The transliteration needs a little more "u" or something.

Totally disagree with above, for what it's worth. "Eeoo" is perfect, as "oo" automatically brings about "too" sound. Also looks much better than anything with a "u" would.

==Page 153==
'''"Fuckin' Vond. He's the Roadrunner."''' 
Yes, he is.

'''Kunoichi Retreat''' 
see [[Chapter_8#Page 107|page 107]]

==Page 154==
'''"Licensed DOM's"''' 
Doctor of Medicine?

Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Cf. page 176

Also, in S&M slang, a male dominant.

==Page 155==
'''"Ninjette Coffee Mess"''' 
Navspeak. In the military, particularly the Navy, coffee mess is a little area where the coffee maker, cups, etc. are kept.

==Page 156==
'''"dorai kuriiningu"''' 
"dry cleaning" More Jive Japlish.

'''"perchloroethylene"''' 
A highly toxic chemical often used for cleaning movie film.

'''"croaker"''' 
A company doctor ([http://books.google.com/books?id=4YfsEgHLjboC&pg=PA514&lpg=PA514&dq=croaker+company+doctor&source=bl&ots=7JQCJ2j_2g&sig=OXn9PZtc22j-wLKaVNKHEld_Z0g&hl=en&ei=kRbATq-uPKTRiAKo0cSQAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=croaker%20company%20doctor&f=false def]).

==Page 157==
'''"Not a bar, Fumimota-san."''' 
Silly joke, nicely placed.

==Page 158==
'''"Evoex"''' 
The etymology of this new tranquilizer is clearly from the bacchanalian ejaculation (and crossword puzzle word) "evoe!"

==Page 159==
'''"Michiko Yomama"''' 
A nasty pun, based on the black insult, "Yo' mama!" Let your guard down for a second, and the guy slips in one of these every time.

==Page 160==
'''"Nukey"''' 
Orgasm and atomic detonation meet in one of Pynchon's most awful/wonderful puns (nuke = nookey).

'''sleep ... shave''' 
Meth-logic. Also a parody of the movie situation where a character must stay awake to live.

The classic film-noir [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.O.A._(1950_film) ''DOA''], where a man is given a slow-acting poison and must find his own murderer, is also relevant to this chapter.

==Page 161==
'''"technically dead"''' 
Since Takeshi lives without fear, this makes him a perfect samurai, and echoes the idea on p. 29 about how a samurai is always prepared to die.

==Page 162==
'''"Just Like a William Powell"''' 
Echoes "Like a Meat Loaf" (p. 363), and, of course, Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues."

Movie references in the song:

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thin_Man_(film) ''The Thin Man'']
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lassie_Come_Home ''Lassie Come Home'']
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarzan_Finds_a_Son! ''Tarzan Finds a Son!'']

Also, Flatfoot Floogie refers to the 1938 [http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-musicians/gaillard-slim-biography Slim Gaillard] song [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Foot_Floogie_(with_a_Floy_Floy) ''Flatfoot Floogie with a Floy, Floy''] (original recording on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFVeJ4wHWdQ YouTube]). The use of "real McCoy" may be entirely innocent, or a reference to the television show [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_McCoys ''The Real McCoys''].

==Page 163==
'''"Which reminds me, about your PX bill..."''' 
If you had any doubts about the samurai/ninjette subplot being for laughs, this page should convince you.

==Page 164==
'''"Puncutron"''' 
An imaginary therapeutic device whose name suggests an infernal combination of eastern medicine (acupuncture) and high-energy western technology (cyclotron). There's a bit of "punk" in there, too.

'''"Detractors included...managed to keep."''' 
A silly sentence, written in painful mock-German syntax for no discernible reason.

'''"Taiwanese Healthy Brain Aerobics"''' 
More foolishness, this time mixed with music. The selection of tapes for Puncutron listening includes The All-Regimental Bagpipes play Prime Time Favorites (the Tube again!), and perhaps Pynchon's best judgmental title: The Chipmunks Sing Marvin Hamlisch.

==Page 166==
'''Jaime Sommers''' 
Jaime Sommers is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bionic_Woman Bionic Woman].

'''Eve and her sister, Lilith''' 
According to an ancient legend, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith Lilith] was not Eve's sister but was Adam's first wife. But Lilith haunts many different fables, traditions, stories in many different cultures.

Lilith is the eponym for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith_Fair Lilith Fair], a music festival (1997-1999) of only female artists.

Rochelle is using "sister" in the feminist sense, as in "Sisters are doing it for themselves".

This is also interesting in the context that this is one of the only stories the reader gets in regard to what secrets/stories/philosophies are possibly taught at the Kunoichi Retreat. What seems clear is that over the years, they are more interested in making money than spiritually healing folks, so this is a nice tidbit, probably used to hook women into this Ninjette Retreat, and facilitate a mainline into their pocketbooks. Here used in a comical, and opposite way, re: Takeshi/DL.

Actually, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunoichi Kunoichi] Retreat is a parody of the many Zen retreats in Northern California, such as the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Gulch_Farm Green Gulch Farm]. People pay to stay there and do manual farming labor to chill-out. In Pynchon's parody, the retreat is feminist and faintly BDSM. As Pynchon points out on page 107, they had to seek "cash flow" in order to avoid the financial fate of their predecessors, but there's no indication that they've given up their principles (whatever they are) entirely. See also [[Chapter_8#Page 107|page 107]].

'''"...men convinced us that we were the natural administrators of this thing 'morality'..."''' 
Sister Rochelle's feminist Eden parable suggests an interesting modern scenario: Frenesi = Eve, DL = Lilith, Vond = Serpent. This would help explain Frenesi/America's irresistible attraction for the authoritarian Vond.

'''Oscar Goldman''' 
Oscar Goldman is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bionic_Woman Bionic Woman]'s boss.

==Page 167==
'''"The Ordeal of the Thousand Broadway Show Tunes"''' 
Transcendental malarkey.

'''"YOUR MAMA EATS, how can we resist?"''' 
Aggro dining.

==Page 169==
'''"Cheapsat"''' 
Preterite communications personified.

==Page 170==
'''"Like Death, Only Different."''' 
While this is a nice definition of the "oid" suffix, it begs the question of exactly what Thanatoid's are.

'''"But we watch a lot of Tube"''' 
Thanatoids watch lots of TV, trying to advance further into the condition of death. This makes them Reaganite kids? Couch potatoes? Embittered hippies? Everyone in America? Anyway, advancing further into the condition of death is only a restatement of the law of entropy, which may mean that everyone in the universe is a Thanatoid.

People watching television in a darkened room look dead. They are immobile, and their faces have a blue tinge from the light of the TV screen.

At first Pynchon makes it sound like a lifestyle, similar to Goths. The name of a public Goth dance party in Berkeley was "Not Dead Yet". But gradually he makes himself clearer...

==Page 171==
'''"checking the edges of the frame."''' 
Does this mean Takeshi's in a film? Or is Pynchon just grabbing a handy cinema term?

The latter.

'''"go the opposite way! Back to life!"''' 
This anti-entropic movement makes Takeshi a great hero, a symbol of intelligence (the only truly anti-entropic entity), the life force. Cf. [[Chapter_9#Page_148|page 148]]

==Page 172==
'''"Shade"''' 
(as in Shade Creek) = ghost.

One can become invisible in the shadows.

'''"thick fluids in flexible containers"''' 
i.e., scumbags

'''"The Woodbine Motel"''' 
Harks back, perchance, to the 1870's, the Union Pacific railroad scandal, and the Credit Mobilier. When one party was asked, under oath, where the money was, he replied that it had "gone where the woodbine twineth."

Pynchon, just as Fisk in the above quote, is most likely referring to the song [http://www.musicofyesterday.com/sheetmusic/G/Gone_Where_The_Woodbine_Twineth.php ''Gone Where the Woodbine Twineth''], an elegy for dead Civil War soldiers. It was written by Apsley Street, a pseudonym of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apsley_Street Septimus Winner], a 19th Century songwriter who was arrested for treason. Also, let's not forget the scary episode of ''The Alfred Hitchcock Hour'' called [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0394103/ ''Where the Woodbine Twineth''].

'''"The Zero Inn"''' 
Very thanatoid, preterite and Zoyd-like. Also another zero.

==Page 173==
'''Thanatoids are "victims of karmic imbalances unanswered blows, unredeemed suffering..."''' 
So are the Thanatoids victims of the Seventies? Or another version of the preterites in Gravity's Rainbow? Maybe they're just over-determined ghosts of some sort. This description is similar to the kind of thing that psychics talk about when they're trying to make your poltergeists go away; it's the unresolved baggage that keeps the ghosties on the move, and out of wherever they belong. Remember, too, that Shade Creek is "a psychic jumping-off town" where the Thanatoids wait "for the data necessary to pursue their needs and aims (i.e., ghostlike revenge) among the still living..." ([[#Page 171|p. 171]])

'''"... they're ghosts."''' 
Here Pynchon flat-out tells you what the Thanatoids are.

'''"Although the streets were irregular and steeply pitched..."''' 
The description is an attempt to capture the effect of an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._C._Escher M.C. Escher] drawing or perhaps the Expressionist sets in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caligari ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari''] [1920].

==Page 174==
'''Thanatoids are injured by "what was done to them."''' 
Here they seem like left-over hippies, Vietnam vets, America's victims. Preterites who want revenge.

'''"The amount of memory on a chip doubles every year and a half!"''' 
Sounds like a variant on Moore's Law, that the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law

'''"In traditional karmic adjustment ..."''' 
The Thanatoids are a combination of Christian purgatory (where souls wait before proceeding to heaven), and European folkloric poltergeists (which haunt a particular location where they have been wronged, until they see that their injury is avenged). Takeshi offers these Western ghosts the Eastern idea of karma, roughly, supernatural justice over multiple reincarnations. But this is America, so Takeshi's hustle is to offer Modern Karmic Adjustment, which speeds-up the process by avoiding the cycles of birth-death-reincarnation. If this fails, there's always the reincarnation route.

Since this is all a parody of California Zen and the Human Potential Movement, the question is do the Thanatoids actually need to be avenged, or only to feel avenged, i.e. to be at peace, in order to advance to the next level of Death? Does watching television dramas where revenge is achieved and justice triumphs dissipate their righteous anger, lead to inaction, and further their advance into Death?

==Page 175==
'''"Karmic adjustment"''' 
Well, yes, it's a nice progression from insurance adjustment, but what does Takeshi actually do? Prairie is still wondering on page 192, and DL never lets on. In any case, it looks like these Thanatoids are dead California yuppies; a resource to be exploited by preterite tradesmen.

'''"interesting work with airplanes"''' 
So, during World War II Takeshi was a kamikaze hence the same Takeshi who's in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow'']! (See Viking edition, [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_674-700 page 690]) This brings up an interesting, though peripheral issue: As a Kamikaze, Takeshi flew a Zero. A-and there's a reference on [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_663-673 page 672] (of ''GR'') to "Zeros bearing comrades away," reminding us of those human lives as binary code in God's PC. As noted, there are lots of other "zero" reverences (that's a pun, not a typo) in ''Vineland''.

==Page 176==
'''"Domo komarimashita!"''' 
Japanese for "Thanks a lot!" or "You're welcome."

==Page 178==
'''"Interpersonal Programming and the Problem Towee"''' 
Pynchon definitely has an attitude on this kind of California stuff. He also seems to have a grudge against Mercedes drivers.

'''"Sounds like the team I bet on last week."''' 
Vato gets to make the bad pun this time. This is a great montage of the growing relationship between Vato, Blood, Takeshi, and DL.

==Page 179==
'''"Vato wanted it to be a sitcom."''' 
Another example of how deeply TV has invaded our thoughts.

==Page 180==
'''"I'm Chip! I'm Dale!"''' 
A sly comparison of chipmunks: Disney's cartoonic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_%27n_Dale Chip 'n Dale] v. Bagdasarian's sonic Alvin, Simon, and Theodore ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chipmunks "Alvin and the Chipmunks"]).

==Page 181==
'''"a cement lounge deep within the Long Binh complex"''' 
So Vato and Blood either worked at, or were incarcerated in, the Long Binh military prison. Cf. [[Chapter_6#Page_87|page 87]].

==Page 185==

'''"less light on it than the space I'm in"''' 

Here Vato and Blood are having an "argument about light" - see p. 201

Also, it's a paranoid flashback from past combat in Vietnam.

==Page 186==
'''"octogenarihexation"''' 
86'd = thrown out, usually in reference to a drinking establishment. Is it a coincidence that this occurs on page 186? [[Chapter_15#Page_342|See also 43'd, p.342...]]

'''"Yuroks"''' 
The native American Yurok tribe lives along the lower 36 miles of the Klamath River, and along the California coast from Wilson Creek to Trinidad Bay. This may provide a clue to the location of Vineland County. Being Indians, the Yuroks are, naturally, preterite in the Pynchon universe. The woge (note lower case) seem to be Yurok thanatoids, therefore ultra-preterite.

==Page 187==
'''"Bernard Herrmann"''' 
The famous film composer, whose credits include, among many other great picture soundtracks, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock's] classics [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho_%281960_film%29 ''Psycho''] [1960] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo_%28film%29 ''Vertigo''] [1958].

Listen to Bernard Herrmann's music from ''Psycho'' on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDtJUSYoLDE&feature=related YouTube].

'''"A Toyota in the treetops"''' 
Is this a tip of the hat to the boat in the tree in Marquez's famous novel of magic realism, ''One Hundred Years of Solitude''?

As surreal as it may seem, in California cars frequently drive off of mountain roads and fall into canyons. They are pulled out using teams of tow trucks. But they usually crush the trees beneath.

'''"...vanish unaccountably between Shade Creek and the V & B pound, as Thanatoid units...had been known to do..."''' 
Vanishing Thanatoid cars may push the envelope of fantasy a bit too far. And yet, and yet... They wind up in the tops of trees, you see. It's kind of like 'toon cars: 'toons can drive real cars, real people can drive 'toon cars. Plus, it sets up (much later) the disappearance of Vond's ride in Chapter 15.

==Page 188==
'''Sate..."''' 
A totally abrupt scene-change to Takeshi's, a literary jump cut.

'''"Weed Atman"''' 
Another great name. Weed = marijuana. And [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weed,_California Weed] is a city in Northern California. Also perhaps, an echo of Steven Weed, abandoned boyfriend of heiress Patty Hearst, which raises a very faint reverberation of Frenesi as Patty-in-reverse. Atman = Hindu for breath, the principle of life, the World Soul.

Cf [[Chapter_11#Page_206| page 206]] for more on Weed's name.

'''"Prairie was hearing this, in her turn, from DL..."''' 
Prairie breaks into the narrative, bouncing us unexpectedly back to the present. These abrupt break-ins by Prairie are fun.

==Page 189==
'''"Variety Loaves...not, as once supposed, safely dead but no, only, queerly, sleeping..."''' 
Thanatoid lunch meat!

==Page 190==
'''"Me gotta go"''' 
A line from Richard Berry's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louie_Louie "Louie Louie"], made famous by the Kingsmen.

==Page 191==
'''"FFAR"''' 
Folding Fin Aircraft Rocket Launcher, a rather nasty device attached to Apache helicopters around about the time Pynchon was writing Vineland.

'''"Kick Out the Jambs"''' 
Definitely a reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MC_5 the MC 5] tune "Kick Out the Jams." But is "jambs" a typo or a pun?

Definitely a pun, and a genius one. Thoughts of ninjas, or FBI, or whoever, kicking doors in. Also, apt that the MC5 were affiliated with the far left, anti-establishment, counterculture, etc.

Listen on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM6nasmkg7A YouTube].

{{Vineland PbP}}

File:Dinos.jpg

2011-12-26T18:42:16Z

Pthomas:

Chapter 9

2011-12-26T18:41:31Z

Pthomas: /* Page 133 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 130==
'''"Fresson process studio photograph"''' 
Photographic printing process that uses coal to produce paper prints with a unique luminosity and grain. Fresson printing produces an image that is characteristically diffused and subtle, reminiscent of the "pointillism" of Impressionist painting. The image is extremely stable; Fresson printing is considered the most archival of any color procedure in use today.

==Page 131==
'''"If you want real ninja product..."''' 
The whole sequence about hiring an assassin is pure cyberpunk schtick.

'''"The Vibrating Palm"''' 
This may be a subtle reference to the old joke-store "buzzer" or "shocker" -- and resonates nicely with the rubber scampi on the previous page. The Vibrating Palm is an actual - though romanticized - technique in Asian martial arts (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_of_Death Touch of Death]).

'''"YakMaf"''' 
Yakuza/Mafia.

==Page 133==
'''"legendary in the dopers' community"''' 
Olympic Boulevard, in Los Angeles, is a major arterial road stretching from 4th Street on the western end of Santa Monica to East Los Angeles -- farther than Wilshire Boulevard and most other streets. Why is the gas station toilet legendary? And why would DL care anyway? All she needs to do is change into her disguise.

In his 2009 psychedelic noir novel ''Inherent Vice'', Pynchon mentions another legendary restroom near Los Angeles:

:"the notorious Oscar's, right across the border from Tijuana, where the toilets were seething round the clock with junkies new and old who'd just scored in Mexico, put the product inside rubber balloons and swallowed them, then crossed back into the U.S. to vomit them back up again." (p.37)

Because this restroom is right across the border, it's not the "legendary" toilet on Olympic Boulevard.

'''KFWB'''

980 AM in Los Angeles. Went to an all news/talk format in March, 1968.

[[image:dinos.jpg|right|thumb|Cabazon dinosaurs]]'''dinosaurs'''

Just another roadside attraction--life-size plaster dinosaurs on I-10 at Cabazon, California, about ten miles west of Palm Springs.

'''"baby-blue shadows..."''' 
Nice description and a precursor to the color of Frenesi's eyes.

==Page 134==
'''"beige hose, white underwear..."''' 
Pynchon's description of DL's Clark Kent outfits is surprisingly accurate, especially for a male. It's like giving the O-O (see note, [[Chapter_6#Page_79|p. 79]]) to a nice Midwestern girl, circa 1960.

==Page 135==
'''"She wasn't sure right away that being sold into white slavery would turn out to be at all beneficial as a career step..."''' 
The kidnap-and-auction sequence is good, fast-moving storytelling: breathless, tense, gripping, light on flashy effects. This is also familiar cyberpunk territory, especially the interview with Wayvone.

==Page 136==
'''"older gentlemen with fingertip deficiencies..."''' 
Yakuza who have screwed up, and demonstrated their remorse by cutting off a fingertip.

==Page 139==
'''"Ufa, mi tratt' a pesci in faccia..."''' 
Literally, "Oof, you've thrown a fish in my face!" It's an ominous Sicilian warning meaning, "You've insulted me most unpleasantly, treated me in the worst possible way!"

==Page 141==
'''"I knew it!"''' 
Prairie breaking into the seamless narrative is almost a Brechtian alienation effect. By now the story is moving so strongly that we've totally forgotten the "as-told-to" frame.

'''"How could [Frenesi] have ever gone near somebody like this Brock guy?"''' 
Good question. Pynchon never really answers it -- unless we accept the idea of Frenesi embodying America's fatal fascination with authority.

'''"what-is-reality exercises"''' 
Reminiscent of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick.

'''"Ninja Death Touch calculator"''' 
This joke strikes another false note. The entire sub-plot revolving around the Vibrating Palm is broad comedy, of course, but this smart-ass gag is severely out-of-scale.

==Page 142==
'''"might as well stay home -- watch a Run Run Shaw movie!"''' 
Hong-Kong-based Run-Run Shaw produced the popular (and violent) Bruce Lee karate flicks, also lots of action-packed swords and sorcery adventures (like the ones that clearly inspired a lot of the DL and Takeshi sub-plot).

'''"yellow headlamps of the tech squads..."''' 
The scene in the Footprint is reminiscent of the monolith excavation on the moon in 2001. Also, most of the Japanese dialogue is phrased in Pynchon's unique, sounds-just-like-a-movie style.

Hai! Pynchon usually ends the Japanese characters' lines with exclamation points, so they sound like actors screaming at each other in poorly dubbed Japanese movies. Hai! Or people on meth?

'''"...the shadowy world conglomerate Chipco..."''' 
This imaginary entity (an echo, perhaps of the sinister YoYoDyne Corporation in The Crying of Lot 49) is presumably some Intel-like company whose microprocessor chips are sold world wide. No doubt the chips are designed to keep a covert watch on everything, and report back to Chipco -- similar to Byron the Bulb and his fellow gridmates in Gravity's Rainbow.

'''"gigantic animal footprint"'''[[Image:Godzilla.jpg|thumb|Poster for ''Godzilla'' (1954)|right]] 
Godzilla's size is pretty well known, and this (as we shall see) sauroid footprint is too large to be that of the big G. However, Godzilla is a product of Japanese movie model technology of the fifties, so who knows what the eighties might bring?

In the ''Godzilla'' poster to the right, the face on the lower left is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashi_Shimura Takashi Shimura], Takeshi's namesake (cf. [[Chapter_5#Page_65|page 65 notes]]), who plays the scientist sent to investigate Godzilla-sightings in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla_(1954_film) movie].

'''"Wawazume Life & Non-Life"''' 
Is this a joke? And what kind? Maybe they insure things other than lives. Maybe Thanatoids get "non-life" insurance. Or it could just be a satirically "tactful" Japanese way of referring to death.

It's a joke. They also insure property and liability (zume sounds like "sue me").

==Page 144==
'''"Eastern bloc...South African"''' 
If you turn "RSA", Republic of South Africa, upside down it looks like Cyrillic writing. A political joke.

Hardly. Turned upside down you would get jibberish. If you look at "RSA" in a mirror you would get a (slight) Cyrillic effect. Anyway, Pynchon knows enough Russian (see GR) not to have made this mistake. It is not a political joke, but a geographic joke, if anything.

==Page 143==
'''"By the time...gods of the sky."''' 
Note that this immensely long and complicated sentence takes up more than half the page!

==Page 145==
'''"Singapore Sling"''' 
A frivolous cocktail with a pleasant flavor and a lethal punch: the signature drink of the bar at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, a British colony taken by the Japanese in WWII. Conceivably, Minoru might have been stationed there, and picked up a liking for this tourist syrup.

==Page 146==
'''"Chuck, the world's most invisible robot"''' 
Like the fastest draw in the West. Want to see it again?

'''"some planet-wide struggle had been going on for years"''' 
More Pynchonian paranoia.

'''"the Himalayan caper"''' 
Story is written in mock Le Carre shorthand. Here (as elsewhere) Pynchon penetrates to the essence of a genre and gives us a few masterly strokes that evoke the same effect as an entire novel by a lesser writer.

'''"Semtex"''' 
For many years, Semtex has been the plastic explosive of choice for sophisticated aircraft bombers and other terrorists.

'''"pirate ships of the stratosphere"''' 
Presumably, they mount attacks like the one on the Kahuna flight.

==Page 147==
'''"Kutsushita-san!"''' 
lit. "Mr. Socks!"

'''"We called you the Kid."''' 
As in, "I never did the Kenosha Kid?" (See Gravity's Rainbow, p. 60.)

'''"disco music coming out the club doors"''' 
Cyberpunk atmosphere.

==Page 148==
'''"The Yak Doc Workshop"''' 
This may be a riff on Doc Yak, a comic book character.

Or Yakusa Documents.

'''"Takeshi...saw Vond...and thought...it was himself..."''' 
Vond and Takeshi look alike. Does this, as they say, signify? Takeshi as anti-Vond? It's hard to imagine a dark Japanese and a light Caucasian looking alike, but anyway, there's one for each of the tomatoes: an adjuster (insurance or karma, ma'am?) for DL, and a badass for Frenesi.

I guess that's the joke.

'''"''gaijin''"''' 
Japanese for foreigner, stranger, outsider.

==Page 149==
'''"Found a cab"''' 
Once again Prairie startles us by breaking into the gripping flashback narrative, but this time the present-tense Takeshi breaks in with her, having just arrived at the SKA retreat. Very cinematic. Takeshi moves instantaneously from past to present, a double-exposure match-dissolve effect.

'''"Moe!"'''[[Image:ThreeStooges.jpg|thumb|The Three Stooges|right]] 
The first of several references to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_stooges The Three Stooges], a nothing-if-not-preterite comedy trio specializing in crude, cruel slapstick.

'''"fingering its smooth rigid contours"''' 
The mock-porno is cute.

==Page 151==
'''"I couldn't see shit."''' 
DL mistakes Takeshi for Vond because of her fuzzy contact lenses. This mistaken-identity riff is worthy of Shakespeare at his most far-fetched and funny.

'''"Eeoo!"''' 
Flash! Pynchon's ear fails! This just isn't as close to the Valspeak expression of disgust as we expect from our boy. The transliteration needs a little more "u" or something.

Totally disagree with above, for what it's worth. "Eeoo" is perfect, as "oo" automatically brings about "too" sound. Also looks much better than anything with a "u" would.

==Page 153==
'''"Fuckin' Vond. He's the Roadrunner."''' 
Yes, he is.

'''Kunoichi Retreat''' 
see [[Chapter_8#Page 107|page 107]]

==Page 154==
'''"Licensed DOM's"''' 
Doctor of Medicine?

Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Cf. page 176

Also, in S&M slang, a male dominant.

==Page 155==
'''"Ninjette Coffee Mess"''' 
Navspeak. In the military, particularly the Navy, coffee mess is a little area where the coffee maker, cups, etc. are kept.

==Page 156==
'''"dorai kuriiningu"''' 
"dry cleaning" More Jive Japlish.

'''"perchloroethylene"''' 
A highly toxic chemical often used for cleaning movie film.

'''"croaker"''' 
A company doctor ([http://books.google.com/books?id=4YfsEgHLjboC&pg=PA514&lpg=PA514&dq=croaker+company+doctor&source=bl&ots=7JQCJ2j_2g&sig=OXn9PZtc22j-wLKaVNKHEld_Z0g&hl=en&ei=kRbATq-uPKTRiAKo0cSQAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=croaker%20company%20doctor&f=false def]).

==Page 157==
'''"Not a bar, Fumimota-san."''' 
Silly joke, nicely placed.

==Page 158==
'''"Evoex"''' 
The etymology of this new tranquilizer is clearly from the bacchanalian ejaculation (and crossword puzzle word) "evoe!"

==Page 159==
'''"Michiko Yomama"''' 
A nasty pun, based on the black insult, "Yo' mama!" Let your guard down for a second, and the guy slips in one of these every time.

==Page 160==
'''"Nukey"''' 
Orgasm and atomic detonation meet in one of Pynchon's most awful/wonderful puns (nuke = nookey).

'''sleep ... shave''' 
Meth-logic. Also a parody of the movie situation where a character must stay awake to live.

The classic film-noir [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.O.A._(1950_film) ''DOA''], where a man is given a slow-acting poison and must find his own murderer, is also relevant to this chapter.

==Page 161==
'''"technically dead"''' 
Since Takeshi lives without fear, this makes him a perfect samurai, and echoes the idea on p. 29 about how a samurai is always prepared to die.

==Page 162==
'''"Just Like a William Powell"''' 
Echoes "Like a Meat Loaf" (p. 363), and, of course, Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues."

Movie references in the song:

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thin_Man_(film) ''The Thin Man'']
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lassie_Come_Home ''Lassie Come Home'']
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarzan_Finds_a_Son! ''Tarzan Finds a Son!'']

Also, Flatfoot Floogie refers to the 1938 [http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-musicians/gaillard-slim-biography Slim Gaillard] song [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Foot_Floogie_(with_a_Floy_Floy) ''Flatfoot Floogie with a Floy, Floy''] (original recording on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFVeJ4wHWdQ YouTube]). The use of "real McCoy" may be entirely innocent, or a reference to the television show [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_McCoys ''The Real McCoys''].

==Page 163==
'''"Which reminds me, about your PX bill..."''' 
If you had any doubts about the samurai/ninjette subplot being for laughs, this page should convince you.

==Page 164==
'''"Puncutron"''' 
An imaginary therapeutic device whose name suggests an infernal combination of eastern medicine (acupuncture) and high-energy western technology (cyclotron). There's a bit of "punk" in there, too.

'''"Detractors included...managed to keep."''' 
A silly sentence, written in painful mock-German syntax for no discernible reason.

'''"Taiwanese Healthy Brain Aerobics"''' 
More foolishness, this time mixed with music. The selection of tapes for Puncutron listening includes The All-Regimental Bagpipes play Prime Time Favorites (the Tube again!), and perhaps Pynchon's best judgmental title: The Chipmunks Sing Marvin Hamlisch.

==Page 166==
'''Jaime Sommers''' 
Jaime Sommers is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bionic_Woman Bionic Woman].

'''Eve and her sister, Lilith''' 
According to an ancient legend, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith Lilith] was not Eve's sister but was Adam's first wife. But Lilith haunts many different fables, traditions, stories in many different cultures.

Lilith is the eponym for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith_Fair Lilith Fair], a music festival (1997-1999) of only female artists.

Rochelle is using "sister" in the feminist sense, as in "Sisters are doing it for themselves".

This is also interesting in the context that this is one of the only stories the reader gets in regard to what secrets/stories/philosophies are possibly taught at the Kunoichi Retreat. What seems clear is that over the years, they are more interested in making money than spiritually healing folks, so this is a nice tidbit, probably used to hook women into this Ninjette Retreat, and facilitate a mainline into their pocketbooks. Here used in a comical, and opposite way, re: Takeshi/DL.

Actually, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunoichi Kunoichi] Retreat is a parody of the many Zen retreats in Northern California, such as the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Gulch_Farm Green Gulch Farm]. People pay to stay there and do manual farming labor to chill-out. In Pynchon's parody, the retreat is feminist and faintly BDSM. As Pynchon points out on page 107, they had to seek "cash flow" in order to avoid the financial fate of their predecessors, but there's no indication that they've given up their principles (whatever they are) entirely. See also [[Chapter_8#Page 107|page 107]].

'''"...men convinced us that we were the natural administrators of this thing 'morality'..."''' 
Sister Rochelle's feminist Eden parable suggests an interesting modern scenario: Frenesi = Eve, DL = Lilith, Vond = Serpent. This would help explain Frenesi/America's irresistible attraction for the authoritarian Vond.

'''Oscar Goldman''' 
Oscar Goldman is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bionic_Woman Bionic Woman]'s boss.

==Page 167==
'''"The Ordeal of the Thousand Broadway Show Tunes"''' 
Transcendental malarkey.

'''"YOUR MAMA EATS, how can we resist?"''' 
Aggro dining.

==Page 169==
'''"Cheapsat"''' 
Preterite communications personified.

==Page 170==
'''"Like Death, Only Different."''' 
While this is a nice definition of the "oid" suffix, it begs the question of exactly what Thanatoid's are.

'''"But we watch a lot of Tube"''' 
Thanatoids watch lots of TV, trying to advance further into the condition of death. This makes them Reaganite kids? Couch potatoes? Embittered hippies? Everyone in America? Anyway, advancing further into the condition of death is only a restatement of the law of entropy, which may mean that everyone in the universe is a Thanatoid.

People watching television in a darkened room look dead. They are immobile, and their faces have a blue tinge from the light of the TV screen.

At first Pynchon makes it sound like a lifestyle, similar to Goths. The name of a public Goth dance party in Berkeley was "Not Dead Yet". But gradually he makes himself clearer...

==Page 171==
'''"checking the edges of the frame."''' 
Does this mean Takeshi's in a film? Or is Pynchon just grabbing a handy cinema term?

The latter.

'''"go the opposite way! Back to life!"''' 
This anti-entropic movement makes Takeshi a great hero, a symbol of intelligence (the only truly anti-entropic entity), the life force. Cf. [[Chapter_9#Page_148|page 148]]

==Page 172==
'''"Shade"''' 
(as in Shade Creek) = ghost.

One can become invisible in the shadows.

'''"thick fluids in flexible containers"''' 
i.e., scumbags

'''"The Woodbine Motel"''' 
Harks back, perchance, to the 1870's, the Union Pacific railroad scandal, and the Credit Mobilier. When one party was asked, under oath, where the money was, he replied that it had "gone where the woodbine twineth."

Pynchon, just as Fisk in the above quote, is most likely referring to the song [http://www.musicofyesterday.com/sheetmusic/G/Gone_Where_The_Woodbine_Twineth.php ''Gone Where the Woodbine Twineth''], an elegy for dead Civil War soldiers. It was written by Apsley Street, a pseudonym of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apsley_Street Septimus Winner], a 19th Century songwriter who was arrested for treason. Also, let's not forget the scary episode of ''The Alfred Hitchcock Hour'' called [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0394103/ ''Where the Woodbine Twineth''].

'''"The Zero Inn"''' 
Very thanatoid, preterite and Zoyd-like. Also another zero.

==Page 173==
'''Thanatoids are "victims of karmic imbalances unanswered blows, unredeemed suffering..."''' 
So are the Thanatoids victims of the Seventies? Or another version of the preterites in Gravity's Rainbow? Maybe they're just over-determined ghosts of some sort. This description is similar to the kind of thing that psychics talk about when they're trying to make your poltergeists go away; it's the unresolved baggage that keeps the ghosties on the move, and out of wherever they belong. Remember, too, that Shade Creek is "a psychic jumping-off town" where the Thanatoids wait "for the data necessary to pursue their needs and aims (i.e., ghostlike revenge) among the still living..." ([[#Page 171|p. 171]])

'''"... they're ghosts."''' 
Here Pynchon flat-out tells you what the Thanatoids are.

'''"Although the streets were irregular and steeply pitched..."''' 
The description is an attempt to capture the effect of an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._C._Escher M.C. Escher] drawing or perhaps the Expressionist sets in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caligari ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari''] [1920].

==Page 174==
'''Thanatoids are injured by "what was done to them."''' 
Here they seem like left-over hippies, Vietnam vets, America's victims. Preterites who want revenge.

'''"The amount of memory on a chip doubles every year and a half!"''' 
Sounds like a variant on Moore's Law, that the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law

'''"In traditional karmic adjustment ..."''' 
The Thanatoids are a combination of Christian purgatory (where souls wait before proceeding to heaven), and European folkloric poltergeists (which haunt a particular location where they have been wronged, until they see that their injury is avenged). Takeshi offers these Western ghosts the Eastern idea of karma, roughly, supernatural justice over multiple reincarnations. But this is America, so Takeshi's hustle is to offer Modern Karmic Adjustment, which speeds-up the process by avoiding the cycles of birth-death-reincarnation. If this fails, there's always the reincarnation route.

Since this is all a parody of California Zen and the Human Potential Movement, the question is do the Thanatoids actually need to be avenged, or only to feel avenged, i.e. to be at peace, in order to advance to the next level of Death? Does watching television dramas where revenge is achieved and justice triumphs dissipate their righteous anger, lead to inaction, and further their advance into Death?

==Page 175==
'''"Karmic adjustment"''' 
Well, yes, it's a nice progression from insurance adjustment, but what does Takeshi actually do? Prairie is still wondering on page 192, and DL never lets on. In any case, it looks like these Thanatoids are dead California yuppies; a resource to be exploited by preterite tradesmen.

'''"interesting work with airplanes"''' 
So, during World War II Takeshi was a kamikaze hence the same Takeshi who's in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow'']! (See Viking edition, [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_674-700 page 690]) This brings up an interesting, though peripheral issue: As a Kamikaze, Takeshi flew a Zero. A-and there's a reference on [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_663-673 page 672] (of ''GR'') to "Zeros bearing comrades away," reminding us of those human lives as binary code in God's PC. As noted, there are lots of other "zero" reverences (that's a pun, not a typo) in ''Vineland''.

==Page 176==
'''"Domo komarimashita!"''' 
Japanese for "Thanks a lot!" or "You're welcome."

==Page 178==
'''"Interpersonal Programming and the Problem Towee"''' 
Pynchon definitely has an attitude on this kind of California stuff. He also seems to have a grudge against Mercedes drivers.

'''"Sounds like the team I bet on last week."''' 
Vato gets to make the bad pun this time. This is a great montage of the growing relationship between Vato, Blood, Takeshi, and DL.

==Page 179==
'''"Vato wanted it to be a sitcom."''' 
Another example of how deeply TV has invaded our thoughts.

==Page 180==
'''"I'm Chip! I'm Dale!"''' 
A sly comparison of chipmunks: Disney's cartoonic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_%27n_Dale Chip 'n Dale] v. Bagdasarian's sonic Alvin, Simon, and Theodore ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chipmunks "Alvin and the Chipmunks"]).

==Page 181==
'''"a cement lounge deep within the Long Binh complex"''' 
So Vato and Blood either worked at, or were incarcerated in, the Long Binh military prison. Cf. [[Chapter_6#Page_87|page 87]].

==Page 185==

'''"less light on it than the space I'm in"''' 

Here Vato and Blood are having an "argument about light" - see p. 201

Also, it's a paranoid flashback from past combat in Vietnam.

==Page 186==
'''"octogenarihexation"''' 
86'd = thrown out, usually in reference to a drinking establishment. Is it a coincidence that this occurs on page 186? [[Chapter_15#Page_342|See also 43'd, p.342...]]

'''"Yuroks"''' 
The native American Yurok tribe lives along the lower 36 miles of the Klamath River, and along the California coast from Wilson Creek to Trinidad Bay. This may provide a clue to the location of Vineland County. Being Indians, the Yuroks are, naturally, preterite in the Pynchon universe. The woge (note lower case) seem to be Yurok thanatoids, therefore ultra-preterite.

==Page 187==
'''"Bernard Herrmann"''' 
The famous film composer, whose credits include, among many other great picture soundtracks, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock's] classics [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho_%281960_film%29 ''Psycho''] [1960] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo_%28film%29 ''Vertigo''] [1958].

Listen to Bernard Herrmann's music from ''Psycho'' on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDtJUSYoLDE&feature=related YouTube].

'''"A Toyota in the treetops"''' 
Is this a tip of the hat to the boat in the tree in Marquez's famous novel of magic realism, ''One Hundred Years of Solitude''?

As surreal as it may seem, in California cars frequently drive off of mountain roads and fall into canyons. They are pulled out using teams of tow trucks. But they usually crush the trees beneath.

'''"...vanish unaccountably between Shade Creek and the V & B pound, as Thanatoid units...had been known to do..."''' 
Vanishing Thanatoid cars may push the envelope of fantasy a bit too far. And yet, and yet... They wind up in the tops of trees, you see. It's kind of like 'toon cars: 'toons can drive real cars, real people can drive 'toon cars. Plus, it sets up (much later) the disappearance of Vond's ride in Chapter 15.

==Page 188==
'''Sate..."''' 
A totally abrupt scene-change to Takeshi's, a literary jump cut.

'''"Weed Atman"''' 
Another great name. Weed = marijuana. And [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weed,_California Weed] is a city in Northern California. Also perhaps, an echo of Steven Weed, abandoned boyfriend of heiress Patty Hearst, which raises a very faint reverberation of Frenesi as Patty-in-reverse. Atman = Hindu for breath, the principle of life, the World Soul.

Cf [[Chapter_11#Page_206| page 206]] for more on Weed's name.

'''"Prairie was hearing this, in her turn, from DL..."''' 
Prairie breaks into the narrative, bouncing us unexpectedly back to the present. These abrupt break-ins by Prairie are fun.

==Page 189==
'''"Variety Loaves...not, as once supposed, safely dead but no, only, queerly, sleeping..."''' 
Thanatoid lunch meat!

==Page 190==
'''"Me gotta go"''' 
A line from Richard Berry's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louie_Louie "Louie Louie"], made famous by the Kingsmen.

==Page 191==
'''"FFAR"''' 
Folding Fin Aircraft Rocket Launcher, a rather nasty device attached to Apache helicopters around about the time Pynchon was writing Vineland.

'''"Kick Out the Jambs"''' 
Definitely a reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MC_5 the MC 5] tune "Kick Out the Jams." But is "jambs" a typo or a pun?

Definitely a pun, and a genius one. Thoughts of ninjas, or FBI, or whoever, kicking doors in. Also, apt that the MC5 were affiliated with the far left, anti-establishment, counterculture, etc.

Listen on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM6nasmkg7A YouTube].

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 9

2011-12-26T18:31:58Z

Pthomas: /* Page 133 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 130==
'''"Fresson process studio photograph"''' 
Photographic printing process that uses coal to produce paper prints with a unique luminosity and grain. Fresson printing produces an image that is characteristically diffused and subtle, reminiscent of the "pointillism" of Impressionist painting. The image is extremely stable; Fresson printing is considered the most archival of any color procedure in use today.

==Page 131==
'''"If you want real ninja product..."''' 
The whole sequence about hiring an assassin is pure cyberpunk schtick.

'''"The Vibrating Palm"''' 
This may be a subtle reference to the old joke-store "buzzer" or "shocker" -- and resonates nicely with the rubber scampi on the previous page. The Vibrating Palm is an actual - though romanticized - technique in Asian martial arts (see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_of_Death Touch of Death]).

'''"YakMaf"''' 
Yakuza/Mafia.

==Page 133==
'''"legendary in the dopers' community"''' 
Olympic Boulevard, in Los Angeles, is a major arterial road stretching from 4th Street on the western end of Santa Monica to East Los Angeles -- farther than Wilshire Boulevard and most other streets. Why is the gas station toilet legendary? And why would DL care anyway? All she needs to do is change into her disguise.

In his 2009 psychedelic noir novel ''Inherent Vice'', Pynchon mentions another legendary restroom near Los Angeles:

:"the notorious Oscar's, right across the border from Tijuana, where the toilets were seething round the clock with junkies new and old who'd just scored in Mexico, put the product inside rubber balloons and swallowed them, then crossed back into the U.S. to vomit them back up again." (p.37)

Because this restroom is right across the border, it's not the "legendary" toilet on Olympic Boulevard.

'''KFWB'''

980 AM in Los Angeles. Went to an all news/talk format in March, 1968.

'''"baby-blue shadows..."''' 
Nice description and a precursor to the color of Frenesi's eyes.

==Page 134==
'''"beige hose, white underwear..."''' 
Pynchon's description of DL's Clark Kent outfits is surprisingly accurate, especially for a male. It's like giving the O-O (see note, [[Chapter_6#Page_79|p. 79]]) to a nice Midwestern girl, circa 1960.

==Page 135==
'''"She wasn't sure right away that being sold into white slavery would turn out to be at all beneficial as a career step..."''' 
The kidnap-and-auction sequence is good, fast-moving storytelling: breathless, tense, gripping, light on flashy effects. This is also familiar cyberpunk territory, especially the interview with Wayvone.

==Page 136==
'''"older gentlemen with fingertip deficiencies..."''' 
Yakuza who have screwed up, and demonstrated their remorse by cutting off a fingertip.

==Page 139==
'''"Ufa, mi tratt' a pesci in faccia..."''' 
Literally, "Oof, you've thrown a fish in my face!" It's an ominous Sicilian warning meaning, "You've insulted me most unpleasantly, treated me in the worst possible way!"

==Page 141==
'''"I knew it!"''' 
Prairie breaking into the seamless narrative is almost a Brechtian alienation effect. By now the story is moving so strongly that we've totally forgotten the "as-told-to" frame.

'''"How could [Frenesi] have ever gone near somebody like this Brock guy?"''' 
Good question. Pynchon never really answers it -- unless we accept the idea of Frenesi embodying America's fatal fascination with authority.

'''"what-is-reality exercises"''' 
Reminiscent of science fiction writer Philip K. Dick.

'''"Ninja Death Touch calculator"''' 
This joke strikes another false note. The entire sub-plot revolving around the Vibrating Palm is broad comedy, of course, but this smart-ass gag is severely out-of-scale.

==Page 142==
'''"might as well stay home -- watch a Run Run Shaw movie!"''' 
Hong-Kong-based Run-Run Shaw produced the popular (and violent) Bruce Lee karate flicks, also lots of action-packed swords and sorcery adventures (like the ones that clearly inspired a lot of the DL and Takeshi sub-plot).

'''"yellow headlamps of the tech squads..."''' 
The scene in the Footprint is reminiscent of the monolith excavation on the moon in 2001. Also, most of the Japanese dialogue is phrased in Pynchon's unique, sounds-just-like-a-movie style.

Hai! Pynchon usually ends the Japanese characters' lines with exclamation points, so they sound like actors screaming at each other in poorly dubbed Japanese movies. Hai! Or people on meth?

'''"...the shadowy world conglomerate Chipco..."''' 
This imaginary entity (an echo, perhaps of the sinister YoYoDyne Corporation in The Crying of Lot 49) is presumably some Intel-like company whose microprocessor chips are sold world wide. No doubt the chips are designed to keep a covert watch on everything, and report back to Chipco -- similar to Byron the Bulb and his fellow gridmates in Gravity's Rainbow.

'''"gigantic animal footprint"'''[[Image:Godzilla.jpg|thumb|Poster for ''Godzilla'' (1954)|right]] 
Godzilla's size is pretty well known, and this (as we shall see) sauroid footprint is too large to be that of the big G. However, Godzilla is a product of Japanese movie model technology of the fifties, so who knows what the eighties might bring?

In the ''Godzilla'' poster to the right, the face on the lower left is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashi_Shimura Takashi Shimura], Takeshi's namesake (cf. [[Chapter_5#Page_65|page 65 notes]]), who plays the scientist sent to investigate Godzilla-sightings in the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla_(1954_film) movie].

'''"Wawazume Life & Non-Life"''' 
Is this a joke? And what kind? Maybe they insure things other than lives. Maybe Thanatoids get "non-life" insurance. Or it could just be a satirically "tactful" Japanese way of referring to death.

It's a joke. They also insure property and liability (zume sounds like "sue me").

==Page 144==
'''"Eastern bloc...South African"''' 
If you turn "RSA", Republic of South Africa, upside down it looks like Cyrillic writing. A political joke.

Hardly. Turned upside down you would get jibberish. If you look at "RSA" in a mirror you would get a (slight) Cyrillic effect. Anyway, Pynchon knows enough Russian (see GR) not to have made this mistake. It is not a political joke, but a geographic joke, if anything.

==Page 143==
'''"By the time...gods of the sky."''' 
Note that this immensely long and complicated sentence takes up more than half the page!

==Page 145==
'''"Singapore Sling"''' 
A frivolous cocktail with a pleasant flavor and a lethal punch: the signature drink of the bar at the Raffles Hotel in Singapore, a British colony taken by the Japanese in WWII. Conceivably, Minoru might have been stationed there, and picked up a liking for this tourist syrup.

==Page 146==
'''"Chuck, the world's most invisible robot"''' 
Like the fastest draw in the West. Want to see it again?

'''"some planet-wide struggle had been going on for years"''' 
More Pynchonian paranoia.

'''"the Himalayan caper"''' 
Story is written in mock Le Carre shorthand. Here (as elsewhere) Pynchon penetrates to the essence of a genre and gives us a few masterly strokes that evoke the same effect as an entire novel by a lesser writer.

'''"Semtex"''' 
For many years, Semtex has been the plastic explosive of choice for sophisticated aircraft bombers and other terrorists.

'''"pirate ships of the stratosphere"''' 
Presumably, they mount attacks like the one on the Kahuna flight.

==Page 147==
'''"Kutsushita-san!"''' 
lit. "Mr. Socks!"

'''"We called you the Kid."''' 
As in, "I never did the Kenosha Kid?" (See Gravity's Rainbow, p. 60.)

'''"disco music coming out the club doors"''' 
Cyberpunk atmosphere.

==Page 148==
'''"The Yak Doc Workshop"''' 
This may be a riff on Doc Yak, a comic book character.

Or Yakusa Documents.

'''"Takeshi...saw Vond...and thought...it was himself..."''' 
Vond and Takeshi look alike. Does this, as they say, signify? Takeshi as anti-Vond? It's hard to imagine a dark Japanese and a light Caucasian looking alike, but anyway, there's one for each of the tomatoes: an adjuster (insurance or karma, ma'am?) for DL, and a badass for Frenesi.

I guess that's the joke.

'''"''gaijin''"''' 
Japanese for foreigner, stranger, outsider.

==Page 149==
'''"Found a cab"''' 
Once again Prairie startles us by breaking into the gripping flashback narrative, but this time the present-tense Takeshi breaks in with her, having just arrived at the SKA retreat. Very cinematic. Takeshi moves instantaneously from past to present, a double-exposure match-dissolve effect.

'''"Moe!"'''[[Image:ThreeStooges.jpg|thumb|The Three Stooges|right]] 
The first of several references to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_stooges The Three Stooges], a nothing-if-not-preterite comedy trio specializing in crude, cruel slapstick.

'''"fingering its smooth rigid contours"''' 
The mock-porno is cute.

==Page 151==
'''"I couldn't see shit."''' 
DL mistakes Takeshi for Vond because of her fuzzy contact lenses. This mistaken-identity riff is worthy of Shakespeare at his most far-fetched and funny.

'''"Eeoo!"''' 
Flash! Pynchon's ear fails! This just isn't as close to the Valspeak expression of disgust as we expect from our boy. The transliteration needs a little more "u" or something.

Totally disagree with above, for what it's worth. "Eeoo" is perfect, as "oo" automatically brings about "too" sound. Also looks much better than anything with a "u" would.

==Page 153==
'''"Fuckin' Vond. He's the Roadrunner."''' 
Yes, he is.

'''Kunoichi Retreat''' 
see [[Chapter_8#Page 107|page 107]]

==Page 154==
'''"Licensed DOM's"''' 
Doctor of Medicine?

Doctor of Oriental Medicine, Cf. page 176

Also, in S&M slang, a male dominant.

==Page 155==
'''"Ninjette Coffee Mess"''' 
Navspeak. In the military, particularly the Navy, coffee mess is a little area where the coffee maker, cups, etc. are kept.

==Page 156==
'''"dorai kuriiningu"''' 
"dry cleaning" More Jive Japlish.

'''"perchloroethylene"''' 
A highly toxic chemical often used for cleaning movie film.

'''"croaker"''' 
A company doctor ([http://books.google.com/books?id=4YfsEgHLjboC&pg=PA514&lpg=PA514&dq=croaker+company+doctor&source=bl&ots=7JQCJ2j_2g&sig=OXn9PZtc22j-wLKaVNKHEld_Z0g&hl=en&ei=kRbATq-uPKTRiAKo0cSQAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CC0Q6AEwADgK#v=onepage&q=croaker%20company%20doctor&f=false def]).

==Page 157==
'''"Not a bar, Fumimota-san."''' 
Silly joke, nicely placed.

==Page 158==
'''"Evoex"''' 
The etymology of this new tranquilizer is clearly from the bacchanalian ejaculation (and crossword puzzle word) "evoe!"

==Page 159==
'''"Michiko Yomama"''' 
A nasty pun, based on the black insult, "Yo' mama!" Let your guard down for a second, and the guy slips in one of these every time.

==Page 160==
'''"Nukey"''' 
Orgasm and atomic detonation meet in one of Pynchon's most awful/wonderful puns (nuke = nookey).

'''sleep ... shave''' 
Meth-logic. Also a parody of the movie situation where a character must stay awake to live.

The classic film-noir [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.O.A._(1950_film) ''DOA''], where a man is given a slow-acting poison and must find his own murderer, is also relevant to this chapter.

==Page 161==
'''"technically dead"''' 
Since Takeshi lives without fear, this makes him a perfect samurai, and echoes the idea on p. 29 about how a samurai is always prepared to die.

==Page 162==
'''"Just Like a William Powell"''' 
Echoes "Like a Meat Loaf" (p. 363), and, of course, Dylan's "Just Like Tom Thumb's Blues."

Movie references in the song:

*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thin_Man_(film) ''The Thin Man'']
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lassie_Come_Home ''Lassie Come Home'']
*[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarzan_Finds_a_Son! ''Tarzan Finds a Son!'']

Also, Flatfoot Floogie refers to the 1938 [http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-musicians/gaillard-slim-biography Slim Gaillard] song [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flat_Foot_Floogie_(with_a_Floy_Floy) ''Flatfoot Floogie with a Floy, Floy''] (original recording on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFVeJ4wHWdQ YouTube]). The use of "real McCoy" may be entirely innocent, or a reference to the television show [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Real_McCoys ''The Real McCoys''].

==Page 163==
'''"Which reminds me, about your PX bill..."''' 
If you had any doubts about the samurai/ninjette subplot being for laughs, this page should convince you.

==Page 164==
'''"Puncutron"''' 
An imaginary therapeutic device whose name suggests an infernal combination of eastern medicine (acupuncture) and high-energy western technology (cyclotron). There's a bit of "punk" in there, too.

'''"Detractors included...managed to keep."''' 
A silly sentence, written in painful mock-German syntax for no discernible reason.

'''"Taiwanese Healthy Brain Aerobics"''' 
More foolishness, this time mixed with music. The selection of tapes for Puncutron listening includes The All-Regimental Bagpipes play Prime Time Favorites (the Tube again!), and perhaps Pynchon's best judgmental title: The Chipmunks Sing Marvin Hamlisch.

==Page 166==
'''Jaime Sommers''' 
Jaime Sommers is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bionic_Woman Bionic Woman].

'''Eve and her sister, Lilith''' 
According to an ancient legend, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith Lilith] was not Eve's sister but was Adam's first wife. But Lilith haunts many different fables, traditions, stories in many different cultures.

Lilith is the eponym for [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lilith_Fair Lilith Fair], a music festival (1997-1999) of only female artists.

Rochelle is using "sister" in the feminist sense, as in "Sisters are doing it for themselves".

This is also interesting in the context that this is one of the only stories the reader gets in regard to what secrets/stories/philosophies are possibly taught at the Kunoichi Retreat. What seems clear is that over the years, they are more interested in making money than spiritually healing folks, so this is a nice tidbit, probably used to hook women into this Ninjette Retreat, and facilitate a mainline into their pocketbooks. Here used in a comical, and opposite way, re: Takeshi/DL.

Actually, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunoichi Kunoichi] Retreat is a parody of the many Zen retreats in Northern California, such as the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Gulch_Farm Green Gulch Farm]. People pay to stay there and do manual farming labor to chill-out. In Pynchon's parody, the retreat is feminist and faintly BDSM. As Pynchon points out on page 107, they had to seek "cash flow" in order to avoid the financial fate of their predecessors, but there's no indication that they've given up their principles (whatever they are) entirely. See also [[Chapter_8#Page 107|page 107]].

'''"...men convinced us that we were the natural administrators of this thing 'morality'..."''' 
Sister Rochelle's feminist Eden parable suggests an interesting modern scenario: Frenesi = Eve, DL = Lilith, Vond = Serpent. This would help explain Frenesi/America's irresistible attraction for the authoritarian Vond.

'''Oscar Goldman''' 
Oscar Goldman is the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bionic_Woman Bionic Woman]'s boss.

==Page 167==
'''"The Ordeal of the Thousand Broadway Show Tunes"''' 
Transcendental malarkey.

'''"YOUR MAMA EATS, how can we resist?"''' 
Aggro dining.

==Page 169==
'''"Cheapsat"''' 
Preterite communications personified.

==Page 170==
'''"Like Death, Only Different."''' 
While this is a nice definition of the "oid" suffix, it begs the question of exactly what Thanatoid's are.

'''"But we watch a lot of Tube"''' 
Thanatoids watch lots of TV, trying to advance further into the condition of death. This makes them Reaganite kids? Couch potatoes? Embittered hippies? Everyone in America? Anyway, advancing further into the condition of death is only a restatement of the law of entropy, which may mean that everyone in the universe is a Thanatoid.

People watching television in a darkened room look dead. They are immobile, and their faces have a blue tinge from the light of the TV screen.

At first Pynchon makes it sound like a lifestyle, similar to Goths. The name of a public Goth dance party in Berkeley was "Not Dead Yet". But gradually he makes himself clearer...

==Page 171==
'''"checking the edges of the frame."''' 
Does this mean Takeshi's in a film? Or is Pynchon just grabbing a handy cinema term?

The latter.

'''"go the opposite way! Back to life!"''' 
This anti-entropic movement makes Takeshi a great hero, a symbol of intelligence (the only truly anti-entropic entity), the life force. Cf. [[Chapter_9#Page_148|page 148]]

==Page 172==
'''"Shade"''' 
(as in Shade Creek) = ghost.

One can become invisible in the shadows.

'''"thick fluids in flexible containers"''' 
i.e., scumbags

'''"The Woodbine Motel"''' 
Harks back, perchance, to the 1870's, the Union Pacific railroad scandal, and the Credit Mobilier. When one party was asked, under oath, where the money was, he replied that it had "gone where the woodbine twineth."

Pynchon, just as Fisk in the above quote, is most likely referring to the song [http://www.musicofyesterday.com/sheetmusic/G/Gone_Where_The_Woodbine_Twineth.php ''Gone Where the Woodbine Twineth''], an elegy for dead Civil War soldiers. It was written by Apsley Street, a pseudonym of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apsley_Street Septimus Winner], a 19th Century songwriter who was arrested for treason. Also, let's not forget the scary episode of ''The Alfred Hitchcock Hour'' called [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0394103/ ''Where the Woodbine Twineth''].

'''"The Zero Inn"''' 
Very thanatoid, preterite and Zoyd-like. Also another zero.

==Page 173==
'''Thanatoids are "victims of karmic imbalances unanswered blows, unredeemed suffering..."''' 
So are the Thanatoids victims of the Seventies? Or another version of the preterites in Gravity's Rainbow? Maybe they're just over-determined ghosts of some sort. This description is similar to the kind of thing that psychics talk about when they're trying to make your poltergeists go away; it's the unresolved baggage that keeps the ghosties on the move, and out of wherever they belong. Remember, too, that Shade Creek is "a psychic jumping-off town" where the Thanatoids wait "for the data necessary to pursue their needs and aims (i.e., ghostlike revenge) among the still living..." ([[#Page 171|p. 171]])

'''"... they're ghosts."''' 
Here Pynchon flat-out tells you what the Thanatoids are.

'''"Although the streets were irregular and steeply pitched..."''' 
The description is an attempt to capture the effect of an [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._C._Escher M.C. Escher] drawing or perhaps the Expressionist sets in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caligari ''The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari''] [1920].

==Page 174==
'''Thanatoids are injured by "what was done to them."''' 
Here they seem like left-over hippies, Vietnam vets, America's victims. Preterites who want revenge.

'''"The amount of memory on a chip doubles every year and a half!"''' 
Sounds like a variant on Moore's Law, that the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law

'''"In traditional karmic adjustment ..."''' 
The Thanatoids are a combination of Christian purgatory (where souls wait before proceeding to heaven), and European folkloric poltergeists (which haunt a particular location where they have been wronged, until they see that their injury is avenged). Takeshi offers these Western ghosts the Eastern idea of karma, roughly, supernatural justice over multiple reincarnations. But this is America, so Takeshi's hustle is to offer Modern Karmic Adjustment, which speeds-up the process by avoiding the cycles of birth-death-reincarnation. If this fails, there's always the reincarnation route.

Since this is all a parody of California Zen and the Human Potential Movement, the question is do the Thanatoids actually need to be avenged, or only to feel avenged, i.e. to be at peace, in order to advance to the next level of Death? Does watching television dramas where revenge is achieved and justice triumphs dissipate their righteous anger, lead to inaction, and further their advance into Death?

==Page 175==
'''"Karmic adjustment"''' 
Well, yes, it's a nice progression from insurance adjustment, but what does Takeshi actually do? Prairie is still wondering on page 192, and DL never lets on. In any case, it looks like these Thanatoids are dead California yuppies; a resource to be exploited by preterite tradesmen.

'''"interesting work with airplanes"''' 
So, during World War II Takeshi was a kamikaze hence the same Takeshi who's in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow'']! (See Viking edition, [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_674-700 page 690]) This brings up an interesting, though peripheral issue: As a Kamikaze, Takeshi flew a Zero. A-and there's a reference on [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_663-673 page 672] (of ''GR'') to "Zeros bearing comrades away," reminding us of those human lives as binary code in God's PC. As noted, there are lots of other "zero" reverences (that's a pun, not a typo) in ''Vineland''.

==Page 176==
'''"Domo komarimashita!"''' 
Japanese for "Thanks a lot!" or "You're welcome."

==Page 178==
'''"Interpersonal Programming and the Problem Towee"''' 
Pynchon definitely has an attitude on this kind of California stuff. He also seems to have a grudge against Mercedes drivers.

'''"Sounds like the team I bet on last week."''' 
Vato gets to make the bad pun this time. This is a great montage of the growing relationship between Vato, Blood, Takeshi, and DL.

==Page 179==
'''"Vato wanted it to be a sitcom."''' 
Another example of how deeply TV has invaded our thoughts.

==Page 180==
'''"I'm Chip! I'm Dale!"''' 
A sly comparison of chipmunks: Disney's cartoonic [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chip_%27n_Dale Chip 'n Dale] v. Bagdasarian's sonic Alvin, Simon, and Theodore ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chipmunks "Alvin and the Chipmunks"]).

==Page 181==
'''"a cement lounge deep within the Long Binh complex"''' 
So Vato and Blood either worked at, or were incarcerated in, the Long Binh military prison. Cf. [[Chapter_6#Page_87|page 87]].

==Page 185==

'''"less light on it than the space I'm in"''' 

Here Vato and Blood are having an "argument about light" - see p. 201

Also, it's a paranoid flashback from past combat in Vietnam.

==Page 186==
'''"octogenarihexation"''' 
86'd = thrown out, usually in reference to a drinking establishment. Is it a coincidence that this occurs on page 186? [[Chapter_15#Page_342|See also 43'd, p.342...]]

'''"Yuroks"''' 
The native American Yurok tribe lives along the lower 36 miles of the Klamath River, and along the California coast from Wilson Creek to Trinidad Bay. This may provide a clue to the location of Vineland County. Being Indians, the Yuroks are, naturally, preterite in the Pynchon universe. The woge (note lower case) seem to be Yurok thanatoids, therefore ultra-preterite.

==Page 187==
'''"Bernard Herrmann"''' 
The famous film composer, whose credits include, among many other great picture soundtracks, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_hitchcock Alfred Hitchcock's] classics [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho_%281960_film%29 ''Psycho''] [1960] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo_%28film%29 ''Vertigo''] [1958].

Listen to Bernard Herrmann's music from ''Psycho'' on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDtJUSYoLDE&feature=related YouTube].

'''"A Toyota in the treetops"''' 
Is this a tip of the hat to the boat in the tree in Marquez's famous novel of magic realism, ''One Hundred Years of Solitude''?

As surreal as it may seem, in California cars frequently drive off of mountain roads and fall into canyons. They are pulled out using teams of tow trucks. But they usually crush the trees beneath.

'''"...vanish unaccountably between Shade Creek and the V & B pound, as Thanatoid units...had been known to do..."''' 
Vanishing Thanatoid cars may push the envelope of fantasy a bit too far. And yet, and yet... They wind up in the tops of trees, you see. It's kind of like 'toon cars: 'toons can drive real cars, real people can drive 'toon cars. Plus, it sets up (much later) the disappearance of Vond's ride in Chapter 15.

==Page 188==
'''Sate..."''' 
A totally abrupt scene-change to Takeshi's, a literary jump cut.

'''"Weed Atman"''' 
Another great name. Weed = marijuana. And [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weed,_California Weed] is a city in Northern California. Also perhaps, an echo of Steven Weed, abandoned boyfriend of heiress Patty Hearst, which raises a very faint reverberation of Frenesi as Patty-in-reverse. Atman = Hindu for breath, the principle of life, the World Soul.

Cf [[Chapter_11#Page_206| page 206]] for more on Weed's name.

'''"Prairie was hearing this, in her turn, from DL..."''' 
Prairie breaks into the narrative, bouncing us unexpectedly back to the present. These abrupt break-ins by Prairie are fun.

==Page 189==
'''"Variety Loaves...not, as once supposed, safely dead but no, only, queerly, sleeping..."''' 
Thanatoid lunch meat!

==Page 190==
'''"Me gotta go"''' 
A line from Richard Berry's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louie_Louie "Louie Louie"], made famous by the Kingsmen.

==Page 191==
'''"FFAR"''' 
Folding Fin Aircraft Rocket Launcher, a rather nasty device attached to Apache helicopters around about the time Pynchon was writing Vineland.

'''"Kick Out the Jambs"''' 
Definitely a reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MC_5 the MC 5] tune "Kick Out the Jams." But is "jambs" a typo or a pun?

Definitely a pun, and a genius one. Thoughts of ninjas, or FBI, or whoever, kicking doors in. Also, apt that the MC5 were affiliated with the far left, anti-establishment, counterculture, etc.

Listen on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iM6nasmkg7A YouTube].

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 8

2011-12-26T06:04:24Z

Pthomas: /* Page 118 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 107==
'''"a sort of Esalen Institute for lady asskickers [...] the Sisterhood of Kunoichi Attentives"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunoichi Kunoichi] are female ninjas, and serious asskickers:

:Real-life ''kunoichi'' were trained differently than male ''ninja''. Their training focused more on disguise, poisons, and using their gender to an advantage. While they were trained in close combat, they were only to make use of this knowledge when they were caught. They would usually disguise themselves as geisha, prostitutes, entertainers, fortunetellers, and the like to get very close to the enemy. Generally, they would seduce the soon-to-be victim and when they get close enough, they would poison them.

:Kunoichi would hide weapons in their disguise, like poisoned needles in their hair and dirks up their sleeves. They also often would turn a previously harmless item into a weapon. For example, they would learn how to break bones with their wooden shoes, put a hidden blade on their fan, or they would use an umbrella as a momentary shield.

:Their favored weapon was the ''neko-te''. ''Neko-te'' are iron fingernails that would be fastened to the hand by leather straps. They were usually dipped in poison, and the favorite place to slice were the eyes.

Also, a nice satire on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esalen Esalen]-type self-realization outfits. The acronym, SKA, is perhaps a nod to Jamaican pre-reggae pop music from the early 60s, like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Buster Prince Buster], and [http://www.skatalites.com/ the Ska-talites].

'''"Las Hermanas de Nuestra Senora de los Pepinares"''' 
"The Sisters of Our Lady of the Cucumber Patches"

See also "cucumber brandy" at the end of the paragraph. The possible reasons for the popularity of cucumbers in a non-sanctioned convent should be apparent to all but the most improbably pure-minded.

==Page 109==
'''"Can you cook?"''' 
The Head Ninjette's first words to Prairie are not sexist, but a desperate plea made in hope of repairing the sisterhood's food karma, which is badly out of balance. Prairie actually does the job, largely via corny, middle-American preterite classics like spinach casserole and bologna glazed with grape jelly!

==Page 111==
'''"Cream of mushroom soup"''' [[Image:UBI.jpg|thumb|Andy Warhol Print (1968)|right]] 
Universal Binding Ingredient. Great gag, maybe even a true insight (Campbell's cream of mushroom soup being the central, and not-so-secret, ingredient of the ubiquitous, and often despised, "family dish" tuna noodle casserole). All stated in Pynchonian mock-technoese.

UBI is Pynchon's hat-tip to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick Philip K. Dick], an American science fiction writer and author of the novel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubik UBIK]. UBIK is the name of successively different household products, each advertised to solve a different everyday problem and used by the protagonist to stop the deterioration of the universe. Eventually it is revealed that the protagonist is in suspended animation and the products are being sent from the real world to help him. The final chapter takes place in the real world. On the final page a character in the real world discovers a UBIK-style coin from the author (i.e. God). This type of double-twist is typical of Dick.

'''"memorizing the shadows"''' 
Nice touch. Making use of the shadows is a ninja specialty -- supposedly, simulates invisibility to the rest of the world.

==Page 112==
'''"gaga little twits...lookin' for spiritual powers on the cheap. Thinking we'll take 'em through the spiritual car wash, soap away all that road dirt ... everybody hangin' around the Orange Julius next door go 'Wow!'..."''' 
Terrific, angry description/destruction of get-wise-quick spiritual scams.

==Page 113==
'''"casseroles beginning to redline"''' 
A clever application of racing slang (redline = engine about to blow up from revving too fast) to cooking (casserole about to burn).

==Page 114==
'''KPFK'''

Second of the Pacifica Foundation's listener-sponsored FM radio stations; began broadcasting 1959. At least until the late Seventies, these totally noncommercial stations provided eclectic music, alternatively sourced news, literary readings, and a unique peacenik/hippie ambiance on shoestring budgets with mostly volunteer labor. Patty Hearst's famous tape was delivered to and first aired by KPFA in Berkeley.

[[Image:sfnewsreel.jpg|thumb|From ''Black Panther / San Francisco State On Strike'' by sf newsreel]]
'''"24fps"''' 
fps = frames per second. Motion picture film is projected at 24 frames per second. The radical filmmaking group seems to be based on a real "revolutionary film collective," sf newsreel -- right down to the lower case letters. It's also a subtle echo of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Luc_Godard Jean-Luc Godard's] famous dictum that "Cinema is truth 24 times a second."

:Not sure about "sf newsreel" (all lowercase). There is [http://www.newsreel.us/ Newsreel] ("Off the Pigs" and other films about the Black Panther Party), founded in 1967 in New York, and it's affiliated collective [[http://www.newsreel.org/ California Newsreel], founded in 1968. Newsreel states:

::In the 67 the FBI started the Counter-intelligence program to try to destroy African Americans, especially the Black Panther Party and the New Left. We worked with Third World groups. We produced various films that these groups could use to tell their stories and to use in organizing in their own communities and workplaces, hopefully serving as catalysis for social change. [http://www.newsreel.us/life.htm]

:Nope, sf newsreel once existed. [http://newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0080 Here] is a link to get two of their films. Although they're in California Newsreel's collection, notice that the films were produced by sf newsreel. The girl in the photo is Angela Davis.

'''"peripheral whiteness...of her mother's ghost..."''' 
Lovely writing. The ensuing discussions of computer ghostliness may or may not have a bearing on the "what is a Thanatoid" question. In addition, consider Pynchon's previous connections with whiteness ([[See Chapter 4#Page 37|note for page 37]]).

==Page 115==
'''"...a sound chip playing the hook from the Everly's..."''' 
The computer notices that Prairie is drifting, and plays the riff from the 50s-60s act, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everly_Brothers Everly Brothers'] "Wake Up Little Susie." Cool! Where can we buy this utility?

Listen to "Wake Up Little Susie" on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbLuWciXFcM YouTube].

'''Computer says, "Why good night yourself..."''' 
This sudden, right-angle turn into whimsy is a rare false note. In a way it's a relief to know that Pynchon, like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_of_Arabia_%28film%29 ''Lawrence of Arabia''] [1962] "isn't perfect."

'''"Back down in the computer library, in storage, quiescent ones and zeros scattered among millions of others, the two women...continued on their way across the low-lit campus, persisting, recoverable..."''' 
This gorgeous bit of writing provides a sensational transition between Prairie's computer research and the continuation of the flashback. It also leads into one of the flashiest sequences in the book (i.e., one with particularly flashy writing) and continues the binary metaphor initiated two chapters previous.

Pynchon here introduces the idea of time recoverably trapped in a photograph (a major theme in ''Against the Day''). The recovery is first done via Prairie's imagination (echoing her father's imaginings). Then it is continued "in some definable space" via authorial assertion.

'''"double-cross whites"''' 
amphetamine tabs marked by a cross.

==Page 116==
'''"Tetas y Chetas"''' 
Probably something like "tits and ass" in Chicano slang.

'''"ECO stock"''' 
Ektachrome Commercial, a very slow (32 ASA), very fine grain 16mm film stock that was bread and butter for educational and industrial filmmakers. Experimental filmmakers liked it too; it was easy to derange, producing weird images. No longer available.

'''"...she could still begin to smell them, the aftershave, the gunmetal in the sun..."''' 
Street-scene and riot are precisely drawn. These details don't come from a Baedecker. One can't help thinking that Pynchon must have been there. This sequence is beautifully written, and highly sensual thanks to Pynchon's employment of a profusion of smells (including, as the capper, on [[Chapter 8#Page 118|p. 118]], the smell of DL's "pussy excitation.")

'''"the basic stone bowelflash..."''' 
Another example of the anal fear reactions Pynchon seems big on in this work. See also pages [[Chapter 1#Page 10|10]], [[Chapter 4#Page 45|45]], [[Chapter 11#Page 207|207]], [[Chapter 14#Page 299|299]].

'''"Che Zed"''' 
DL's Czech CZ motorcycle.

==Page 117==
'''"drops of separating ketchup and fat..."''' 
Self-satire? We suspect it might be, as indicated by the concluding em-dash as Pynchon restrains himself and makes a conscious (and public) decision to end his detailed description of the flying drops and continue the narrative. ("Sorry, folks!")

In both the original 1990 first edition hardcover (Little, Brown) and in the 2000 Vintage edition there is no "Sorry, folks!", just [dash]"It's the Revolution, girl - can't you feel it?"

==Page 118==
'''"world-class burgers, jukebox solidarity..."''' 
Cool!

'''"the Army now or Huntsville later"'''

Huntsville has been the headquarters of the Texas prison system since the days of the Republic.

==Page 120==
'''"so it couldn't've been Kansas anymore."''' 
This reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_of_Oz_%281939_film%29 ''The Wizard of Oz''] (in which Dorothy says, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto,") is especially clever given DL's not-so-distant departure from Leavenworth, Kansas. Pynchon used this currently fashionable phrase in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''], as well.

==Page 121==
'''"...cutting Moody's orders for Japan..."''' 
This Japanese episode includes a number of gentle take-offs on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_gibson William Gibson], the cyberpunk novelist who borrowed a lot of his schtick from Pynchon. Gibson often writes about Japanese punks and small-time underworld types.

==Page 122==
'''"spheriphagous tulips"''' [[Image:Pachinko.jpg|thumb|1970's Pachinko Machine|right]] 
ball-catchers in a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachinko pachinko game]. Spheriphagous = sphere-eating.

'''"You eat soba?"''' 
soba = Japanese noodles. Noburu's first words to DL really mean, "Can you handle some Japanese identity?"

'''"You buyin'?"''' 
DL's reply is impeccably cool.

'''"Shodan potential"''' 
''Shodan'' = a high degree, or black belt, in the martial arts.

'''"Inoshiro Sensei"''' 
DL's martial arts teacher. Perhaps a nod to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishiro_Honda Ishiro Honda] (1911-1993), the director of ''Godzilla'', ''Rodan'', ''Mothra'', et al.

'''"assukikaa"''' 
Jive Japlish (like Faque French) for "ass kicker."

==Page 123==
'''"water-trade"''' 
In Japanese, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizu_shōbai Mizu shōbai] or the water-trade is a euphemism for the night-time live entertainment industry, often sex-oriented.

'''"like vacationing on another planet and losing her traveler's checks."''' 
This description of DL's puberty and adolescence is fine writing, and a telling insight.

'''"the modernized crash course"''' 
Sensei offers DL the cyberpunk version of the full martial arts program the technique without the spirituality.

==Page 124==
'''"on through suppertime, primetime..."''' 
In the authoritarian world ("the truancy squad was now in her face") TV shapes even the rhythms of the day.

'''"a personalized coffee mug wired permanently to his right index finger"''' 
A precisely captured image of a Navy lifer, retired in place. Pynchon must have seen many of these in his short experience in the service.

==Page 126==
'''"''kobun''"''' 
Yakuza retainer; button man; bodyguard.

'''"one more view of Edo."''' 
Sounds like a line from a famous ''haiku'', or the title of a painting. Edo is, of course, the old name for Tokyo. Likely a reference to Japanese printmaker [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshige Utagawa Hiroshige's] [http://www.hiroshige.org.uk/hiroshige/100_views_edo/100_views_edo.htm "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo"] (1855-1858).

'''"Yamaguchi-gumi"''' 
one of the major [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza ''Yakuza''] (Japanese organized crime) families.

'''"Relax! Only testing you!"''' 
Here Inoshiro Sensei becomes a cross between Toshiro Mifune and Mr. Natural.

'''"giri"''' 
obligation. Very important in Japanese (and particularly [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza ''Yakuza'']) culture; note that Takeshi's musical cards are called "giri-chits."

==Page 127==
'''"original purity...subverted...once eternal techniques now only one-shot and disposable..."'''

'''"This is for all the rest of us down here with the insects, the ones who don't quite get to make warrior, who...fail to get it right...this is our equalizer, our edge...because we have ancestors and descendants too..."'''

A moving restatement of Pynchon's concern for the preterites, as well as an excellent discourse on the difference between a samurai (the eternal purity of the warrior) and Inoshiro's version of ''ninjitsu'' (the one-shot pragmatism of the assassin, martial arts without Zen).

'''"The Nosepicking of Death"''' 
Funny list of martial moves. ''Gojira no Chimpira'' = The Gangster of Godzilla.

==Page 128==
'''"...better just hand [your body] over to those who are qualified, doctors, and lab technicians and by extension coaches, employers, boys with hardons, so forth..."''' 
Pynchon's attitude towards authority is pretty well spelled out in DL's feminist monologue on schoolrooms.

'''"She and Prairie were out taking a break..."''' 
Fabulously smooth cross-fade out of flashbacks back to DL and Prairie talking at SKA.
{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 8

2011-12-26T05:17:19Z

Pthomas: /* Page 114 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 107==
'''"a sort of Esalen Institute for lady asskickers [...] the Sisterhood of Kunoichi Attentives"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunoichi Kunoichi] are female ninjas, and serious asskickers:

:Real-life ''kunoichi'' were trained differently than male ''ninja''. Their training focused more on disguise, poisons, and using their gender to an advantage. While they were trained in close combat, they were only to make use of this knowledge when they were caught. They would usually disguise themselves as geisha, prostitutes, entertainers, fortunetellers, and the like to get very close to the enemy. Generally, they would seduce the soon-to-be victim and when they get close enough, they would poison them.

:Kunoichi would hide weapons in their disguise, like poisoned needles in their hair and dirks up their sleeves. They also often would turn a previously harmless item into a weapon. For example, they would learn how to break bones with their wooden shoes, put a hidden blade on their fan, or they would use an umbrella as a momentary shield.

:Their favored weapon was the ''neko-te''. ''Neko-te'' are iron fingernails that would be fastened to the hand by leather straps. They were usually dipped in poison, and the favorite place to slice were the eyes.

Also, a nice satire on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esalen Esalen]-type self-realization outfits. The acronym, SKA, is perhaps a nod to Jamaican pre-reggae pop music from the early 60s, like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Buster Prince Buster], and [http://www.skatalites.com/ the Ska-talites].

'''"Las Hermanas de Nuestra Senora de los Pepinares"''' 
"The Sisters of Our Lady of the Cucumber Patches"

See also "cucumber brandy" at the end of the paragraph. The possible reasons for the popularity of cucumbers in a non-sanctioned convent should be apparent to all but the most improbably pure-minded.

==Page 109==
'''"Can you cook?"''' 
The Head Ninjette's first words to Prairie are not sexist, but a desperate plea made in hope of repairing the sisterhood's food karma, which is badly out of balance. Prairie actually does the job, largely via corny, middle-American preterite classics like spinach casserole and bologna glazed with grape jelly!

==Page 111==
'''"Cream of mushroom soup"''' [[Image:UBI.jpg|thumb|Andy Warhol Print (1968)|right]] 
Universal Binding Ingredient. Great gag, maybe even a true insight (Campbell's cream of mushroom soup being the central, and not-so-secret, ingredient of the ubiquitous, and often despised, "family dish" tuna noodle casserole). All stated in Pynchonian mock-technoese.

UBI is Pynchon's hat-tip to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick Philip K. Dick], an American science fiction writer and author of the novel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubik UBIK]. UBIK is the name of successively different household products, each advertised to solve a different everyday problem and used by the protagonist to stop the deterioration of the universe. Eventually it is revealed that the protagonist is in suspended animation and the products are being sent from the real world to help him. The final chapter takes place in the real world. On the final page a character in the real world discovers a UBIK-style coin from the author (i.e. God). This type of double-twist is typical of Dick.

'''"memorizing the shadows"''' 
Nice touch. Making use of the shadows is a ninja specialty -- supposedly, simulates invisibility to the rest of the world.

==Page 112==
'''"gaga little twits...lookin' for spiritual powers on the cheap. Thinking we'll take 'em through the spiritual car wash, soap away all that road dirt ... everybody hangin' around the Orange Julius next door go 'Wow!'..."''' 
Terrific, angry description/destruction of get-wise-quick spiritual scams.

==Page 113==
'''"casseroles beginning to redline"''' 
A clever application of racing slang (redline = engine about to blow up from revving too fast) to cooking (casserole about to burn).

==Page 114==
'''KPFK'''

Second of the Pacifica Foundation's listener-sponsored FM radio stations; began broadcasting 1959. At least until the late Seventies, these totally noncommercial stations provided eclectic music, alternatively sourced news, literary readings, and a unique peacenik/hippie ambiance on shoestring budgets with mostly volunteer labor. Patty Hearst's famous tape was delivered to and first aired by KPFA in Berkeley.

[[Image:sfnewsreel.jpg|thumb|From ''Black Panther / San Francisco State On Strike'' by sf newsreel]]
'''"24fps"''' 
fps = frames per second. Motion picture film is projected at 24 frames per second. The radical filmmaking group seems to be based on a real "revolutionary film collective," sf newsreel -- right down to the lower case letters. It's also a subtle echo of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Luc_Godard Jean-Luc Godard's] famous dictum that "Cinema is truth 24 times a second."

:Not sure about "sf newsreel" (all lowercase). There is [http://www.newsreel.us/ Newsreel] ("Off the Pigs" and other films about the Black Panther Party), founded in 1967 in New York, and it's affiliated collective [[http://www.newsreel.org/ California Newsreel], founded in 1968. Newsreel states:

::In the 67 the FBI started the Counter-intelligence program to try to destroy African Americans, especially the Black Panther Party and the New Left. We worked with Third World groups. We produced various films that these groups could use to tell their stories and to use in organizing in their own communities and workplaces, hopefully serving as catalysis for social change. [http://www.newsreel.us/life.htm]

:Nope, sf newsreel once existed. [http://newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0080 Here] is a link to get two of their films. Although they're in California Newsreel's collection, notice that the films were produced by sf newsreel. The girl in the photo is Angela Davis.

'''"peripheral whiteness...of her mother's ghost..."''' 
Lovely writing. The ensuing discussions of computer ghostliness may or may not have a bearing on the "what is a Thanatoid" question. In addition, consider Pynchon's previous connections with whiteness ([[See Chapter 4#Page 37|note for page 37]]).

==Page 115==
'''"...a sound chip playing the hook from the Everly's..."''' 
The computer notices that Prairie is drifting, and plays the riff from the 50s-60s act, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everly_Brothers Everly Brothers'] "Wake Up Little Susie." Cool! Where can we buy this utility?

Listen to "Wake Up Little Susie" on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbLuWciXFcM YouTube].

'''Computer says, "Why good night yourself..."''' 
This sudden, right-angle turn into whimsy is a rare false note. In a way it's a relief to know that Pynchon, like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_of_Arabia_%28film%29 ''Lawrence of Arabia''] [1962] "isn't perfect."

'''"Back down in the computer library, in storage, quiescent ones and zeros scattered among millions of others, the two women...continued on their way across the low-lit campus, persisting, recoverable..."''' 
This gorgeous bit of writing provides a sensational transition between Prairie's computer research and the continuation of the flashback. It also leads into one of the flashiest sequences in the book (i.e., one with particularly flashy writing) and continues the binary metaphor initiated two chapters previous.

Pynchon here introduces the idea of time recoverably trapped in a photograph (a major theme in ''Against the Day''). The recovery is first done via Prairie's imagination (echoing her father's imaginings). Then it is continued "in some definable space" via authorial assertion.

'''"double-cross whites"''' 
amphetamine tabs marked by a cross.

==Page 116==
'''"Tetas y Chetas"''' 
Probably something like "tits and ass" in Chicano slang.

'''"ECO stock"''' 
Ektachrome Commercial, a very slow (32 ASA), very fine grain 16mm film stock that was bread and butter for educational and industrial filmmakers. Experimental filmmakers liked it too; it was easy to derange, producing weird images. No longer available.

'''"...she could still begin to smell them, the aftershave, the gunmetal in the sun..."''' 
Street-scene and riot are precisely drawn. These details don't come from a Baedecker. One can't help thinking that Pynchon must have been there. This sequence is beautifully written, and highly sensual thanks to Pynchon's employment of a profusion of smells (including, as the capper, on [[Chapter 8#Page 118|p. 118]], the smell of DL's "pussy excitation.")

'''"the basic stone bowelflash..."''' 
Another example of the anal fear reactions Pynchon seems big on in this work. See also pages [[Chapter 1#Page 10|10]], [[Chapter 4#Page 45|45]], [[Chapter 11#Page 207|207]], [[Chapter 14#Page 299|299]].

'''"Che Zed"''' 
DL's Czech CZ motorcycle.

==Page 117==
'''"drops of separating ketchup and fat..."''' 
Self-satire? We suspect it might be, as indicated by the concluding em-dash as Pynchon restrains himself and makes a conscious (and public) decision to end his detailed description of the flying drops and continue the narrative. ("Sorry, folks!")

In both the original 1990 first edition hardcover (Little, Brown) and in the 2000 Vintage edition there is no "Sorry, folks!", just [dash]"It's the Revolution, girl - can't you feel it?"

==Page 118==
'''"world-class burgers, jukebox solidarity..."''' 
Cool!

==Page 120==
'''"so it couldn't've been Kansas anymore."''' 
This reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_of_Oz_%281939_film%29 ''The Wizard of Oz''] (in which Dorothy says, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto,") is especially clever given DL's not-so-distant departure from Leavenworth, Kansas. Pynchon used this currently fashionable phrase in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''], as well.

==Page 121==
'''"...cutting Moody's orders for Japan..."''' 
This Japanese episode includes a number of gentle take-offs on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_gibson William Gibson], the cyberpunk novelist who borrowed a lot of his schtick from Pynchon. Gibson often writes about Japanese punks and small-time underworld types.

==Page 122==
'''"spheriphagous tulips"''' [[Image:Pachinko.jpg|thumb|1970's Pachinko Machine|right]] 
ball-catchers in a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachinko pachinko game]. Spheriphagous = sphere-eating.

'''"You eat soba?"''' 
soba = Japanese noodles. Noburu's first words to DL really mean, "Can you handle some Japanese identity?"

'''"You buyin'?"''' 
DL's reply is impeccably cool.

'''"Shodan potential"''' 
''Shodan'' = a high degree, or black belt, in the martial arts.

'''"Inoshiro Sensei"''' 
DL's martial arts teacher. Perhaps a nod to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishiro_Honda Ishiro Honda] (1911-1993), the director of ''Godzilla'', ''Rodan'', ''Mothra'', et al.

'''"assukikaa"''' 
Jive Japlish (like Faque French) for "ass kicker."

==Page 123==
'''"water-trade"''' 
In Japanese, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizu_shōbai Mizu shōbai] or the water-trade is a euphemism for the night-time live entertainment industry, often sex-oriented.

'''"like vacationing on another planet and losing her traveler's checks."''' 
This description of DL's puberty and adolescence is fine writing, and a telling insight.

'''"the modernized crash course"''' 
Sensei offers DL the cyberpunk version of the full martial arts program the technique without the spirituality.

==Page 124==
'''"on through suppertime, primetime..."''' 
In the authoritarian world ("the truancy squad was now in her face") TV shapes even the rhythms of the day.

'''"a personalized coffee mug wired permanently to his right index finger"''' 
A precisely captured image of a Navy lifer, retired in place. Pynchon must have seen many of these in his short experience in the service.

==Page 126==
'''"''kobun''"''' 
Yakuza retainer; button man; bodyguard.

'''"one more view of Edo."''' 
Sounds like a line from a famous ''haiku'', or the title of a painting. Edo is, of course, the old name for Tokyo. Likely a reference to Japanese printmaker [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshige Utagawa Hiroshige's] [http://www.hiroshige.org.uk/hiroshige/100_views_edo/100_views_edo.htm "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo"] (1855-1858).

'''"Yamaguchi-gumi"''' 
one of the major [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza ''Yakuza''] (Japanese organized crime) families.

'''"Relax! Only testing you!"''' 
Here Inoshiro Sensei becomes a cross between Toshiro Mifune and Mr. Natural.

'''"giri"''' 
obligation. Very important in Japanese (and particularly [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza ''Yakuza'']) culture; note that Takeshi's musical cards are called "giri-chits."

==Page 127==
'''"original purity...subverted...once eternal techniques now only one-shot and disposable..."'''

'''"This is for all the rest of us down here with the insects, the ones who don't quite get to make warrior, who...fail to get it right...this is our equalizer, our edge...because we have ancestors and descendants too..."'''

A moving restatement of Pynchon's concern for the preterites, as well as an excellent discourse on the difference between a samurai (the eternal purity of the warrior) and Inoshiro's version of ''ninjitsu'' (the one-shot pragmatism of the assassin, martial arts without Zen).

'''"The Nosepicking of Death"''' 
Funny list of martial moves. ''Gojira no Chimpira'' = The Gangster of Godzilla.

==Page 128==
'''"...better just hand [your body] over to those who are qualified, doctors, and lab technicians and by extension coaches, employers, boys with hardons, so forth..."''' 
Pynchon's attitude towards authority is pretty well spelled out in DL's feminist monologue on schoolrooms.

'''"She and Prairie were out taking a break..."''' 
Fabulously smooth cross-fade out of flashbacks back to DL and Prairie talking at SKA.
{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 8

2011-12-26T05:16:48Z

Pthomas: /* Page 114 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 107==
'''"a sort of Esalen Institute for lady asskickers [...] the Sisterhood of Kunoichi Attentives"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunoichi Kunoichi] are female ninjas, and serious asskickers:

:Real-life ''kunoichi'' were trained differently than male ''ninja''. Their training focused more on disguise, poisons, and using their gender to an advantage. While they were trained in close combat, they were only to make use of this knowledge when they were caught. They would usually disguise themselves as geisha, prostitutes, entertainers, fortunetellers, and the like to get very close to the enemy. Generally, they would seduce the soon-to-be victim and when they get close enough, they would poison them.

:Kunoichi would hide weapons in their disguise, like poisoned needles in their hair and dirks up their sleeves. They also often would turn a previously harmless item into a weapon. For example, they would learn how to break bones with their wooden shoes, put a hidden blade on their fan, or they would use an umbrella as a momentary shield.

:Their favored weapon was the ''neko-te''. ''Neko-te'' are iron fingernails that would be fastened to the hand by leather straps. They were usually dipped in poison, and the favorite place to slice were the eyes.

Also, a nice satire on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esalen Esalen]-type self-realization outfits. The acronym, SKA, is perhaps a nod to Jamaican pre-reggae pop music from the early 60s, like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Buster Prince Buster], and [http://www.skatalites.com/ the Ska-talites].

'''"Las Hermanas de Nuestra Senora de los Pepinares"''' 
"The Sisters of Our Lady of the Cucumber Patches"

See also "cucumber brandy" at the end of the paragraph. The possible reasons for the popularity of cucumbers in a non-sanctioned convent should be apparent to all but the most improbably pure-minded.

==Page 109==
'''"Can you cook?"''' 
The Head Ninjette's first words to Prairie are not sexist, but a desperate plea made in hope of repairing the sisterhood's food karma, which is badly out of balance. Prairie actually does the job, largely via corny, middle-American preterite classics like spinach casserole and bologna glazed with grape jelly!

==Page 111==
'''"Cream of mushroom soup"''' [[Image:UBI.jpg|thumb|Andy Warhol Print (1968)|right]] 
Universal Binding Ingredient. Great gag, maybe even a true insight (Campbell's cream of mushroom soup being the central, and not-so-secret, ingredient of the ubiquitous, and often despised, "family dish" tuna noodle casserole). All stated in Pynchonian mock-technoese.

UBI is Pynchon's hat-tip to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick Philip K. Dick], an American science fiction writer and author of the novel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubik UBIK]. UBIK is the name of successively different household products, each advertised to solve a different everyday problem and used by the protagonist to stop the deterioration of the universe. Eventually it is revealed that the protagonist is in suspended animation and the products are being sent from the real world to help him. The final chapter takes place in the real world. On the final page a character in the real world discovers a UBIK-style coin from the author (i.e. God). This type of double-twist is typical of Dick.

'''"memorizing the shadows"''' 
Nice touch. Making use of the shadows is a ninja specialty -- supposedly, simulates invisibility to the rest of the world.

==Page 112==
'''"gaga little twits...lookin' for spiritual powers on the cheap. Thinking we'll take 'em through the spiritual car wash, soap away all that road dirt ... everybody hangin' around the Orange Julius next door go 'Wow!'..."''' 
Terrific, angry description/destruction of get-wise-quick spiritual scams.

==Page 113==
'''"casseroles beginning to redline"''' 
A clever application of racing slang (redline = engine about to blow up from revving too fast) to cooking (casserole about to burn).

==Page 114==
KPFK

Second of the Pacifica Foundation's listener-sponsored FM radio stations; began broadcasting 1959. At least until the late Seventies, these totally noncommercial stations provided eclectic music, alternatively sourced news, literary readings, and a unique peacenik/hippie ambiance on shoestring budgets with mostly volunteer labor. Patty Hearst's famous tape was delivered to and first aired by KPFA in Berkeley.

[[Image:sfnewsreel.jpg|thumb|From ''Black Panther / San Francisco State On Strike'' by sf newsreel]]
'''"24fps"''' 
fps = frames per second. Motion picture film is projected at 24 frames per second. The radical filmmaking group seems to be based on a real "revolutionary film collective," sf newsreel -- right down to the lower case letters. It's also a subtle echo of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Luc_Godard Jean-Luc Godard's] famous dictum that "Cinema is truth 24 times a second."

:Not sure about "sf newsreel" (all lowercase). There is [http://www.newsreel.us/ Newsreel] ("Off the Pigs" and other films about the Black Panther Party), founded in 1967 in New York, and it's affiliated collective [[http://www.newsreel.org/ California Newsreel], founded in 1968. Newsreel states:

::In the 67 the FBI started the Counter-intelligence program to try to destroy African Americans, especially the Black Panther Party and the New Left. We worked with Third World groups. We produced various films that these groups could use to tell their stories and to use in organizing in their own communities and workplaces, hopefully serving as catalysis for social change. [http://www.newsreel.us/life.htm]

:Nope, sf newsreel once existed. [http://newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0080 Here] is a link to get two of their films. Although they're in California Newsreel's collection, notice that the films were produced by sf newsreel. The girl in the photo is Angela Davis.

'''"peripheral whiteness...of her mother's ghost..."''' 
Lovely writing. The ensuing discussions of computer ghostliness may or may not have a bearing on the "what is a Thanatoid" question. In addition, consider Pynchon's previous connections with whiteness ([[See Chapter 4#Page 37|note for page 37]]).

==Page 115==
'''"...a sound chip playing the hook from the Everly's..."''' 
The computer notices that Prairie is drifting, and plays the riff from the 50s-60s act, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everly_Brothers Everly Brothers'] "Wake Up Little Susie." Cool! Where can we buy this utility?

Listen to "Wake Up Little Susie" on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbLuWciXFcM YouTube].

'''Computer says, "Why good night yourself..."''' 
This sudden, right-angle turn into whimsy is a rare false note. In a way it's a relief to know that Pynchon, like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_of_Arabia_%28film%29 ''Lawrence of Arabia''] [1962] "isn't perfect."

'''"Back down in the computer library, in storage, quiescent ones and zeros scattered among millions of others, the two women...continued on their way across the low-lit campus, persisting, recoverable..."''' 
This gorgeous bit of writing provides a sensational transition between Prairie's computer research and the continuation of the flashback. It also leads into one of the flashiest sequences in the book (i.e., one with particularly flashy writing) and continues the binary metaphor initiated two chapters previous.

Pynchon here introduces the idea of time recoverably trapped in a photograph (a major theme in ''Against the Day''). The recovery is first done via Prairie's imagination (echoing her father's imaginings). Then it is continued "in some definable space" via authorial assertion.

'''"double-cross whites"''' 
amphetamine tabs marked by a cross.

==Page 116==
'''"Tetas y Chetas"''' 
Probably something like "tits and ass" in Chicano slang.

'''"ECO stock"''' 
Ektachrome Commercial, a very slow (32 ASA), very fine grain 16mm film stock that was bread and butter for educational and industrial filmmakers. Experimental filmmakers liked it too; it was easy to derange, producing weird images. No longer available.

'''"...she could still begin to smell them, the aftershave, the gunmetal in the sun..."''' 
Street-scene and riot are precisely drawn. These details don't come from a Baedecker. One can't help thinking that Pynchon must have been there. This sequence is beautifully written, and highly sensual thanks to Pynchon's employment of a profusion of smells (including, as the capper, on [[Chapter 8#Page 118|p. 118]], the smell of DL's "pussy excitation.")

'''"the basic stone bowelflash..."''' 
Another example of the anal fear reactions Pynchon seems big on in this work. See also pages [[Chapter 1#Page 10|10]], [[Chapter 4#Page 45|45]], [[Chapter 11#Page 207|207]], [[Chapter 14#Page 299|299]].

'''"Che Zed"''' 
DL's Czech CZ motorcycle.

==Page 117==
'''"drops of separating ketchup and fat..."''' 
Self-satire? We suspect it might be, as indicated by the concluding em-dash as Pynchon restrains himself and makes a conscious (and public) decision to end his detailed description of the flying drops and continue the narrative. ("Sorry, folks!")

In both the original 1990 first edition hardcover (Little, Brown) and in the 2000 Vintage edition there is no "Sorry, folks!", just [dash]"It's the Revolution, girl - can't you feel it?"

==Page 118==
'''"world-class burgers, jukebox solidarity..."''' 
Cool!

==Page 120==
'''"so it couldn't've been Kansas anymore."''' 
This reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_of_Oz_%281939_film%29 ''The Wizard of Oz''] (in which Dorothy says, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto,") is especially clever given DL's not-so-distant departure from Leavenworth, Kansas. Pynchon used this currently fashionable phrase in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''], as well.

==Page 121==
'''"...cutting Moody's orders for Japan..."''' 
This Japanese episode includes a number of gentle take-offs on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_gibson William Gibson], the cyberpunk novelist who borrowed a lot of his schtick from Pynchon. Gibson often writes about Japanese punks and small-time underworld types.

==Page 122==
'''"spheriphagous tulips"''' [[Image:Pachinko.jpg|thumb|1970's Pachinko Machine|right]] 
ball-catchers in a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachinko pachinko game]. Spheriphagous = sphere-eating.

'''"You eat soba?"''' 
soba = Japanese noodles. Noburu's first words to DL really mean, "Can you handle some Japanese identity?"

'''"You buyin'?"''' 
DL's reply is impeccably cool.

'''"Shodan potential"''' 
''Shodan'' = a high degree, or black belt, in the martial arts.

'''"Inoshiro Sensei"''' 
DL's martial arts teacher. Perhaps a nod to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishiro_Honda Ishiro Honda] (1911-1993), the director of ''Godzilla'', ''Rodan'', ''Mothra'', et al.

'''"assukikaa"''' 
Jive Japlish (like Faque French) for "ass kicker."

==Page 123==
'''"water-trade"''' 
In Japanese, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizu_shōbai Mizu shōbai] or the water-trade is a euphemism for the night-time live entertainment industry, often sex-oriented.

'''"like vacationing on another planet and losing her traveler's checks."''' 
This description of DL's puberty and adolescence is fine writing, and a telling insight.

'''"the modernized crash course"''' 
Sensei offers DL the cyberpunk version of the full martial arts program the technique without the spirituality.

==Page 124==
'''"on through suppertime, primetime..."''' 
In the authoritarian world ("the truancy squad was now in her face") TV shapes even the rhythms of the day.

'''"a personalized coffee mug wired permanently to his right index finger"''' 
A precisely captured image of a Navy lifer, retired in place. Pynchon must have seen many of these in his short experience in the service.

==Page 126==
'''"''kobun''"''' 
Yakuza retainer; button man; bodyguard.

'''"one more view of Edo."''' 
Sounds like a line from a famous ''haiku'', or the title of a painting. Edo is, of course, the old name for Tokyo. Likely a reference to Japanese printmaker [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshige Utagawa Hiroshige's] [http://www.hiroshige.org.uk/hiroshige/100_views_edo/100_views_edo.htm "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo"] (1855-1858).

'''"Yamaguchi-gumi"''' 
one of the major [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza ''Yakuza''] (Japanese organized crime) families.

'''"Relax! Only testing you!"''' 
Here Inoshiro Sensei becomes a cross between Toshiro Mifune and Mr. Natural.

'''"giri"''' 
obligation. Very important in Japanese (and particularly [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza ''Yakuza'']) culture; note that Takeshi's musical cards are called "giri-chits."

==Page 127==
'''"original purity...subverted...once eternal techniques now only one-shot and disposable..."'''

'''"This is for all the rest of us down here with the insects, the ones who don't quite get to make warrior, who...fail to get it right...this is our equalizer, our edge...because we have ancestors and descendants too..."'''

A moving restatement of Pynchon's concern for the preterites, as well as an excellent discourse on the difference between a samurai (the eternal purity of the warrior) and Inoshiro's version of ''ninjitsu'' (the one-shot pragmatism of the assassin, martial arts without Zen).

'''"The Nosepicking of Death"''' 
Funny list of martial moves. ''Gojira no Chimpira'' = The Gangster of Godzilla.

==Page 128==
'''"...better just hand [your body] over to those who are qualified, doctors, and lab technicians and by extension coaches, employers, boys with hardons, so forth..."''' 
Pynchon's attitude towards authority is pretty well spelled out in DL's feminist monologue on schoolrooms.

'''"She and Prairie were out taking a break..."''' 
Fabulously smooth cross-fade out of flashbacks back to DL and Prairie talking at SKA.
{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 8

2011-12-26T05:01:02Z

Pthomas: /* Page 107 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 107==
'''"a sort of Esalen Institute for lady asskickers [...] the Sisterhood of Kunoichi Attentives"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunoichi Kunoichi] are female ninjas, and serious asskickers:

:Real-life ''kunoichi'' were trained differently than male ''ninja''. Their training focused more on disguise, poisons, and using their gender to an advantage. While they were trained in close combat, they were only to make use of this knowledge when they were caught. They would usually disguise themselves as geisha, prostitutes, entertainers, fortunetellers, and the like to get very close to the enemy. Generally, they would seduce the soon-to-be victim and when they get close enough, they would poison them.

:Kunoichi would hide weapons in their disguise, like poisoned needles in their hair and dirks up their sleeves. They also often would turn a previously harmless item into a weapon. For example, they would learn how to break bones with their wooden shoes, put a hidden blade on their fan, or they would use an umbrella as a momentary shield.

:Their favored weapon was the ''neko-te''. ''Neko-te'' are iron fingernails that would be fastened to the hand by leather straps. They were usually dipped in poison, and the favorite place to slice were the eyes.

Also, a nice satire on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esalen Esalen]-type self-realization outfits. The acronym, SKA, is perhaps a nod to Jamaican pre-reggae pop music from the early 60s, like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Buster Prince Buster], and [http://www.skatalites.com/ the Ska-talites].

'''"Las Hermanas de Nuestra Senora de los Pepinares"''' 
"The Sisters of Our Lady of the Cucumber Patches"

See also "cucumber brandy" at the end of the paragraph. The possible reasons for the popularity of cucumbers in a non-sanctioned convent should be apparent to all but the most improbably pure-minded.

==Page 109==
'''"Can you cook?"''' 
The Head Ninjette's first words to Prairie are not sexist, but a desperate plea made in hope of repairing the sisterhood's food karma, which is badly out of balance. Prairie actually does the job, largely via corny, middle-American preterite classics like spinach casserole and bologna glazed with grape jelly!

==Page 111==
'''"Cream of mushroom soup"''' [[Image:UBI.jpg|thumb|Andy Warhol Print (1968)|right]] 
Universal Binding Ingredient. Great gag, maybe even a true insight (Campbell's cream of mushroom soup being the central, and not-so-secret, ingredient of the ubiquitous, and often despised, "family dish" tuna noodle casserole). All stated in Pynchonian mock-technoese.

UBI is Pynchon's hat-tip to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_K._Dick Philip K. Dick], an American science fiction writer and author of the novel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubik UBIK]. UBIK is the name of successively different household products, each advertised to solve a different everyday problem and used by the protagonist to stop the deterioration of the universe. Eventually it is revealed that the protagonist is in suspended animation and the products are being sent from the real world to help him. The final chapter takes place in the real world. On the final page a character in the real world discovers a UBIK-style coin from the author (i.e. God). This type of double-twist is typical of Dick.

'''"memorizing the shadows"''' 
Nice touch. Making use of the shadows is a ninja specialty -- supposedly, simulates invisibility to the rest of the world.

==Page 112==
'''"gaga little twits...lookin' for spiritual powers on the cheap. Thinking we'll take 'em through the spiritual car wash, soap away all that road dirt ... everybody hangin' around the Orange Julius next door go 'Wow!'..."''' 
Terrific, angry description/destruction of get-wise-quick spiritual scams.

==Page 113==
'''"casseroles beginning to redline"''' 
A clever application of racing slang (redline = engine about to blow up from revving too fast) to cooking (casserole about to burn).

==Page 114==
[[Image:sfnewsreel.jpg|thumb|From ''Black Panther / San Francisco State On Strike'' by sf newsreel]]
'''"24fps"''' 
fps = frames per second. Motion picture film is projected at 24 frames per second. The radical filmmaking group seems to be based on a real "revolutionary film collective," sf newsreel -- right down to the lower case letters. It's also a subtle echo of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Luc_Godard Jean-Luc Godard's] famous dictum that "Cinema is truth 24 times a second."

:Not sure about "sf newsreel" (all lowercase). There is [http://www.newsreel.us/ Newsreel] ("Off the Pigs" and other films about the Black Panther Party), founded in 1967 in New York, and it's affiliated collective [[http://www.newsreel.org/ California Newsreel], founded in 1968. Newsreel states:

::In the 67 the FBI started the Counter-intelligence program to try to destroy African Americans, especially the Black Panther Party and the New Left. We worked with Third World groups. We produced various films that these groups could use to tell their stories and to use in organizing in their own communities and workplaces, hopefully serving as catalysis for social change. [http://www.newsreel.us/life.htm]

:Nope, sf newsreel once existed. [http://newsreel.org/nav/title.asp?tc=CN0080 Here] is a link to get two of their films. Although they're in California Newsreel's collection, notice that the films were produced by sf newsreel. The girl in the photo is Angela Davis.

'''"peripheral whiteness...of her mother's ghost..."''' 
Lovely writing. The ensuing discussions of computer ghostliness may or may not have a bearing on the "what is a Thanatoid" question. In addition, consider Pynchon's previous connections with whiteness ([[See Chapter 4#Page 37|note for page 37]]).

==Page 115==
'''"...a sound chip playing the hook from the Everly's..."''' 
The computer notices that Prairie is drifting, and plays the riff from the 50s-60s act, the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everly_Brothers Everly Brothers'] "Wake Up Little Susie." Cool! Where can we buy this utility?

Listen to "Wake Up Little Susie" on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbLuWciXFcM YouTube].

'''Computer says, "Why good night yourself..."''' 
This sudden, right-angle turn into whimsy is a rare false note. In a way it's a relief to know that Pynchon, like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_of_Arabia_%28film%29 ''Lawrence of Arabia''] [1962] "isn't perfect."

'''"Back down in the computer library, in storage, quiescent ones and zeros scattered among millions of others, the two women...continued on their way across the low-lit campus, persisting, recoverable..."''' 
This gorgeous bit of writing provides a sensational transition between Prairie's computer research and the continuation of the flashback. It also leads into one of the flashiest sequences in the book (i.e., one with particularly flashy writing) and continues the binary metaphor initiated two chapters previous.

Pynchon here introduces the idea of time recoverably trapped in a photograph (a major theme in ''Against the Day''). The recovery is first done via Prairie's imagination (echoing her father's imaginings). Then it is continued "in some definable space" via authorial assertion.

'''"double-cross whites"''' 
amphetamine tabs marked by a cross.

==Page 116==
'''"Tetas y Chetas"''' 
Probably something like "tits and ass" in Chicano slang.

'''"ECO stock"''' 
Ektachrome Commercial, a very slow (32 ASA), very fine grain 16mm film stock that was bread and butter for educational and industrial filmmakers. Experimental filmmakers liked it too; it was easy to derange, producing weird images. No longer available.

'''"...she could still begin to smell them, the aftershave, the gunmetal in the sun..."''' 
Street-scene and riot are precisely drawn. These details don't come from a Baedecker. One can't help thinking that Pynchon must have been there. This sequence is beautifully written, and highly sensual thanks to Pynchon's employment of a profusion of smells (including, as the capper, on [[Chapter 8#Page 118|p. 118]], the smell of DL's "pussy excitation.")

'''"the basic stone bowelflash..."''' 
Another example of the anal fear reactions Pynchon seems big on in this work. See also pages [[Chapter 1#Page 10|10]], [[Chapter 4#Page 45|45]], [[Chapter 11#Page 207|207]], [[Chapter 14#Page 299|299]].

'''"Che Zed"''' 
DL's Czech CZ motorcycle.

==Page 117==
'''"drops of separating ketchup and fat..."''' 
Self-satire? We suspect it might be, as indicated by the concluding em-dash as Pynchon restrains himself and makes a conscious (and public) decision to end his detailed description of the flying drops and continue the narrative. ("Sorry, folks!")

In both the original 1990 first edition hardcover (Little, Brown) and in the 2000 Vintage edition there is no "Sorry, folks!", just [dash]"It's the Revolution, girl - can't you feel it?"

==Page 118==
'''"world-class burgers, jukebox solidarity..."''' 
Cool!

==Page 120==
'''"so it couldn't've been Kansas anymore."''' 
This reference to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wizard_of_Oz_%281939_film%29 ''The Wizard of Oz''] (in which Dorothy says, "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore, Toto,") is especially clever given DL's not-so-distant departure from Leavenworth, Kansas. Pynchon used this currently fashionable phrase in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''], as well.

==Page 121==
'''"...cutting Moody's orders for Japan..."''' 
This Japanese episode includes a number of gentle take-offs on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_gibson William Gibson], the cyberpunk novelist who borrowed a lot of his schtick from Pynchon. Gibson often writes about Japanese punks and small-time underworld types.

==Page 122==
'''"spheriphagous tulips"''' [[Image:Pachinko.jpg|thumb|1970's Pachinko Machine|right]] 
ball-catchers in a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachinko pachinko game]. Spheriphagous = sphere-eating.

'''"You eat soba?"''' 
soba = Japanese noodles. Noburu's first words to DL really mean, "Can you handle some Japanese identity?"

'''"You buyin'?"''' 
DL's reply is impeccably cool.

'''"Shodan potential"''' 
''Shodan'' = a high degree, or black belt, in the martial arts.

'''"Inoshiro Sensei"''' 
DL's martial arts teacher. Perhaps a nod to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ishiro_Honda Ishiro Honda] (1911-1993), the director of ''Godzilla'', ''Rodan'', ''Mothra'', et al.

'''"assukikaa"''' 
Jive Japlish (like Faque French) for "ass kicker."

==Page 123==
'''"water-trade"''' 
In Japanese, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mizu_shōbai Mizu shōbai] or the water-trade is a euphemism for the night-time live entertainment industry, often sex-oriented.

'''"like vacationing on another planet and losing her traveler's checks."''' 
This description of DL's puberty and adolescence is fine writing, and a telling insight.

'''"the modernized crash course"''' 
Sensei offers DL the cyberpunk version of the full martial arts program the technique without the spirituality.

==Page 124==
'''"on through suppertime, primetime..."''' 
In the authoritarian world ("the truancy squad was now in her face") TV shapes even the rhythms of the day.

'''"a personalized coffee mug wired permanently to his right index finger"''' 
A precisely captured image of a Navy lifer, retired in place. Pynchon must have seen many of these in his short experience in the service.

==Page 126==
'''"''kobun''"''' 
Yakuza retainer; button man; bodyguard.

'''"one more view of Edo."''' 
Sounds like a line from a famous ''haiku'', or the title of a painting. Edo is, of course, the old name for Tokyo. Likely a reference to Japanese printmaker [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hiroshige Utagawa Hiroshige's] [http://www.hiroshige.org.uk/hiroshige/100_views_edo/100_views_edo.htm "One Hundred Famous Views of Edo"] (1855-1858).

'''"Yamaguchi-gumi"''' 
one of the major [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza ''Yakuza''] (Japanese organized crime) families.

'''"Relax! Only testing you!"''' 
Here Inoshiro Sensei becomes a cross between Toshiro Mifune and Mr. Natural.

'''"giri"''' 
obligation. Very important in Japanese (and particularly [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakuza ''Yakuza'']) culture; note that Takeshi's musical cards are called "giri-chits."

==Page 127==
'''"original purity...subverted...once eternal techniques now only one-shot and disposable..."'''

'''"This is for all the rest of us down here with the insects, the ones who don't quite get to make warrior, who...fail to get it right...this is our equalizer, our edge...because we have ancestors and descendants too..."'''

A moving restatement of Pynchon's concern for the preterites, as well as an excellent discourse on the difference between a samurai (the eternal purity of the warrior) and Inoshiro's version of ''ninjitsu'' (the one-shot pragmatism of the assassin, martial arts without Zen).

'''"The Nosepicking of Death"''' 
Funny list of martial moves. ''Gojira no Chimpira'' = The Gangster of Godzilla.

==Page 128==
'''"...better just hand [your body] over to those who are qualified, doctors, and lab technicians and by extension coaches, employers, boys with hardons, so forth..."''' 
Pynchon's attitude towards authority is pretty well spelled out in DL's feminist monologue on schoolrooms.

'''"She and Prairie were out taking a break..."''' 
Fabulously smooth cross-fade out of flashbacks back to DL and Prairie talking at SKA.
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==Page 68==
'''"a pale humid Sun Belt city whose almost-familiar name would soon enough be denied to civilian eyes by federal marker pens"''' 
That is, censored in Frenesi's Freedom-of-Information file. This marker-pen image recurs later, too. One gets the feeling that Pynchon has, at one time or another, worked with such files -- or looked at his own.

==Page 70==
'''"once you get that specialist's code..."''' 
Frenesi has the specialist's code for sexual betrayal. Cold.

==Page 71==
'''"a zombie at her back"''' 
Frenesi's past. Embodied, we shall see later, by the Thanatoid Weed.

'''"full-auto qualified"''' 
More military usage. Technically, this means qualified in automatic-fire weaponry, but the meaning here seems more like: empowered, into her own.

'''"When the sixties were over...a world based on the one and zero of life and death..."''' 
A moving section, extremely fine writing, and the first appearance of Pynchon's powerful binary metaphor -- which rolls on to the end of the chapter, and indeed, throughout the book. Actually, it first appeared near the end of [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''The Crying of Lot 49'']: "For it was now like walking among matrices of a great digital computer, the zeros and ones twinned above.... Ones and Zeros. So did the couples arrange themselves...[for example,] either an accommodation reached...with the Angel of Death, or only death and the daily, tedious preparations for it. Another mode of meaning behind the obvious, or none."

==Page 74==
'''gaffer''' 
The movie electrician who sets up the stage lights for filming; probably a member of IBEW (IATSE local 40),

==Page 75==
'''"all over the jukeboxes..."''' 
Pynchon makes a rare departure from his usual devil-may-care style to explain one of his weird names. Frenesi's parents named her after the popular [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artie_Shaw Artie Shaw] swing tune. Cf [[Chapter_3#Page_27|page 27]].

'''"Her father, Jess Traverse, trying to organize loggers in Vineland..."''' 
Frenesi, and thus Prairie, are descendants of the Traverse clan, the arguably central protagonists of Pynchon's "Against the Day". For more detail see the Traverse entry in the "Against the Day" wiki.
On the following page Pynchon relays the meeting of Jess and Eula Becker, Sasha's mother. However on p.1076 of AtD the adolescent Jess brings home a homework assignment from a Mr. Becker, an essay on "What It Means To Be An American." "It means do what they tell you and take what they give you and don't go on strike or their soldiers will shoot you down." It came back with a big A+ on it. "Mr. Becker was at the Cour d'Alene back in the olden days.
Guess I forgot to mention that."
AtD leaves the Traverse clan in what is implied to be northwestern Washington state.

'''"Crocker 'Bud' Scantling"''' 
An appropriate name for a logging goon, since a scantling is, among other things, a small wooden beam, or a small timber. As Pynchon tells the tale, Scantling was hired by "big timber" (the Employers Association), to help eradicate the "timber beast" (the IWW). Scantling's first name may be a reference to Charles Crocker, a 19th Century California tycoon who made a fortune building the Union Pacific Railroad.

'''"the Employer's Association"''' 
of the State of Washington was the anti-wobbly arm of the Lumber Trust. In April, 1918, its hired thugs raided the IWW headquarters in Centralia, Washington -- leading, inevitably, to yet another massacre in Centralia during the Armistice Day parade, November 11, 1919.

'''"...a local attorney for the damned, sure no George Vandeveer..."''' 
George F. Vanderveer (either Pynchon, his editor, or his typesetter has misspelled the name) was a prominent Seattle attorney in the 'teens, popularly known as "counsel for the damned." In 1917 Vanderveer successfully defended IWW members in the legal free-for-all following a series of violent confrontations in Washington state in which Wobblies were slugged, kidnapped, shot, hanged, tarred and feathered, driven out of town -- and, when all else failed, jailed and charged with treason for endangering the war effort.

Subsequently Vanderveer became chief counsel for the IWW, and in 1918 headed the defense of 101 Wobblies against bogus charges of sabotage, and conspiracy to obstruct the war. The trial lasted five months; it was the longest criminal trial ever held in the United States to that date. Despite Vanderveer's best efforts, all 101 defendants were found guilty, and given long sentences by Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis (later the first Commissioner of Baseball). This was the beginning of the end for the IWW, although it lingered long enough to contribute to the events described in this chapter, and remained technically active well into the sixties.

==Page 76==
'''"Wobblies, sneered at by property owners..."''' 
Wobblies = members of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wobblies IWW, the Industrial Workers of the World]. And definitely preterite.

'''"bindlestiff life"''' 
Hobolike. Bindle = bundle, usually a hobo's clothes and stuff, rolled up in bedroll. Hence, "Bindlestiff" = hobo, a stiff with a bindle, but sometimes a thief who will stiff you of your bindle. Note: [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=B#bindlestiffs Bindlestiffs of the Blue in ''Against the Day'']

'''"One Big Union"''' 
Often confused with the IWW, this was actually an earlier labor movement that led to the formation of the IWW. First seen around the turn of the century, it was supposed to be organized along industrial, rather than trade lines. The Lumber Trust, which controlled the authorities in the area, called this movement "The Timber Beast," and did its best to eradicate it. Nonetheless, in the early 'teens it took hold among Northwest loggers, most of whom eventually joined the IWW.

'''"Joe Hill"''' 
(1882 - 1915) was a Swedish emigrant who arrived in the US in 1901, and fought in the Mexican revolution before becoming an IWW organizer in California in 1912. A songwriter as well as a soldier of fortune, he is credited as the author of many labor union songs, including Casey Jones (The Union Scab), The Preacher and the Slave, Rebel Girl, Pie In the Sky When You Die, and many others. In 1915, Hill was framed on a murder charge, and executed by firing squad, in Utah. Whether in spite of, or because of, his murder, he went on to become a legendary labor hero, inspiring countless thousands of working men and women. Hill's life fully justifies his legend.

'''"piss on through"''' 
As opposed to "pass on through." Nice bit of local/period usage -- unless it's a typo.

'''"the City"''' 
There's only one: San Francisco. Pynchon's flawless idiomatic usage reveals him to have spent at least some time in the Bay Area.

==Page 77==
'''"a rip-roaring union town..."''' 
Excellent details of pre-war labor history in San Francisco.

'''"the General strike of '34"''' 
The surprisingly successful San Francisco General Strike of July, 1934, was initiated by Harry Bridges' Longshoremen's Union, along with a number of other unionized maritime workers. Jack London wrote about it in his story, "South O' the Slot." Although the authorities eventually succeeded in putting it down, some of the strikers' demands were actually met. As a result, "strike fever" spread throughout the US, especially in the coal mining, and textile industries, and among agricultural workers. Pynchon lists some of the west coast agricultural strikes.

'''"standing midwatch guard"''' 
Midwatch is a Naval term, probably an abbreviation of "midnight watch" since the midwatch (also known as the "balls to four") is the stint between midnight and 4 AM. It's followed by the dogwatch (4 AM to 8 AM).

'''"Tom Mooney"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Mooney Thomas J. Mooney] was a famous jailed radical, for whom thousands of picket signs ("Free Tom Mooney") were carried by thousands of lefties during the twenties and thirties. In 1915, Mooney was the foremost labor radical in San Francisco. He was solidly against the United Railroads of San Francisco, which in turn put its money behind Charles M. Fickert, a leader of the "crush the unions" drive. On July 22, 1916, Fickert framed Mooney by staging a homicidal dynamite blast on Market Street. Ten people were killed; Mooney (and Warren K. Billings) were held in prison until 1939, when they were pardoned by California Governor Culbert L. Olson.

'''"Campaign for Culber Olson in '38"''' 
Another typo/misspelling. This must be the lawyer, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culbert_L._Olson Culbert L. Olson], who eventually freed Tom Mooney.

First edition hardcover has correct spelling, typo introduced in subsequent printings.

==Page 78==
'''"Oh, the joints were jumping those nights..."''' 
Pynchon does a great job of capturing the wartime atmosphere in San Francisco, with a cute ref to Orson Welles' War of the Worlds radio broadcast.

'''"Wild and rowdy like the Clark Gable movie."''' 
That's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_%28film%29 ''San Francisco''] [1936].

'''Eddie Enrico and his Hong Kong Hotshots''' 
Some readers believe that Pynchon’s creation of Eddie Enrico and his Hong Kong Hotshots is a reference to Earl Mac Rauch’s 1984 film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Buckaroo_Banzai_Across_the_8th_Dimension ''The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension''] (which itself contains references to [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''The Crying of Lot 49'']) — and in which Buckaroo Banzai plays in a band called the Hong Kong Cavaliers. Your call.

:There is also the famous Enrico's Sidewalk Cafe in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood adjacent to Chinatown home of the beats. Around since 1959, it garnered a cameo as a boho rendezvous spot in the 1968 San Francisco film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullitt ''Bullitt''] starring Steve McQueen.

'''"Ramón Raquello...with the news from Mars"''' 
Fictional bandleader and fictional event, both created by Orson Welles’ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_Theatre Mercury Theatre troupe] for the famous [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_%28radio%29 "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast] on 30 Oct 1938.

==Page 79==
'''"Chinese references in those days [were] code for opium products"''' 
A fascinating (and typically Pynchonian) inside "period" tip.

A "hot shot" is a lethal injection of either heroin of unexpected purity, causing an overdose, or heroin mixed with some poisonous additive.

'''"ork"''' 
Pynchon uses this obscure bit of (presumably) forties slang, meaning orchestra, at least twice in Vineland. We've never run across it in any of our period reading or listening. However, in Kovacsland, a biography of Ernie Kovacs, author Diana Rico makes reference to Kovacs' habit of "creating a special language" in a column he wrote, briefly, for a newspaper called the Trentonian. ["Special language" = "idiolalia." See note on p. 263. A paranoid would connect these, but we'll pass.] To illustrate her point, she notes Kovacs' habitual use of the word "orks," meaning orchestras. Now Kovacs was writing in 1946, so there are two intriguing possibilities: 1) Rico is wrong; Kovacs didn't make up the term, he picked it up from hearing it used, thereby verifying Pynchon's correct use of it. Or, 2), Kovacs did invent the term, and Pynchon picked it up from reading one of Kovacs' columns.

Diana Rico is incorrect. The use of "ork" for orchestra was authentic 1940's slang, even prior to 1946. For example, see the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stan_Keller#Stan_Keller_and_His_Orchestra Ork of Stork] or the 1948 Billboard reviews of [http://www.miriamlavelle.com/Billboard_Entries.htm Miriam LaVelle].

'''"telegraphing the chord changes"''' 
Only musicians think about these details; another hint of Pynchon's musical predilections.

'''"gave her the O-O"''' 
O-O = the once-over. But the way it looks on the page also suggests "the big eye," or in this case, two of 'em.

==Page 80==
'''"long-hull Sumner-class destroyer"''' 
More Navy stuff, unlikely to be found in newspaper archives.

'''"Friends of Hub's had sold out friends of Sasha's..."''' 
Extremely accurate rendition of left-wing bitterness, with nice joke ("nobody talks") to cap it.

==Page 82==
'''"You want to see a hot set?....see that? Shook all over? That's scab carpentry..."''' 
Presumably the paint on the scab construction hadn't dried yet either. This is great, authentic-sounding slang.
[[Image:IATSElogo.png|thumb|IATSE Logo|right]]
'''"You want to see a hot set...some scab local the IA set up..."''' 
IA is short for IATSE – the International Alliance of Theatrical and Stage Employees. Originally a theatrical union for stagehands and set decorators, it expanded into Hollywood and the up-and-coming motion picture industry in the 1920s. In the early 1930s, the union was taken over by the Chicago crime syndicate headed by Frank Nitti — Al Capone’s successor. Throughout the '30s and '40s (and, some say, even today) IA was a so-called "sweetheart" union—meaning that it existed primarily to protect the studios from labor unrest. During those years IA paid millions of dollars in kickbacks to the mob. During the CSU strikes of 1945-1947 (see note, p. 289) "company" unions were formed by IA leaders for the express purpose of breaking the strikes. "Hot" was a term the far more radical CSU (Conference of Studio Unions) used to refer to sleazy sets constructed by these "scab" IA unions.

'''"loud birds...were attracted..."''' 
Not even birds can resist TV; it charms them out of the trees.

==Page 83==
'''"Believing that the rays coming out of the TV screen would act as a broom to sweep the room clear of all spirits, Frenesi now popped the Tube on and checked the listings."''' 
So we learn two more notable Tube Facts: TV has supernatural powers; and it sweeps out good, as well as bad spirits.

'''"Let the grim feminist rave..."''' 
Frenesi's fetish for men-in-uniform manifests itself in masturbatory fantasies featuring Ponch and Jon from CHiPs. This scene marks the return from Frenesi's flashback to her parent's history and her childhood.

'''"Sasha believed her daughter had 'gotten' this uniform fetish from her...a helpless turn toward images of authority..."''' 
Authority = God = election to Calvinist salvation. Pynchon's attitude towards authority in this context is pretty well spelled out in DL's angry-ironic monologue on schoolrooms (p.128): "...better just hand [your body] over to those who are qualified, doctors, and lab technicians and by extension coaches, employers, boys with hardons, so forth..."

==Page 85==
'''"a lot of people we know -- they ain't on the computer anymore. Just -- gone."''' 
Paranoia strikes deep, except this time it isn't just paranoia. This echoes the passengers vanishing from the Kahuna Airlines plane in Chapter 5, and foreshadows the "handful of persons unaccounted for" (p. 248) after Trasero County events to be revealed presently. It seems that Vond (or certain "unrelenting forces" that may, or may not, be connected with Vond) have been "disappearing" people for some time.

==Page 87==
[[Image:LongBinhJail.jpg|thumb|Long Binh Jail (LBJ)|right]]
'''Long Bihn Jail''' 
Long Bihn was the principal US military prison in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Located in Saigon, and best known as "The LBJ" by the troops, it housed US military personnel who had crossed to the dark side.

This is a typo, should be "Long Binh." Was wrong on this page in first edition hardcover, spelled correctly however on page 181.

'''"...a kind of alien-invasion game in which Flash launched complaints of different sizes at different speeds and Frenesi tried to deflect or neutralize them..."''' 
A marital argument is described with a Space Invaders simile. Very telling, very clever.

==Page 90==
'''"Jasonic"''' 
From Jason, the main character in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friday_the_13th_%28film%29 ''Friday the 13th''] [1980].

'''"alphanumeric"''' 
letters and numbers, like a typewriter keyboard.

'''"It would take eight human lives and deaths just to form one character..."''' 
Computer reference: eight bits, each of which can be either a one or a zero, make one byte (or alphanumeric character).

'''"We are digits in God's computer...and the only thing we're good for, to be dead or to be living, is the only thing He sees. What we cry, what we contend for, in our world of toil and blood, it all lies beneath the notice of the hacker we call God."''' 
The life-and-death-as-ones-and-zeros conceit is concluded. A beautiful, elegant, unbearable idea. The phrase "toil and blood" may be a tip of the hat to Bob Dylan (the same words occur in "Shelter From the Storm"), or it may simply be a reference to Winston Churchill's famous WW II speech.

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==Page 56==
'''"Kahuna Airlines"''' 
A reference to those silly AIP beach party movies in which Frankie Avalon was "The Big Kahuna." ''Kahuna'' was the Hawaiian title for a priest, expert, teacher, and/or adviser, and the term is still used in that context by native Hawaiians. A ''kahuna nui'' was a high priest.

Kahuna Airlines is also in Pynchon's 2009 novel [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_6#Page_74 ''Inherent Vice''].

==Page 57==
''' "Feel like Mildred Pierce's husband, Bert"''' 
Another movie reference, this time to a 1945 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Crawford Joan Crawford] movie, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mildred_Pierce ''Mildred Pierce''], based on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_M._Cain James M. Cain's] novel.

'''"Dark Ocean Hotel, a towering dihedral..."''' [[Image:IlikaiZoom.jpg|thumb|Zoom Shot from ''Hawaii Five-O''|right]] 
This is a disguised version of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ilikai Ilikai Hotel]. In Hawaiian, [http://wehewehe.org/gsdl2.5/cgi-bin/hdict?e=q-0hdict--00-0-0--010---4----den--0-000lpm--1haw-Zz-1---Zz-1-home-ilikai--00031-0000escapewin-00&a=q&d=D5231 ilikai] means "surface of the sea". The Ilikai is famous for its appearance in a distinctive helicopter zoom shot in the opening titles of the TV show [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii_5-O ''Hawaii Five-O'']. Note the dihedral shape of the Ilikai in the first frame. The last frame shows Jack Lord as Steve McGarrett, the star of the show. ''Hawaii Five-O'' is referenced several times in the next few pages.

==Page 58==
'''"maiden voyage into the green seas of jealousy"''' 
Nice use of color and imagery here. "Green" both signifying newness as well as fertility of suspicious thoughts?

Recall the Dark Ocean Hotel from the previous page.

'''"ankling"''' 
Variety show-biz usage, meaning to walk out of, or quit. It's very appropriate for Sasha with her film-biz background.

==Page 59==
'''"those eyes of blue painted blue, as the Italian oldie goes..."''' 
The oldie, which is "Volare," goes, "nel blu, nel pinto di blu," or however it's spelled in Italian.

'''"on the astral night flights he would make to be near and haunt her as best he knew how..."''' 
As Zoyd describes to Prairie ([[Chapter 4#Page 40|p. 40]]). A sad, moving rendition of lost love.

==Page 60==
'''"sex fantasy...[or] ex fantasy"''' 
Always ready for a play on words, that Pynchon.

'''Hawaii . . . Suicide Fantasy Packages''' 
For another scene of love sick men wanting to commit suicide in Hawaii, see [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_12#191''Inherent Vice'', pg. 191.]

'''"Book him, Danno..."''' 
Zoyd's suicide fantasy features a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii_5-O Hawaii 5-0] denouement. Most episodes of ''Hawaii Five-O'' ended with the arrest of criminals with McGarrett's catch phrase to Williams, "Book 'em, Danno!" with the offense occasionally added after this phrase, such as "-Murder one!". The Tube forces us to look at the real world via its pre-packaged perceptions. (Incidentally, the ''Hawaii 5-0'' theme surfaces at least two other places -- including the tune played by Takeshi's electronic Giri card.)

==Page 61==
'''"zoot-suit effect"''' 
Pynchon is still hung up on these baggy zoots, which were radical black/Latino fashion statements in the early-mid forties. Read more about 'em in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

'''"gig of death"''' 
Typical Pynchonian mysterioso.

==Page 62==
'''"dash-one"''' 
Military slang for the user manual. A common element in Pynchon's work is his peppering of slang phrases and references stemming, presumably, from his two years in the US Navy.

==Page 65==
'''"title theme from ''Godzilla''"''' 
Listen on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74E4OFTJNW0&feature=related YouTube].

==Page 66==
'''"Takeshi"''' 
Pynchon is fond of transplanting characters from one novel to another. Takeshi Fumimoto is a perfect example. He made his first appearance as a bit player in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''] where he was one of a pair of wacky kamikaze pilots. His first name is almost surely borrowed from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashi_Shimura Takashi Shimura], the star of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla ''Godzilla''] -- a film referenced in the very same sentence, when Zoyd plays the ''Godzilla'' theme music to accompany Takeshi's first appearance. (Pynchon seems to have been thinking about this beast for some time: There's a boat named Godzilla II in [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''The Crying of Lot 49''] -- and the word is that he loves Japanese horror flicks. In fact, at one point rumor had it that he was writing a book with Mothra as a major character.) Godzilla is referenced several times in Pynchon's 2009 novel [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=G#godzilla ''Inherent Vice''].

To read why Thomas Pynchon likes ''Godzilla'' and other Badasses, there is no better source than his own essay [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_luddite.html Is it O.K. to be a Luddite?].

In Spanish, "fumo" = "I smoke." "Mota" is northern Mexico slang for marijuana.

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==Page 56==
'''"Kahuna Airlines"''' 
A reference to those silly AIP beach party movies in which Frankie Avalon was "The Big Kahuna." ''Kahuna'' was the Hawaiian title for a priest, expert, teacher, and/or adviser, and the term is still used in that context by native Hawaiians. A ''kahuna nui'' was a high priest.

Kahuna Airlines is also in Pynchon's 2009 novel [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_6#Page_74 ''Inherent Vice''].

==Page 57==
''' "Feel like Mildred Pierce's husband, Bert"''' 
Another movie reference, this time to a 1945 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joan_Crawford Joan Crawford] movie, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mildred_Pierce ''Mildred Pierce''], based on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_M._Cain James M. Cain's] novel.

'''"Dark Ocean Hotel, a towering dihedral..."''' [[Image:IlikaiZoom.jpg|thumb|Zoom Shot from ''Hawaii Five-O''|right]] 
This is a disguised version of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ilikai Ilikai Hotel]. In Hawaiian, [http://wehewehe.org/gsdl2.5/cgi-bin/hdict?e=q-0hdict--00-0-0--010---4----den--0-000lpm--1haw-Zz-1---Zz-1-home-ilikai--00031-0000escapewin-00&a=q&d=D5231 ilikai] means "surface of the sea". The Ilikai is famous for its appearance in a distinctive helicopter zoom shot in the opening titles of the TV show [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii_5-O ''Hawaii Five-O'']. Note the dihedral shape of the Ilikai in the first frame. The last frame shows Jack Lord as Steve McGarrett, the star of the show. ''Hawaii Five-O'' is referenced several times in the next few pages.

==Page 58==
'''"maiden voyage into the green seas of jealousy"''' 
Nice use of color and imagery here. "Green" both signifying newness as well as fertility of suspicious thoughts?

Recall the Dark Ocean Hotel from the previous page.

'''"ankling"''' 
Variety show-biz usage, meaning to walk out of, or quit. It's very appropriate for Sasha with her film-biz background.

==Page 59==
'''"those eyes of blue painted blue, as the Italian oldie goes..."''' 
The oldie, which is "Volare," goes, "nel blu, nel pinto di blu," or however it's spelled in Italian.

'''"on the astral night flights he would make to be near and haunt her as best he knew how..."''' 
As Zoyd describes to Prairie ([[Chapter 4#Page 40|p. 40]]). A sad, moving rendition of lost love.

==Page 60==
'''"sex fantasy...[or] ex fantasy"''' 
Always ready for a play on words, that Pynchon.

'''Hawaii . . . Suicide Fantasy Packages''' 
For another scene of love sick men wanting to commit suicide in Hawaii, see [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_12#191''Inherent Vice'', pg. 191.]

'''"Book him, Danno..."''' 
Zoyd's suicide fantasy features a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hawaii_5-O Hawaii 5-0] denouement. Most episodes of ''Hawaii Five-O'' ended with the arrest of criminals with McGarrett's catch phrase to Williams, "Book 'em, Danno!" with the offense occasionally added after this phrase, such as "-Murder one!". The Tube forces us to look at the real world via its pre-packaged perceptions. (Incidentally, the ''Hawaii 5-0'' theme surfaces at least two other places -- including the tune played by Takeshi's electronic Giri card.)

==Page 61==
'''"zoot-suit effect"''' 
Pynchon is still hung up on these baggy zoots, which were radical black/Latino fashion statements in the early-mid forties. Read more about 'em in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

'''"gig of death"''' 
Typical Pynchonian mysterioso.

==Page 62==
'''"dash-one"''' 
Military slang for the user manual. A common element in Pynchon's work is his peppering of slang phrases and references stemming, presumably, from his two years in the US Navy.

==Page 65==
'''"title theme from ''Godzilla''"''' 
Listen on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74E4OFTJNW0&feature=related YouTube].

==Page 66==
'''"Takeshi"''' 
Pynchon is fond of transplanting characters from one novel to another. Takeshi Fumimoto is a perfect example. He made his first appearance as a bit player in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''] where he was one of a pair of wacky kamikaze pilots. His first name is almost surely borrowed from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashi_Shimura Takashi Shimura], the star of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godzilla ''Godzilla''] -- a film referenced in the very same sentence, when Zoyd plays the ''Godzilla'' theme music to accompany Takeshi's first appearance. (Pynchon seems to have been thinking about this beast for some time: There's a boat named Godzilla II in [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''The Crying of Lot 49''] -- and the word is that he loves Japanese horror flicks. In fact, at one point rumor had it that he was writing a book with Mothra as a major character.) Godzilla is referenced several times in Pynchon's 2009 novel [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=G#godzilla ''Inherent Vice''].

To read why Thomas Pynchon likes ''Godzilla'' and other Badasses, there is no better source than his own essay [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_luddite.html Is it O.K. to be a Luddite?].

{{Vineland PbP}}

In Spanish, "fumo" = "I smoke". "Mota" is northern Mexico slang for marijuana.

Chapter 4

2011-12-26T04:11:13Z

Pthomas: /* Page 51 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 35==
[[Image:Housetruck.jpg|thumb|Housetruck|right]]
'''"camper shell whose unusual design gave the vehicle some cornering problems"''' 
It's called a "housetruck". The one to the right is larger than Trent's.

'''"imbrication"''' 
An overlapping, like leaves, fish scales, or certain geological strata.

'''"depraved yuppie food preferences"''' 
Go get 'em, TP!

'''"RC and Moonpie"''' 
Names taken from Big Bill Liston's 1951 hillbilly hit, "Gimme an RC Cola and a Moonpie." The MoonPie was the original marshmallow sandwhich. Back then you could buy an RC Cola and MoonPie for 10 cents, and some consider the favorite fast-food lunch of the 1950s, at least in the South. [http://www.timesanddemocrat.com/articles/2007/07/16/opinion/doc469a4b3cb3e75185050602.txt More on that MoonPie...]

According to numerous internet sources, Royal Crown Cola had its origins in a company founded by Claude Hatcher in 1905 in Columbus, Georgia. The company's original cola offering was Chero-Cola, reformulated and renamed Royal Crown in 1933.

==Page 37==
'''"Beer riders"''' 
A nice conceit, typically Pynchonian: kamikaze rednecks racing through the tule fog.

'''"behind a 409"''' 
This would be a 60s Chevy with a 409 cu. in. engine, made famous by the Beach Boy's hit "(She's real fine my) 409". The 1960s saw an arms race regarding engine size, with the Chevrolet 409 topping the Ford 406 cu. in. in 1961, and Chrysler topping Chevrolet with the 426 Ramcharger. [http://www.55-57chevys.com/coccc/articles/646/65asty1.html More on the Chevy 409...]

'''"tule fogs"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tule_fog Tule fog], named after California [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tule tule grass], is a thick fog endemic to California's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Central_Valley Central Valley]. It has led to many spectacular chain-reaction automobile collisions, some involving dozens of cars.

'''"white presences, full of blindness and sudden highway death..."''' 
Echoes the "white visitation" of [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=W#whitevisitation ''Gravity's Rainbow''], as well as Melville's whiteness of the whale. Also a pungent evocation of graveworms: There's more death in this phrase than meets the eye, foreshadowing the Thanatoids.

'''"...all at once, there in the road, a critter in a movie..."''' 
A Japanese horror movie, no doubt! ([[Chapter 5#Page 65|See note, p. 65.]])

'''Dick Dale''' 
Dale, a left-handed Californian (two strikes against) guitar player, was dubbed "King of the Surf Guitar" in the 1950s – and there's some truth to his claim that he invented surf music. He made a surprise reappearance in a commercial for the Nissan Armada in 2004 and 2005. [http://www.dickdale.com/ Dick's website]

==Page 39==
'''"her already notorious blue eyes"''' 
Frenesi's blue eyes are certainly notorious to analysts of Pynchon's imagery. Cf. [[Blue_in_Vineland|Blue in Vineland]] and [[Charles_Riley_-_Color_Codes:_Modern_Theories_of_Color|Color Codes]].

When it isn't obscured by smog or fog, the sky in California appears intensely blue due to low humidity. This is particularly striking to someone born on the East Coast (like Pynchon). Frenesi, a California Girl, has this sky internalized, visible in her eyes. In addition, blue eyes are "Nordic" characteristics, with all the symbolic baggage this carries in Pynchon's work.

'''"Can love save anyone?"''' 
"Save" is Calvinist/Christian terminology -- another reference to the binary distinction between elect and preterite, one and zero.

==Page 40==
'''"Mr. Sulu"''' 
The navigator on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_trek Star Trek]

==Page 41==
'''"The Steam Donkey"''' 
A bar named after the logger's mechanical badass winch.

'''"...she rilly freaked when she found out she was pregnant"''' 
As we'll see in the final chapter, Vond's last escapade is mostly an attempt to abduct Prairie. So the paranoid reader might ask: Is Frenesi merely a convenient mechanism to set up all of the important stuff in the book? Or is she simply Patty Hearst in reverse?

She's the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macguffin MacGuffin].

==Page 42==
'''"...time to go to commercials..."''' 
Zoyd remembers expecting life to be like TV -- a dangerous side-effect of TV addiction. The passage goes on to note that Zoyd was "Sent...gaga by those mythical days of high drama..."

'''"Le Bucheron Affame"''' 
Probably The Starving Logger, but possibly The Starving French Goat Cheese.

==Page 43==
'''"Humbolaya Restaurant"''' 
Humboldt County + Jambalaya (with tofu ''etouffe'', yet!).

'''"After a short recorded program of themes from famous TV shows..."''' 
The telephone "hold" circuit at NEVER plays TV themes, which is like calling Alcoholics Anonymous and getting a medley of "One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer" and "Hey Bartender." But of course, the "VE does stand for "Video Education"...

'''"'Ti Bruce"''' 
'Ti = Creole/Cajun shorthand for petit = little, hence Ti Bruce = Little Bruce. Can chef 'Ti Bruce be a gag on Bay Area chef and sausage-maker "Big Bruce" Aidells? Seems unlikely...but you never know.

'''"Little Charlie and the Nightcats singing 'TV Crazy'"''' 
Real band, real song.

The song was first released on their album ''All the Way Crazy'' in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Charlie_%26_the_Nightcats 1987], so this is either an anachronism or a bootleg. Pynchon probably couldn't resist. It's available on [http://www.amazon.com/All-Crazy-Little-Charlie-Nightcats/dp/B0000009YM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1276485730&sr=8-2 Amazon].

'''"Rick & Chick's Born Again"''' 
Autobody shop with a similar ideal as '''"Resurrection of the Body"''' in ''Inherent Vice''.

'''"didt'n"''' 
According to [http://books.google.com/books?id=DTLuAAAAMAAJ&q=didt%27n+inauthor:pynchon&dq=didt%27n+inauthor:pynchon&hl=en&ei=bdcdTdf7EMGclgeB-LSyDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAQ Google Books], this spelling occurs 12 times in Vineland, and twice in Against the Day. It also occurs at least once in Inherent Vice.

==Page 44==
'''"script possibilities"''' 
Presumably, an off-the-cuff creation of a believable cover story concerning some vehicle's provenance.

==Page 45==
'''"another one of those intestinal pangs"''' 
... of fear. See also pages [[Chapter 1#Page 10|10]], [[Chapter 8#Page 116|116]], [[Chapter 11#Page 207|207]], [[Chapter 14#Page 299|299]].

'''"the slowest fast food in the region"''' 
Hilarious riff on trendy California health-food pizza.

==Page 46==
'''"The Marquis de Sod."''' 
Hazardously funny.

==Page 47==
'''"those old split 30's during the vampire shift"''' 
TV ad lingo, referring to 15-second TV spots (splitting a 30-second commercial break) often on in the wee hours. Vampire shift is a Pynchon usage, we think; more common is "graveyard shift."

'''"A lawn savant..."''' 
An amazing goof on "La Marseillaise" ("allons enfants...")

==Page 48==
'''"more liens than the tower of Pisa...more garnishes than a California burger"''' 
Bad, bad puns. Bad, bad Pynchon.

'''"Pat Sajak in The Frank Gorshin Story"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Gorshin Gorshin] was a hollow-eyed comedian and TV celeb from the late fifties, sort of a cross between Dan Duryea and Richard Widmark. He was probably best known as The Riddler on the Batman TV show.

[http://www.patsajak.com/ Pat Sajak] is the friendly, self-deprecating host of the TV show ''Wheel of Fortune'', mentioned on [[Chapter_1#Page_12|page 12]].

==Page 49==
'''Bodhi Dharma Pizza''' 
Ginsberg, Kerouac, and many of the other beat writers were deep into Zen Buddhism, including the famous zen koan that asks Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? Some of that trickled down to the hippies, their (sort of) spiritual descendents.

==Page 50==
'''"Brock Vond"''' 
Another badass "V." Pynchon has a long-standing history of bad guys whose names start with "V." In this case, as we will see, the V stands for Vampire as well as Villain.

Rock von BD?.

==Page 51==
[[Image:DharmaWheel.jpg|thumb|Dharma Wheel in Kelantan, Malaysia|right]]'''"eightfold pizzic mandala"''' 
Extending the Buddhist riff on "Bodhi Dharma Pizza" on [[Chapter_4#Page_49|p. 49]]: Eightfold because pizza is always cut into 8 slices, which reminds Pynchon of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eightfold_path eightfold path of classic Buddhism]. Also, pizza is round, like those beautiful symbols of that eightfold path.

'''"all those long-ago political wars"''' 
Presumably referring to the decades of class struggle that form the subtextual background for this novel – from the (IWW) Wobblies at the turn of the 20th Century and the general labor strikes of the 1930s through the freedom rider/Black Panther/ hippie/yippie activism of the '50s, '60s and '70s, and on into the battle for existence carried on by progressive people against ever-increasing attacks by the legions of corporate evil headed by Nixon and Reagan in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s.

==Page 52==
'''"Baba Havabananda"''' 
i.e., have a banana. Groucho Marx meets Swami Satchidananda at R. Crumb's?

==Page 55==
'''"like a time machine departing for the future..."''' 
Fine writing.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 4

2011-12-26T03:55:23Z

Pthomas: /* Page 35 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 35==
[[Image:Housetruck.jpg|thumb|Housetruck|right]]
'''"camper shell whose unusual design gave the vehicle some cornering problems"''' 
It's called a "housetruck". The one to the right is larger than Trent's.

'''"imbrication"''' 
An overlapping, like leaves, fish scales, or certain geological strata.

'''"depraved yuppie food preferences"''' 
Go get 'em, TP!

'''"RC and Moonpie"''' 
Names taken from Big Bill Liston's 1951 hillbilly hit, "Gimme an RC Cola and a Moonpie." The MoonPie was the original marshmallow sandwhich. Back then you could buy an RC Cola and MoonPie for 10 cents, and some consider the favorite fast-food lunch of the 1950s, at least in the South. [http://www.timesanddemocrat.com/articles/2007/07/16/opinion/doc469a4b3cb3e75185050602.txt More on that MoonPie...]

According to numerous internet sources, Royal Crown Cola had its origins in a company founded by Claude Hatcher in 1905 in Columbus, Georgia. The company's original cola offering was Chero-Cola, reformulated and renamed Royal Crown in 1933.

==Page 37==
'''"Beer riders"''' 
A nice conceit, typically Pynchonian: kamikaze rednecks racing through the tule fog.

'''"behind a 409"''' 
This would be a 60s Chevy with a 409 cu. in. engine, made famous by the Beach Boy's hit "(She's real fine my) 409". The 1960s saw an arms race regarding engine size, with the Chevrolet 409 topping the Ford 406 cu. in. in 1961, and Chrysler topping Chevrolet with the 426 Ramcharger. [http://www.55-57chevys.com/coccc/articles/646/65asty1.html More on the Chevy 409...]

'''"tule fogs"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tule_fog Tule fog], named after California [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tule tule grass], is a thick fog endemic to California's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Central_Valley Central Valley]. It has led to many spectacular chain-reaction automobile collisions, some involving dozens of cars.

'''"white presences, full of blindness and sudden highway death..."''' 
Echoes the "white visitation" of [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=W#whitevisitation ''Gravity's Rainbow''], as well as Melville's whiteness of the whale. Also a pungent evocation of graveworms: There's more death in this phrase than meets the eye, foreshadowing the Thanatoids.

'''"...all at once, there in the road, a critter in a movie..."''' 
A Japanese horror movie, no doubt! ([[Chapter 5#Page 65|See note, p. 65.]])

'''Dick Dale''' 
Dale, a left-handed Californian (two strikes against) guitar player, was dubbed "King of the Surf Guitar" in the 1950s – and there's some truth to his claim that he invented surf music. He made a surprise reappearance in a commercial for the Nissan Armada in 2004 and 2005. [http://www.dickdale.com/ Dick's website]

==Page 39==
'''"her already notorious blue eyes"''' 
Frenesi's blue eyes are certainly notorious to analysts of Pynchon's imagery. Cf. [[Blue_in_Vineland|Blue in Vineland]] and [[Charles_Riley_-_Color_Codes:_Modern_Theories_of_Color|Color Codes]].

When it isn't obscured by smog or fog, the sky in California appears intensely blue due to low humidity. This is particularly striking to someone born on the East Coast (like Pynchon). Frenesi, a California Girl, has this sky internalized, visible in her eyes. In addition, blue eyes are "Nordic" characteristics, with all the symbolic baggage this carries in Pynchon's work.

'''"Can love save anyone?"''' 
"Save" is Calvinist/Christian terminology -- another reference to the binary distinction between elect and preterite, one and zero.

==Page 40==
'''"Mr. Sulu"''' 
The navigator on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_trek Star Trek]

==Page 41==
'''"The Steam Donkey"''' 
A bar named after the logger's mechanical badass winch.

'''"...she rilly freaked when she found out she was pregnant"''' 
As we'll see in the final chapter, Vond's last escapade is mostly an attempt to abduct Prairie. So the paranoid reader might ask: Is Frenesi merely a convenient mechanism to set up all of the important stuff in the book? Or is she simply Patty Hearst in reverse?

She's the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macguffin MacGuffin].

==Page 42==
'''"...time to go to commercials..."''' 
Zoyd remembers expecting life to be like TV -- a dangerous side-effect of TV addiction. The passage goes on to note that Zoyd was "Sent...gaga by those mythical days of high drama..."

'''"Le Bucheron Affame"''' 
Probably The Starving Logger, but possibly The Starving French Goat Cheese.

==Page 43==
'''"Humbolaya Restaurant"''' 
Humboldt County + Jambalaya (with tofu ''etouffe'', yet!).

'''"After a short recorded program of themes from famous TV shows..."''' 
The telephone "hold" circuit at NEVER plays TV themes, which is like calling Alcoholics Anonymous and getting a medley of "One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer" and "Hey Bartender." But of course, the "VE does stand for "Video Education"...

'''"'Ti Bruce"''' 
'Ti = Creole/Cajun shorthand for petit = little, hence Ti Bruce = Little Bruce. Can chef 'Ti Bruce be a gag on Bay Area chef and sausage-maker "Big Bruce" Aidells? Seems unlikely...but you never know.

'''"Little Charlie and the Nightcats singing 'TV Crazy'"''' 
Real band, real song.

The song was first released on their album ''All the Way Crazy'' in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Charlie_%26_the_Nightcats 1987], so this is either an anachronism or a bootleg. Pynchon probably couldn't resist. It's available on [http://www.amazon.com/All-Crazy-Little-Charlie-Nightcats/dp/B0000009YM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1276485730&sr=8-2 Amazon].

'''"Rick & Chick's Born Again"''' 
Autobody shop with a similar ideal as '''"Resurrection of the Body"''' in ''Inherent Vice''.

'''"didt'n"''' 
According to [http://books.google.com/books?id=DTLuAAAAMAAJ&q=didt%27n+inauthor:pynchon&dq=didt%27n+inauthor:pynchon&hl=en&ei=bdcdTdf7EMGclgeB-LSyDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAQ Google Books], this spelling occurs 12 times in Vineland, and twice in Against the Day. It also occurs at least once in Inherent Vice.

==Page 44==
'''"script possibilities"''' 
Presumably, an off-the-cuff creation of a believable cover story concerning some vehicle's provenance.

==Page 45==
'''"another one of those intestinal pangs"''' 
... of fear. See also pages [[Chapter 1#Page 10|10]], [[Chapter 8#Page 116|116]], [[Chapter 11#Page 207|207]], [[Chapter 14#Page 299|299]].

'''"the slowest fast food in the region"''' 
Hilarious riff on trendy California health-food pizza.

==Page 46==
'''"The Marquis de Sod."''' 
Hazardously funny.

==Page 47==
'''"those old split 30's during the vampire shift"''' 
TV ad lingo, referring to 15-second TV spots (splitting a 30-second commercial break) often on in the wee hours. Vampire shift is a Pynchon usage, we think; more common is "graveyard shift."

'''"A lawn savant..."''' 
An amazing goof on "La Marseillaise" ("allons enfants...")

==Page 48==
'''"more liens than the tower of Pisa...more garnishes than a California burger"''' 
Bad, bad puns. Bad, bad Pynchon.

'''"Pat Sajak in The Frank Gorshin Story"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Gorshin Gorshin] was a hollow-eyed comedian and TV celeb from the late fifties, sort of a cross between Dan Duryea and Richard Widmark. He was probably best known as The Riddler on the Batman TV show.

[http://www.patsajak.com/ Pat Sajak] is the friendly, self-deprecating host of the TV show ''Wheel of Fortune'', mentioned on [[Chapter_1#Page_12|page 12]].

==Page 49==
'''Bodhi Dharma Pizza''' 
Ginsberg, Kerouac, and many of the other beat writers were deep into Zen Buddhism, including the famous zen koan that asks Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? Some of that trickled down to the hippies, their (sort of) spiritual descendents.

==Page 50==
'''"Brock Vond"''' 
Another badass "V." Pynchon has a long-standing history of bad guys whose names start with "V." In this case, as we will see, the V stands for Vampire as well as Villain.

Rock von BD?.

==Page 51==
[[Image:DharmaWheel.jpg|thumb|Dharma Wheel in Kelantan, Malaysia|right]]'''"eightfold pizzic mandala"''' 
Extending the Buddhist riff on "Bodhi Dharma Pizza" on [[Chapter_4#Page_49|p. 49]]: Eightfold because pizza is always cut into 8 slices, which reminds Pynchon of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eightfold_path eightfold path of classic Buddhism]. Also, pizza is round, like those beautiful symbols of that eightfold path. And we’re all stoned.

'''"all those long-ago political wars"''' 
Presumably referring to the decades of class struggle that form the subtextual background for this novel – from the (IWW) Wobblies at the turn of the 20th Century and the general labor strikes of the 1930s through the freedom rider/Black Panther/ hippie/yippie activism of the '50s, '60s and '70s, and on into the battle for existence carried on by progressive people against ever-increasing attacks by the legions of corporate evil headed by Nixon and Reagan in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s.

==Page 52==
'''"Baba Havabananda"''' 
i.e., have a banana. Groucho Marx meets Swami Satchidananda at R. Crumb's?

==Page 55==
'''"like a time machine departing for the future..."''' 
Fine writing.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 4

2011-12-26T03:51:29Z

Pthomas: /* Page 35 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 35==
[[Image:Housetruck.jpg|thumb|Housetruck|right]]
'''"camper shell whose unusual design gave the vehicle some cornering problems"''' 
It's called a "housetruck". The one to the right is larger than Trent's.

'''"imbrication"''' 
An overlapping, like leaves, fish scales, or certain geological strata.

'''"depraved yuppie food preferences"''' 
Go get 'em, TP!

'''"RC and Moonpie"''' 
Names taken from Big Bill Liston's 1951 hillbilly hit, "Gimme an RC Cola and a Moonpie." The MoonPie was the original marshmallow sandwhich. RC Cola was first marketed in 1905 in Plano, Texas. Back then you could buy an RC Cola and MoonPie for 10 cents, and some consider the favorite fast-food lunch of the 1950s, at least in the South. [http://www.timesanddemocrat.com/articles/2007/07/16/opinion/doc469a4b3cb3e75185050602.txt More on that MoonPie...]

According to numerous internet sources, Royal Crown Cola had its origins in a company founded by Claude Hatcher in 1905 in Columbus, Georgia. The company's original cola offering was Chero-Cola, reformulated and renamed Royal Crown in 1933.

==Page 37==
'''"Beer riders"''' 
A nice conceit, typically Pynchonian: kamikaze rednecks racing through the tule fog.

'''"behind a 409"''' 
This would be a 60s Chevy with a 409 cu. in. engine, made famous by the Beach Boy's hit "(She's real fine my) 409". The 1960s saw an arms race regarding engine size, with the Chevrolet 409 topping the Ford 406 cu. in. in 1961, and Chrysler topping Chevrolet with the 426 Ramcharger. [http://www.55-57chevys.com/coccc/articles/646/65asty1.html More on the Chevy 409...]

'''"tule fogs"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tule_fog Tule fog], named after California [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tule tule grass], is a thick fog endemic to California's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Central_Valley Central Valley]. It has led to many spectacular chain-reaction automobile collisions, some involving dozens of cars.

'''"white presences, full of blindness and sudden highway death..."''' 
Echoes the "white visitation" of [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=W#whitevisitation ''Gravity's Rainbow''], as well as Melville's whiteness of the whale. Also a pungent evocation of graveworms: There's more death in this phrase than meets the eye, foreshadowing the Thanatoids.

'''"...all at once, there in the road, a critter in a movie..."''' 
A Japanese horror movie, no doubt! ([[Chapter 5#Page 65|See note, p. 65.]])

'''Dick Dale''' 
Dale, a left-handed Californian (two strikes against) guitar player, was dubbed "King of the Surf Guitar" in the 1950s – and there's some truth to his claim that he invented surf music. He made a surprise reappearance in a commercial for the Nissan Armada in 2004 and 2005. [http://www.dickdale.com/ Dick's website]

==Page 39==
'''"her already notorious blue eyes"''' 
Frenesi's blue eyes are certainly notorious to analysts of Pynchon's imagery. Cf. [[Blue_in_Vineland|Blue in Vineland]] and [[Charles_Riley_-_Color_Codes:_Modern_Theories_of_Color|Color Codes]].

When it isn't obscured by smog or fog, the sky in California appears intensely blue due to low humidity. This is particularly striking to someone born on the East Coast (like Pynchon). Frenesi, a California Girl, has this sky internalized, visible in her eyes. In addition, blue eyes are "Nordic" characteristics, with all the symbolic baggage this carries in Pynchon's work.

'''"Can love save anyone?"''' 
"Save" is Calvinist/Christian terminology -- another reference to the binary distinction between elect and preterite, one and zero.

==Page 40==
'''"Mr. Sulu"''' 
The navigator on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_trek Star Trek]

==Page 41==
'''"The Steam Donkey"''' 
A bar named after the logger's mechanical badass winch.

'''"...she rilly freaked when she found out she was pregnant"''' 
As we'll see in the final chapter, Vond's last escapade is mostly an attempt to abduct Prairie. So the paranoid reader might ask: Is Frenesi merely a convenient mechanism to set up all of the important stuff in the book? Or is she simply Patty Hearst in reverse?

She's the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macguffin MacGuffin].

==Page 42==
'''"...time to go to commercials..."''' 
Zoyd remembers expecting life to be like TV -- a dangerous side-effect of TV addiction. The passage goes on to note that Zoyd was "Sent...gaga by those mythical days of high drama..."

'''"Le Bucheron Affame"''' 
Probably The Starving Logger, but possibly The Starving French Goat Cheese.

==Page 43==
'''"Humbolaya Restaurant"''' 
Humboldt County + Jambalaya (with tofu ''etouffe'', yet!).

'''"After a short recorded program of themes from famous TV shows..."''' 
The telephone "hold" circuit at NEVER plays TV themes, which is like calling Alcoholics Anonymous and getting a medley of "One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer" and "Hey Bartender." But of course, the "VE does stand for "Video Education"...

'''"'Ti Bruce"''' 
'Ti = Creole/Cajun shorthand for petit = little, hence Ti Bruce = Little Bruce. Can chef 'Ti Bruce be a gag on Bay Area chef and sausage-maker "Big Bruce" Aidells? Seems unlikely...but you never know.

'''"Little Charlie and the Nightcats singing 'TV Crazy'"''' 
Real band, real song.

The song was first released on their album ''All the Way Crazy'' in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Charlie_%26_the_Nightcats 1987], so this is either an anachronism or a bootleg. Pynchon probably couldn't resist. It's available on [http://www.amazon.com/All-Crazy-Little-Charlie-Nightcats/dp/B0000009YM/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1276485730&sr=8-2 Amazon].

'''"Rick & Chick's Born Again"''' 
Autobody shop with a similar ideal as '''"Resurrection of the Body"''' in ''Inherent Vice''.

'''"didt'n"''' 
According to [http://books.google.com/books?id=DTLuAAAAMAAJ&q=didt%27n+inauthor:pynchon&dq=didt%27n+inauthor:pynchon&hl=en&ei=bdcdTdf7EMGclgeB-LSyDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CC0Q6AEwAQ Google Books], this spelling occurs 12 times in Vineland, and twice in Against the Day. It also occurs at least once in Inherent Vice.

==Page 44==
'''"script possibilities"''' 
Presumably, an off-the-cuff creation of a believable cover story concerning some vehicle's provenance.

==Page 45==
'''"another one of those intestinal pangs"''' 
... of fear. See also pages [[Chapter 1#Page 10|10]], [[Chapter 8#Page 116|116]], [[Chapter 11#Page 207|207]], [[Chapter 14#Page 299|299]].

'''"the slowest fast food in the region"''' 
Hilarious riff on trendy California health-food pizza.

==Page 46==
'''"The Marquis de Sod."''' 
Hazardously funny.

==Page 47==
'''"those old split 30's during the vampire shift"''' 
TV ad lingo, referring to 15-second TV spots (splitting a 30-second commercial break) often on in the wee hours. Vampire shift is a Pynchon usage, we think; more common is "graveyard shift."

'''"A lawn savant..."''' 
An amazing goof on "La Marseillaise" ("allons enfants...")

==Page 48==
'''"more liens than the tower of Pisa...more garnishes than a California burger"''' 
Bad, bad puns. Bad, bad Pynchon.

'''"Pat Sajak in The Frank Gorshin Story"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Gorshin Gorshin] was a hollow-eyed comedian and TV celeb from the late fifties, sort of a cross between Dan Duryea and Richard Widmark. He was probably best known as The Riddler on the Batman TV show.

[http://www.patsajak.com/ Pat Sajak] is the friendly, self-deprecating host of the TV show ''Wheel of Fortune'', mentioned on [[Chapter_1#Page_12|page 12]].

==Page 49==
'''Bodhi Dharma Pizza''' 
Ginsberg, Kerouac, and many of the other beat writers were deep into Zen Buddhism, including the famous zen koan that asks Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? Some of that trickled down to the hippies, their (sort of) spiritual descendents.

==Page 50==
'''"Brock Vond"''' 
Another badass "V." Pynchon has a long-standing history of bad guys whose names start with "V." In this case, as we will see, the V stands for Vampire as well as Villain.

Rock von BD?.

==Page 51==
[[Image:DharmaWheel.jpg|thumb|Dharma Wheel in Kelantan, Malaysia|right]]'''"eightfold pizzic mandala"''' 
Extending the Buddhist riff on "Bodhi Dharma Pizza" on [[Chapter_4#Page_49|p. 49]]: Eightfold because pizza is always cut into 8 slices, which reminds Pynchon of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eightfold_path eightfold path of classic Buddhism]. Also, pizza is round, like those beautiful symbols of that eightfold path. And we’re all stoned.

'''"all those long-ago political wars"''' 
Presumably referring to the decades of class struggle that form the subtextual background for this novel – from the (IWW) Wobblies at the turn of the 20th Century and the general labor strikes of the 1930s through the freedom rider/Black Panther/ hippie/yippie activism of the '50s, '60s and '70s, and on into the battle for existence carried on by progressive people against ever-increasing attacks by the legions of corporate evil headed by Nixon and Reagan in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s.

==Page 52==
'''"Baba Havabananda"''' 
i.e., have a banana. Groucho Marx meets Swami Satchidananda at R. Crumb's?

==Page 55==
'''"like a time machine departing for the future..."''' 
Fine writing.

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==Page 22==
'''"Sylvester and Tweety"''' 
The famous animated cartoon characters (a cat and a canary, natch) are used to described the comic/violent relationship between Zoyd and Zuniga. This also works as effective shorthand to encourage the reader to read the book as a cartoon. At least for now.

'''shortly after Reagan was elected governor of California''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_reagan Ronald Reagan] was first elected governor in 1966 and took office in 1967.

'''sharing a house in Gordita Beach''' 
"Gordita Beach" is, according to the article [http://www.theaesthetic.com/NewFiles/pynchon.html "Thomas Pynchon and the South Bay"], a fictionalized Manhattan Beach where Pynchon is believed to have lived in 1969-1970 while working on [http://gravitysrainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. The article states: "Pynchon doesn't refer to Manhattan Beach by name. Rather, he uses the name Gordita Beach to refer to his one-time home." And Gordita Beach is the home of Doc Sportello in Pynchon's 2009 novel [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Inherent Vice'']. The surf band the [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=C#corvairs Corvairs], elements of which Zoyd lives with, are also present in ''Inherent Vice''.

'''the Corvairs''' [[Image:Corvair.jpg|thumb|1965 Corvair Corsa Coupe|right]]
It would have been unfortunate to have had your band named the Corvairs in 1967. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvair Chevrolet Corvair] was the only American mass-produced car to ever have a rear-mounted engine like a VW. In 1965, Ralph Nader published [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsafe_at_Any_Speed Unsafe at Any Speed], which showed that General Motors had ignored safety concerns and used a design prone to roll-overs. Sales tanked and GM eventually cancelled the entire line in 1969. Although some automobile aficionados cursed Ralph Nader, for most Americans the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvair Corvair] became a sick joke and a symbol of corporate callousness.

==Page 23==
'''"Melrose Fife"''' 
Possibly inspired by a NYC radio jingle of the late forties and early fifties that went "Melrose five, five-three-hundred, Melrose five, five-three-hundred...".

Also, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melrose_Avenue Melrose Avenue] is a famous street in Los Angeles, containing Paramount Pictures and other well-known spots.

Also, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_Fife Barney Fife] is the rail-thin deputy sheriff on the TV comedy [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andy_Griffith_Show The Andy Griffith Show].

'''"musician Scott Oof"''' 
Another inspired name. Scott Oof, as essentially the same character, is in Pynchon's 2009 novel [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Inherent Vice''] which takes place about 10 or 15 years before the events in ''Vineland''. Scott is the protagonist Doc Sportello's cousin.

'''"What I'm really here about..."''' 
This is an old "head" joke. ["Head" = sixties slang for weed-head, or "soft" drug-user.] The cop raps at the door and says "I'm here about drugs," and the doper says, "Thank God! We're all out!" It's right up there with the one where the cop says, "Your papers, please!" and the head whips out his Zig-Zags.

==Page 24==
'''That fatal five-spot was not the last Purchase-of-Information disbursement in the neighborhood.''' 
Cf. [[Chapter_1#Page 7|p. 7]]

'''"some grandiose pilot project bankrolled with inexhaustible taxpayer millions"''' 
Typically Pynchonian paranoid reference.

'''Hector's PI money''' 
PI = Purchase-of-Information. See above.

In most mysteries, PI stands for Private Investigator, so Pynchon is making a cynical joke.

==Page 25==
'''"GS-13"''' 
Mid-level US Government job rating. Entry level is GS-4; the President is, like, GS-25.

==Page 26==
'''"hummed a tune..."''' 
Distraction drives Hector to humming "Meet the Flintstones," the second TV theme song so far.

'''"defunding"''' 
The first we learn of Frenesi's demotion/demolition, her "disappearance from the computer," her figurative conversion from a one to a zero. (See note on Pynchon's central binary metaphor, [[Chapter 6#Page 71|p. 71]], et al..)

==Page 27==
'''"Frenesi"''' 
Frenesi is Spanish for frenzy. It's also the title of a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frenesi song]. You can download Artie Shaw's original 1940's version [http://www.tuxjunction.net/media/frenesi.mp3 here]. Linda Ronstadt's version, updated with Spanish lyrics, is on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7ldf9koTSM YouTube].

Salman Rushdie points out that Frenesi is an anagram of free and sin. Read his review [[http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Vineland_Review,_New_York_Times here]].

[[image:pier.jpg|thumb|Hermosa Beach Pier|right]]
'''"shot the old Hermosa Pier durin a lightnin storm"'''

LA pier extending 1000 feet out from Hermosa Beach, built 1913. To "shoot the pier" is to ride a surfboard under it, hopefully avoiding the pilings. To do so during a lightning storm, presumably at night, is suicidal bravado.

==Page 28==
'''"When the State withers away, Hector"''' 
From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engels Friedrich Engels], of course, in whose expectation the State is not abolished, it withers away.

'''"Eastwood-style"''' 
In the style of actor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engels Clint (Dirty Harry) Eastwood].

'''"I won't aks you to grow up, but...aks yourself, OK, Who was saved? That's all, rill easy..."''' 
Great rap from Hector, demonstrating Pynchon's flawless ear for dialect and accent. "Who was saved?" ties into the preterite theme.

==Page 29==
'''"the samurai condition"''' 
The notion of a samurai "always being prepared to die" will be echoed on [[Chapter 9#Page 161|page 161]] when Takeshi is shown to be technically dead, hence living without fear of death, hence always prepared to die. Which makes him a perfect samurai. Or Thanatoid.

==Page 31==
'''"maybe it goes beyond your ex-old lady..."''' 
Pynchon introduces the paranoid conspiracy element he (and we) love so much. Nothing is what it seems; there's always some mystery behind everything.

'''"zomoskepsis"''' 
As far as we can tell, this is a made-up word. But it's well-made, and means just what it says: The study, or contemplation, of soup or meat broth, from the ancient greek words "ζωμός", meaning soup, and "σκέψις", meaning thought/contemplation. Pynchon seems to enjoy making up words. Now and then you run across another "skepsis" word. Two of our advisors spotted "omphaloskepsis" (navel-gazing) in the beginning chapters of Umberto Eco's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foucault%27s_Pendulum ''Foucault's Pendulum''].

'''"Nothin' meaner than an old hippie that's gone sour."''' 
Pynchon himself?

==Page 32==
'''"Check's in the mayo"''' 
A brilliant throw-away Feghoot. In the fifties, a science fiction writer named Grendel Briarton wrote a series of short, funny pieces for Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine titled, "Through Time and Space With Ferdinand Feghoot." They all worked the same way: establishing a silly and complicated story line for the sole purpose of setting up a painfully outrageous pun. Pynchon is addicted to the form; one of the best Feghoots ever written is the "Forty million Frenchmen" gag ("for DeMille young Frenchmen...") on page 559 of [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_557-563# ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

==Page 33==
'''"National Endowment for Video Education and Rehabilitation"''' 
Dr. Deeply's Tubal detox operation (NEVER) is clearly a gag on Betty Ford's "Just Say No" Drug Abuse Clinic. This is also the first statement of a central theme: America's national addiction isn't to drugs, it's to the Tube.

'''"Hector...hasn't quite been himself, signed himself in with us for some therapy..."''' 
Another reference to the vicious addictiveness of TV.

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==Page 14==
'''"logger types, fallers, choker setters..."''' 
Faller (aka "cutters") are the elites of logging. Their work is very dangerous as they cut down the trees that are then processed by others. The faller often works shorter hours, and usually works alone. A choker setter fastens chokers devices constructed from five-to eight-foot lengths of 3/8ths diameter steel cable with a sliding bell attached around logs so they can be moved by the yarder, cat, or skidder. It's usually the initial job that a logger will obtain on a logging crew. [http://www.ccrh.org/oral/women&timber/glossary.htm]

[[image:clara-bow.jpg|thumb|100px|right|Clara Bow]]'''Pia Zadora in ''The Clara Bow Story''''' 
The first of many fictitious movies. It's easy to tell, because Pynchon always provides a bracketed date [1980] when he references a real movie, but not a fictitious one. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pia_Zadora Pia Zadora], whose film career (eg. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus_Conquers_the_Martians ''Santa Claus Conquers the Martians'']) was going nowhere until she married Israeli multimillionaire Meshulam Riklis in 1977, had some success in film and music, but no longer. Not sure of the connection with the famous silent-film actress [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Bow Clara Bow].

Throughout ''Vineland'' Pynchon tosses off "Actor ''X'' in Movie Biography ''Y''" jokes. Each is a horrendous miscasting. In this case the truly charismatic Clara Bow is played by the money-inflated Pia Zadora.

In Orwell's 1984, the Party continuously rewrites history by falsifying records, altering photographs, and vaporizing witnesses. In Pynchon's 1984, Hollywood continuously rewrites history by producing made-for-TV movies.

'''"Zoy-oyd..."''' 
Prairie is a wonderfully drawn 14-year-old teenager.

'''"ancient surfer baggies [...] and a dilapidated Hussong's T-shirt..."''' 
Baggies swim trunks that were about knee-length and, yes, baggy were a radical departure from the short and tight men's swimware prevalent in the 60s. They were part of the surfer uniform and were memorialized in song by the Beach Boys and other "surf" groups (The Fantastic Baggies, for one!). So Zoyd's could be over 20 years old.
[[Image:HussongShirt.jpg|thumb|Image From A Hussong's T-shirt|right]]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussong's Hussong's], established in 1890 and located in Ensenada in Baja, Mexico, is the oldest cantina in the Californias, and was and is a popular surfers hangout serving primarily beer, piña colladas and peanuts. It’s also the place where the Margarita was invented—back in October, 1941 by bartender Don Carlos Orozco. Zoyd is indeed a California Boy. And it's somewhat likely that Pynchon swung by Hussong's during one of his Mexico visits.

'''"the Tube"''' 
Consistently capitalized throughout the book.

'''"a chair-high bag of Chee-tos and a sixpack of grapefruit soda from the health-food store."''' 
This combination of junk food and health food defines the North Coast redneck hippie perfectly. But Pynchon's insistent hammering on Zoyd's junk-food habit may go a little deeper like autobiography, maybe?

'''"news anchor Skip Tromblay"''' 
The French word ''trembles'' means "to tremble or shake" and is often used in describing someone's voice. The imperfect form is ''tremblais''. Quivering with excitement?

==Page 15==
'''"almost featured on 'Good Morning America'"''' 
15 minutes of almost fame.

'''"Day-Glo orange [...] some acid green"''' 
"Day-Glo" colors are associated with the Psychedelic Sixties, as they would glow when illuminated with a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_light black light], and "black-light" effects where ubiquitous during that period. "Acid green" makes an appearance in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_11 ''V''] and [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_181-189 ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

'''"the million crystal trajectories, smooth as fountain-drops"''' 
Cf. In [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Crystal_Palace ''Gravity's Rainbow'']: "He's afraid of the way the glass will fall soon it will be a spectacle: the fall of a crystal palace." (p.3)

'''"useful distinction between...defenestrative [and transfenestrative] personality"''' 
Cool Pynchonian satire of California Psychobabble. "Defenestration" is throwing something or someone out an open window; "Transfenestration" is throwing someone ''through'' a closed window, breaking the glass, natch. According to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestration Wikipedia], the term was coined around the time of an incident in Prague Castle in the year of 1618, i.e., the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestrations_of_Prague Defenestrations of Prague].

==Page 16==
'''"named himself after what again, some robot?"'''

Zoyd's comment in response to Prairie calling her boyfriend "the Big I." "I, Robot" is the title of a 1939 short story by Eando Binder and a 1951 short story collection by Isaac Asimov. The Asimov stories are [very loosely] the basis for the Will Smith movie of the same name. This also explains Zoyd calling Isaiah "R2D2".

'''Isaiah Two Four''' 
Zoyd is right. This verse is about turning away from war toward peace: "And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

This verse is also the basis for the well known civil rights song "Ain't Gonna Study War No More" (aka, "Down by the Riverside").

'''"Love is strange"''' 
Refers to Mickey and Sylvia's ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Baker Mickey Baker] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Vanderpool's Sylvia Vanderpool]) 1957 Top-40 hit song [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Is_Strange "Love is Strange"]. Clearly on Pynchon's Top-40, as well; he used it as the lead for his [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_cholera.html ''New York Times Book Review'' piece] on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_in_the_Time_of_Cholera ''Love In the Time of Cholera'']:

:Love, as Mickey and Sylvia, in their 1956 [sic it reached #11 on the Billboard charts in March 1957] hit single, remind us, love is strange. As we grow older it gets stranger, until at some point mortality has come well within the frame of our attention, and there we are, suddenly caught between terminal dates while still talking a game of eternity. It's about then that we may begin to regard love songs, romance novels, soap operas and any live teen-age pronouncements at all on the subject of love with an increasingly impatient, not to mention intolerant, ear.

The tune was allegedly written by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Diddley Bo Diddley] although it was presented to Mickey and Sylvia as being composed by Bo's wife Ethel Smith. Apparently, Bo didn't want the credit because he was pissed off at his music publishers because they didn't pay him enough. Mickey Baker is considered by some to be the first great rock 'n' roll guitarist and, prior to the duo, he was in a rhythm and blues band with saxophonist [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Curtis King Curtis] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Taylor_%28jazz%29 Sam "The Man" Taylor]. After the success of "Love is Strange," Mickey moved to Paris where he remained for twenty-five years, touring, very rarely, as a blues guitarist.

==Page 17==
'''"Joey Chitwood-type thrill show"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joie_Chitwood Joey Chitwood] (1912-1988), a legendary "Auto Daredevil," started touring with his death-defying troupe in the 1940s, and continued for decades. He was an inspiration for fellow daredevil [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evel_Knievel Evel Knievel] (1938-2007).

==Page 18==
'''"the Uzi machine gun, 'badass of the desert.'"'''[[Image:Uzi.jpg|thumb|Uzi Submachine Gun|right]] 
Pynchon seems moderately hung up on rear ends in this book (and elsewhere). The phrase "badass" recurs constantly (as it did in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''] too, where it achieved Naval Significance as the USS John E. Badass). In addition there's Trasero County (trasero = Spanish for "rump,") Las Nalgas (Spanish for "buttocks,") and Culito Canyon (culito = Spanish for "little ass.") There's also an echo of Da Conho, the cook in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''V.''], whose fantasy involved shooting Muslims in Israel with a .30 caliber machine gun that went "yibble, yibble, yibble." ("Da Conho's machine gun was the only one in the world that went "yibble, yibble," Pynchon pointed out.)

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==Jacket Flap==
Read ''Vineland's'' original book jacket flap [[Vineland_Jacket_Flap_Copy|here]].

'''"less than harmonic convergence"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_Convergence Harmonic Convergence] was a planetary alignment occurring in 1987 that was heralded by New Age astrologers as ushering-in an age of peace, rather than war, as a prelude to the Mayan "end of history" in 2012.

==Page 3==

[[image:creeping-fig.jpg|right|thumb|175px|caption|Creeping Fig (''Ficus pumila'')]]'''"Later than usual one summer morning in 1984, Zoyd Wheeler drifted awake in sunlight through a creeping fig that hung in the window, with a squadron of blue jays stomping around on the roof."''' 
Nice prolepsis going on in this opening sentence which subtly telegraphs ''Vineland'' themes. The pacific experience of drifting awake and Zoyd would definitely be drifting in filtered sunlight one summer morning is contrasted by the foreshadowings of threats creeping figs (a highly invasive plant) connecting to federal prosecutor Brock Vond who is referred to throughout as a "creep" and a "megacreep," notably on pp. [[Chapter_8#Page 108|108]], [[Chapter_9#Page 141|141]] and [[Chapter_9#Page 189|189]]. And those "squadrons of blue jays stomping around..." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Jay blue jays] are scavengers and considered "adaptable, aggressive and omnivorous"; they also have a reputation as raiders of other birds' nests, stealing eggs, chicks [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Jay]. In ''Vineland'' these blue jays will morph into squadrons of "private vigilantes" in blue planes, on [[Chapter_12#Page 221|p. 221]]. And, natch, there's that ominous Orwellian year of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four 1984]. Of course, the reference to a "vine" in the novel's opening sentence, even if it's creeping, is ''appropo''. Finally, the color blue figures prominently in ''Vineland'', and particularly Frenesi's blue eyes. [[Blue in Vineland|Read more about the color blue in ''Vineland''...]]

It's also worth noting how this book begins, as does [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/index.php?title=Main_Page ''Gravity's Rainbow''], with a protagonist waking from a portentous dream, with light percolating in.

'''"Zoyd Wheeler"''' 
Rhymes with void, shares Z with Zuniga. Zoyd's last name perhaps references Wheeler Hall at University of California at Berkeley, at the epicenter of student unrest in the 60s.

The suffix -oid is like -ish; think humanoid, freakazoid, etc. So Zoyd is Z-ish. What comes to mind about Z? It's the last letter of the alphabet, so Zoyd is near the bottom. "Boyd" might be a good name for the heroic, hard-charging hero of an adventure or detective story, but not Zoyd. What else? Getting Z's means sleeping, so perhaps Zoyd is sleepy. Z is the first letter of zero, and the one-zero dichotomy shows up often in ''Vineland''. Finally, remember Z for Zorro and the leftish 1960's political film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(film) Z]

'''blue jays'''
[[image:Jays.jpg|thumb|right|Jays]]
The blue jay [''Cyanocitta cristata''] does not range west of the Rocky Mountains. The birds Zoyd hears are Stellar's jays [''C. stellari''], with dark heads and a more uniformly blue body.

'''"mental disability check"''' 
This instantly identifies Zoyd as a sixties character with a sixties scam. In the late sixties, Bay Area actor/writer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Coyote Peter Coyote] (b. 1941) wrote and performed a then-popular song called "ATD" celebrating the coolness of getting onto ATD (Aid to the Totally Disabled) for feigned mental problems to avoid having to work at some evil-collaborative (i.e., straight) job. The trick, of course, was convincing your caseworker that you were a nut. Zoyd's annual window-dive is a comic version of a now-classic ritual-scam turned into a media circus (as are most remains of the sixties). Given the importance of the Tube in Vineland, it's no accident that what was originally a private act of financial desperation has become a filler on TV news (complete with a fake window). Of course, as it turns out, this particular scam is not Zoyd's idea.

'''Prairie''' 
Zoyd's daughter would likely be Prairie Wheeler, thus her name might connect to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_wheel Tibetan Prayer Wheel], a mechanical device used as an equivalent to the recitation of a mantra. The prayer wheel consists of a hollow metal cylinder, often beautifully embossed, mounted on a rod and containing a consecrated paper bearing a mantra. Each turn of the wheel by hand is considered equivalent to orally reciting the prayer. Variants to the handheld prayer wheel are large cylinders that can be set in motion by hand or attached to windmills or waterwheels and thus kept in continuous motion.

Note that [http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=415 Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park] is up around where the fictional town of Vineland is supposed to exist.

'''"country music was playing out of somebody's truck radio"''' 
Good Mendocino atmosphere throughout; clearly, Pynchon has been there.

'''"Count Chocula"''' 
An actual cereal that made its first appears in 1971, along with another monster-themed offering from General Mills, Franken Berry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Chocula Wikipedia]

'''Thapsia'''

Plant genus including ''Thapsia garganica''; roots used medicinally as a purgative, diuretic, and emetic. Contact with the sap can cause intense itching and blisters.

'''Channel 86'''

86 = to remove, take out, discard. During Prohibition, a popular NY speakeasy called Chumley's had an entrance at 86 Bedford Street. Customers generally used a more discreet entrance accessed through a neighboring courtyard, and this was the entrance used by the police when staging a raid. When warned of an impending raid, the bartender would shout, "86, everybody!", meaning that patrons should quickly exit through the safer, public entrance.

<div id="frootloops">'''"Froot Loops again"'''</div>
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Froot_Loops Froot Loops] is a brand of breakfast cereal introduced by Kellogg's in 1963. A stoner favorite, they appear in [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=F#frootloops Inherent Vice] too.

'''"Nestle's Quik"''' 
A chocolate flavoring for milk mix that was developed in the U.S. by 1948. It was introduced in Europe in 1950 as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nesquik Nesquik] and that name was adapted in the U.S. in 1999.

'''"Cucumber Lounge"''' 
A phallic name, for sure. And cucumbers are one of Humboldt County's major crops, right up there with marijuana.

'''"the Log Jam in Del Norte"''' 
And another phallic club name playing off the county's logging industry.

Del Norte County in Northern California - so Pynchon has sharply indicated both the date and the location of the action.

==Page 4==
'''"elegant little...chain saw, about the size of a Mini-Mac"''' 
Mini-Mac = the Mac-10 machine pistol of US make. Zoyd's lady-like chainsaw goes well with his drag costume, and the effeminate clientele (drinking "kiwi mimosas.") It also makes a nice almost-rhyme with Sheriff Willis Chunko's gold-handled chainsaw on [[Chapter 15#Page 373|page 373]].

==Page 6==
'''"orientational vibes"''' 
Great satire on gay men who like to dress like lumberjacks, possibly inspired by the Monty Python song, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lumberjack_Song_(Monty_Python) "I am a Lumberjack and I'm OK"]. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zey8567bcg Watch the video...]

==Page 7==
'''"Six Rivers Conference"''' 
To the south of the eerie and mysterious Seventh River? ([[Chapter 4#Page 49|See p. 49.]])

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Rivers_National_Forest Six Rivers National Forest] is a U.S. National Forest located in the northwestern corner of California, with a U.S. Mail address in Eureka, CA. The Six Rivers Youth Football Conference is also headquartered in Eureka.

'''"nacreous pretty saw"''' 
Referring to the mother-of-pearl grips on "Cheryl's" chainsaw.

'''"hotshot PI lawyers"''' 
PI = Normally short for personal injury, but here perhaps purchase of information, as noted on [[Chapter 3#Page 24|p. 24]].

:The context definitely suggests Personal Injury, not Purchase of Information. "these are all folks now who like to sue..." and PI lawsuits are what they're bringing.

'''"George Lucas and all his crew"''' 
The forest sequences of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars Star Wars] sequel were shot in the area.

'''transfenestration'''

The act of passing [jumping] through a window. Defenestration is the act of throwing something [or someone] out of a window.

==Page 8==
'''...say there Lemay!''' 
General "Bomb them back to the Stone Age!" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Lemay Curtis Lemay] ?

'''His partner, Van Meter, was calling from the Cucumber Lounge...''' 
The name is likely a tip of the hat to Solomon Lee Van Meter, Jr. (1888-1937) who's brilliant idea was to invent a parachute that was strapped onto the pilot instead of attached to the plane itself, as early parachutes were. He also invented the quick-release mechanism called the ripcord. His patents were granted in 1916. From the [http://www.ket.org/trips/aviation/vanmeter.htm Aviation Museum of Kentucky website]

Or mebbe to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_Van_Meter Homer Van Meter], gunman and right hand man for John Dillinger, filmically portrayed by the likes of Elisha Cook, Jr., (1957) and Harry Dean Stanton (1973). The best line from the Wikipedia page linked above has it that "There are conflicting accounts of Van Meter's personality, although all agree that he was an inveterate clown and prankster."

Or perhaps [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_morrison Van Morrison], a singer popular in the sixties (and beyond).

'''Vineland County''' 
[[Image:Ncounties.jpg|thumb|Northern California Counties|right]]
There is no Vineland County on the California map. Pynchon appears to have created Vineland County from parts of Mendocino, Humboldt, and Del Norte Counties. However, on page 43 of ''Inherent Vice'', Pynchon writes "Scott had been playing with a local group known as the Corvairs, till half of them decided to join the northward migration of those years up to Humboldt, Vineland, and Del Norte". This leaves out Mendocino, which was part of the "hippie migration", and best fits the name Vineland, since it's the only one of the three that's been a major grape producer in the past. Jump to [[Chapter_14#Page_317|page 317]] for more evidence that Vineland lies on the border between Humboldt and Del Norte Counties.

==Page 9==
'''"cop vehicles...playing the 'Jeopardy' theme on their sirens."''' 
The first of many TV show / theme song references, this one to the popular game show [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeopardy Jeopardy!] which began airing on March 30, 1964.

'''"unrelenting...bickering...[caused by] unquiet ghosts"''' 
A pre-hint of the Thanatoids?

==Page 10==
'''"one of those gotta-shit throbs of fear."''' 
An apt description, if you've ever felt it. Pynchon seems big on these visceral fear reactions; see also [[Chapter 4#Page 45|p. 45]] ("intestinal pangs of fear"), [[Chapter 8#Page 116|p. 116]] ("stone bowelflash"), [[Chapter 11#Page 207|p. 207]] ("a throb of fear went right up his asshole"), [[Chapter 14#Page 299|p. 299]] ("rectal spasms of fear,") and elsewhere.

'''Zoyd’s longtime pursuer, DEA field agent Hector Zuñiga''' 
To hector is to harass. Pynchon often alludes to opera in his work, and in Georges Bizet's French opéra comique, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen ''Carmen''] (1875), there is the character Zuniga (''without'' the tilde), an officer who arrests the beautiful gypsy Carmen after she is involved in a fight with another woman at the cigarette factory where they work. [http://classicalmusic.about.com/od/opera/qt/carmensynopsis.htm Synopsis]

'''"Dream on, Zoyd."''' 
Pynchon seems to be using the authorial voice with slightly higher profile than previously, speaking directly to characters (and readers) with comments like this.

'''"Hector stood over by the toilets pretending to play a Zaxxon machine..."''' 
Zaxxon is a 1982 arcade game developed by Ikegami Tsushinki and released by Sega. The game gives the player the experience of flying a fighter craft through a fortress while shooting at enemy entities (missiles, enemy gunfire, etc.). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaxxon Wikipedia]

'''"Wayvone"''' 
The name may be a play on "rave on," but it's also been suggested that it might derive from huevon, a Spanish word meaning egg, but also referring to a testicle -- hence someone with "big balls." (Pynchon did live in Mexico for a while...) In any case, Wayvone is also a remittance man, someone who gets paid a small but regular amount of money to stay out of trouble in some far-away place. Pynchon seems fond of the type -- there are several in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''V.''] and [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''], and the latter even has a remittance horse (named Snake). Is it pronounced "wavy one"?

[[image:double-sole-shoes-cerruti.jpg|thumb|200px|Double-sole shoes & mid-80s Cerruit suit]]'''"Ralph Jr. was all dolled up in a Cerruti suit, white shirt with cuff links, touch them you die double soled shoes from someplace off-shore, the works."''' 
Cerruti suits have been around since the 1950s, a symbol of prestige and excellence in men's suits. Italian designer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nino_Cerruti Nino Cerruti] (b. 1930) is the creator of the line, which continues to this day (as does Mr. Cerruti). In the 1980s, Wayvone's look was fashionable with the greed-is-good Wall Street crowd.

The expensive foreign suit and shoes (inappropriate for rural Northern California), the Italian designer, the oblique reference to his father's City occupation, his perhaps-Italian name (way-voh-nee, rhyming with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajones cojone] or maybe [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_capone Capone], a Capone-of-the-Waves i.e. a California Capone?) all stereotype him as a Mafioso.

==Page 12==
'''"technical virgin"''' 
Meaning Zoyd has more-or-less resisted Zuniga's attempt to "turn" him into an informer/betrayer. The sexual metaphor prefigures many references to Frenesi's pussy (which she blames for driving her far beyond this stage).

'''"Wheel of Fortune"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_of_Fortune_(U.S._syndicated_game_show) Wheel of Fortune] is an American Tube game show, hosted by Pat Sajak and Vanna White. It is the longest-running syndicated game show in American television history.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 1

2011-12-26T02:45:47Z

Pthomas: /* Page 3 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Jacket Flap==
Read ''Vineland's'' original book jacket flap [[Vineland_Jacket_Flap_Copy|here]].

'''"less than harmonic convergence"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_Convergence Harmonic Convergence] was a planetary alignment occurring in 1987 that was heralded by New Age astrologers as ushering-in an age of peace, rather than war, as a prelude to the Mayan "end of history" in 2012.

==Page 3==

[[image:creeping-fig.jpg|right|thumb|175px|caption|Creeping Fig (''Ficus pumila'')]]'''"Later than usual one summer morning in 1984, Zoyd Wheeler drifted awake in sunlight through a creeping fig that hung in the window, with a squadron of blue jays stomping around on the roof."''' 
Nice prolepsis going on in this opening sentence which subtly telegraphs ''Vineland'' themes. The pacific experience of drifting awake and Zoyd would definitely be drifting in filtered sunlight one summer morning is contrasted by the foreshadowings of threats creeping figs (a highly invasive plant) connecting to federal prosecutor Brock Vond who is referred to throughout as a "creep" and a "megacreep," notably on pp. [[Chapter_8#Page 108|108]], [[Chapter_9#Page 141|141]] and [[Chapter_9#Page 189|189]]. And those "squadrons of blue jays stomping around..." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Jay blue jays] are scavengers and considered "adaptable, aggressive and omnivorous"; they also have a reputation as raiders of other birds' nests, stealing eggs, chicks [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Jay]. In ''Vineland'' these blue jays will morph into squadrons of "private vigilantes" in blue planes, on [[Chapter_12#Page 221|p. 221]]. And, natch, there's that ominous Orwellian year of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four 1984]. Of course, the reference to a "vine" in the novel's opening sentence, even if it's creeping, is ''appropo''. Finally, the color blue figures prominently in ''Vineland'', and particularly Frenesi's blue eyes. [[Blue in Vineland|Read more about the color blue in ''Vineland''...]]

It's also worth noting how this book begins, as does [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/index.php?title=Main_Page ''Gravity's Rainbow''], with a protagonist waking from a portentous dream, with light percolating in.

'''"Zoyd Wheeler"''' 
Rhymes with void, shares Z with Zuniga. Zoyd's last name perhaps references Wheeler Hall at University of California at Berkeley, at the epicenter of student unrest in the 60s.

The suffix -oid is like -ish; think humanoid, freakazoid, etc. So Zoyd is Z-ish. What comes to mind about Z? It's the last letter of the alphabet, so Zoyd is near the bottom. "Boyd" might be a good name for the heroic, hard-charging hero of an adventure or detective story, but not Zoyd. What else? Getting Z's means sleeping, so perhaps Zoyd is sleepy. Z is the first letter of zero, and the one-zero dichotomy shows up often in ''Vineland''. Finally, remember Z for Zorro and the leftish 1960's political film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(film) Z]

'''blue jays'''
[[image:Jays.jpg|thumb|right|Jays]]
The blue jay [''Cyanocitta cristata''] does not range west of the Rocky Mountains. The birds Zoyd hears are Stellar's jays [''C. stellari''], with dark heads and a more uniformly blue body.

'''"mental disability check"''' 
This instantly identifies Zoyd as a sixties character with a sixties scam. In the late sixties, Bay Area actor/writer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Coyote Peter Coyote] (b. 1941) wrote and performed a then-popular song called "ATD" celebrating the coolness of getting onto ATD (Aid to the Totally Disabled) for feigned mental problems to avoid having to work at some evil-collaborative (i.e., straight) job. The trick, of course, was convincing your caseworker that you were a nut. Zoyd's annual window-dive is a comic version of a now-classic ritual-scam turned into a media circus (as are most remains of the sixties). Given the importance of the Tube in Vineland, it's no accident that what was originally a private act of financial desperation has become a filler on TV news (complete with a fake window). Of course, as it turns out, this particular scam is not Zoyd's idea.

'''Prairie''' 
Zoyd's daughter would likely be Prairie Wheeler, thus her name might connect to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_wheel Tibetan Prayer Wheel], a mechanical device used as an equivalent to the recitation of a mantra. The prayer wheel consists of a hollow metal cylinder, often beautifully embossed, mounted on a rod and containing a consecrated paper bearing a mantra. Each turn of the wheel by hand is considered equivalent to orally reciting the prayer. Variants to the handheld prayer wheel are large cylinders that can be set in motion by hand or attached to windmills or waterwheels and thus kept in continuous motion.

Note that [http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=415 Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park] is up around where the fictional town of Vineland is supposed to exist.

'''"country music was playing out of somebody's truck radio"''' 
Good Mendocino atmosphere throughout; clearly, Pynchon has been there.

'''"Count Chocula"''' 
An actual cereal that made its first appears in 1971, along with another monster-themed offering from General Mills, Franken Berry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Chocula Wikipedia]

'''Thapsia'''

Plant genus including ''Thapsia garganica''; roots used medicinally as a purgative, diuretic, and emetic. Contact with the sap can cause intense itching and blisters.

'''Channel 86'''

86 = to remove, take out, discard. During Prohibition, a popular NY speakeasy called Chumley's had an entrance at 86 Bedford Street. Customers generally used a more discreet entrance accessed through a neighboring courtyard, and this was the entrance used by the police when staging a raid. When warned of an impending raid, the bartender would shout, "86, everybody!", meaning that patrons should quickly exit through the safer, public entrance.

<div id="frootloops">'''"Froot Loops again"'''</div>
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Froot_Loops Froot Loops] is a brand of breakfast cereal introduced by Kellogg's in 1963. A stoner favorite, they appear in [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=F#frootloops Inherent Vice] too.

'''"Nestle's Quik"''' 
A chocolate flavoring for milk mix that was developed in the U.S. by 1948. It was introduced in Europe in 1950 as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nesquik Nesquik] and that name was adapted in the U.S. in 1999.

'''"Cucumber Lounge"''' 
A phallic name, for sure. And cucumbers are one of Humboldt County's major crops, right up there with marijuana.

'''"the Log Jam in Del Norte"''' 
And another phallic club name playing off the county's logging industry.

Del Norte County in Northern California - so Pynchon has sharply indicated both the date and the location of the action.

==Page 4==
'''"elegant little...chain saw, about the size of a Mini-Mac"''' 
Mini-Mac = the Mac-10 machine pistol of US make. Zoyd's lady-like chainsaw goes well with his drag costume, and the effeminate clientele (drinking "kiwi mimosas.") It also makes a nice almost-rhyme with Sheriff Willis Chunko's gold-handled chainsaw on [[Chapter 15#Page 373|page 373]].

==Page 6==
'''"orientational vibes"''' 
Great satire on gay men who like to dress like lumberjacks, possibly inspired by the Monty Python song, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lumberjack_Song_(Monty_Python) "I am a Lumberjack and I'm OK"]. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zey8567bcg Watch the video...]

==Page 7==
'''"Six Rivers Conference"''' 
To the south of the eerie and mysterious Seventh River? ([[Chapter 4#Page 49|See p. 49.]])

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Rivers_National_Forest Six Rivers National Forest] is a U.S. National Forest located in the northwestern corner of California, with a U.S. Mail address in Eureka, CA. The Six Rivers Youth Football Conference is also headquartered in Eureka.

'''"nacreous pretty saw"''' 
Referring to the mother-of-pearl grips on "Cheryl's" chainsaw.

'''"hotshot PI lawyers"''' 
PI = Normally short for personal injury, but here perhaps purchase of information, as noted on [[Chapter 3#Page 24|p. 24]].

:The context definitely suggests Personal Injury, not Purchase of Information. "these are all folks now who like to sue..." and PI lawsuits are what they're bringing.

'''"George Lucas and all his crew"''' 
The forest sequences of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars Star Wars] sequel were shot in the area.

==Page 8==
'''...say there Lemay!''' 
General "Bomb them back to the Stone Age!" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Lemay Curtis Lemay] ?

'''His partner, Van Meter, was calling from the Cucumber Lounge...''' 
The name is likely a tip of the hat to Solomon Lee Van Meter, Jr. (1888-1937) who's brilliant idea was to invent a parachute that was strapped onto the pilot instead of attached to the plane itself, as early parachutes were. He also invented the quick-release mechanism called the ripcord. His patents were granted in 1916. From the [http://www.ket.org/trips/aviation/vanmeter.htm Aviation Museum of Kentucky website]

Or mebbe to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_Van_Meter Homer Van Meter], gunman and right hand man for John Dillinger, filmically portrayed by the likes of Elisha Cook, Jr., (1957) and Harry Dean Stanton (1973). The best line from the Wikipedia page linked above has it that "There are conflicting accounts of Van Meter's personality, although all agree that he was an inveterate clown and prankster."

Or perhaps [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_morrison Van Morrison], a singer popular in the sixties (and beyond).

'''Vineland County''' 
[[Image:Ncounties.jpg|thumb|Northern California Counties|right]]
There is no Vineland County on the California map. Pynchon appears to have created Vineland County from parts of Mendocino, Humboldt, and Del Norte Counties. However, on page 43 of ''Inherent Vice'', Pynchon writes "Scott had been playing with a local group known as the Corvairs, till half of them decided to join the northward migration of those years up to Humboldt, Vineland, and Del Norte". This leaves out Mendocino, which was part of the "hippie migration", and best fits the name Vineland, since it's the only one of the three that's been a major grape producer in the past. Jump to [[Chapter_14#Page_317|page 317]] for more evidence that Vineland lies on the border between Humboldt and Del Norte Counties.

==Page 9==
'''"cop vehicles...playing the 'Jeopardy' theme on their sirens."''' 
The first of many TV show / theme song references, this one to the popular game show [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeopardy Jeopardy!] which began airing on March 30, 1964.

'''"unrelenting...bickering...[caused by] unquiet ghosts"''' 
A pre-hint of the Thanatoids?

==Page 10==
'''"one of those gotta-shit throbs of fear."''' 
An apt description, if you've ever felt it. Pynchon seems big on these visceral fear reactions; see also [[Chapter 4#Page 45|p. 45]] ("intestinal pangs of fear"), [[Chapter 8#Page 116|p. 116]] ("stone bowelflash"), [[Chapter 11#Page 207|p. 207]] ("a throb of fear went right up his asshole"), [[Chapter 14#Page 299|p. 299]] ("rectal spasms of fear,") and elsewhere.

'''Zoyd’s longtime pursuer, DEA field agent Hector Zuñiga''' 
To hector is to harass. Pynchon often alludes to opera in his work, and in Georges Bizet's French opéra comique, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen ''Carmen''] (1875), there is the character Zuniga (''without'' the tilde), an officer who arrests the beautiful gypsy Carmen after she is involved in a fight with another woman at the cigarette factory where they work. [http://classicalmusic.about.com/od/opera/qt/carmensynopsis.htm Synopsis]

'''"Dream on, Zoyd."''' 
Pynchon seems to be using the authorial voice with slightly higher profile than previously, speaking directly to characters (and readers) with comments like this.

'''"Hector stood over by the toilets pretending to play a Zaxxon machine..."''' 
Zaxxon is a 1982 arcade game developed by Ikegami Tsushinki and released by Sega. The game gives the player the experience of flying a fighter craft through a fortress while shooting at enemy entities (missiles, enemy gunfire, etc.). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaxxon Wikipedia]

'''"Wayvone"''' 
The name may be a play on "rave on," but it's also been suggested that it might derive from huevon, a Spanish word meaning egg, but also referring to a testicle -- hence someone with "big balls." (Pynchon did live in Mexico for a while...) In any case, Wayvone is also a remittance man, someone who gets paid a small but regular amount of money to stay out of trouble in some far-away place. Pynchon seems fond of the type -- there are several in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''V.''] and [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''], and the latter even has a remittance horse (named Snake). Is it pronounced "wavy one"?

[[image:double-sole-shoes-cerruti.jpg|thumb|200px|Double-sole shoes & mid-80s Cerruit suit]]'''"Ralph Jr. was all dolled up in a Cerruti suit, white shirt with cuff links, touch them you die double soled shoes from someplace off-shore, the works."''' 
Cerruti suits have been around since the 1950s, a symbol of prestige and excellence in men's suits. Italian designer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nino_Cerruti Nino Cerruti] (b. 1930) is the creator of the line, which continues to this day (as does Mr. Cerruti). In the 1980s, Wayvone's look was fashionable with the greed-is-good Wall Street crowd.

The expensive foreign suit and shoes (inappropriate for rural Northern California), the Italian designer, the oblique reference to his father's City occupation, his perhaps-Italian name (way-voh-nee, rhyming with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajones cojone] or maybe [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_capone Capone], a Capone-of-the-Waves i.e. a California Capone?) all stereotype him as a Mafioso.

==Page 12==
'''"technical virgin"''' 
Meaning Zoyd has more-or-less resisted Zuniga's attempt to "turn" him into an informer/betrayer. The sexual metaphor prefigures many references to Frenesi's pussy (which she blames for driving her far beyond this stage).

'''"Wheel of Fortune"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_of_Fortune_(U.S._syndicated_game_show) Wheel of Fortune] is an American Tube game show, hosted by Pat Sajak and Vanna White. It is the longest-running syndicated game show in American television history.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 1

2011-12-26T00:05:42Z

Pthomas:

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Jacket Flap==
Read ''Vineland's'' original book jacket flap [[Vineland_Jacket_Flap_Copy|here]].

'''"less than harmonic convergence"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_Convergence Harmonic Convergence] was a planetary alignment occurring in 1987 that was heralded by New Age astrologers as ushering-in an age of peace, rather than war, as a prelude to the Mayan "end of history" in 2012.

==Page 3==

[[image:creeping-fig.jpg|right|thumb|175px|caption|Creeping Fig (''Ficus pumila'')]]'''"Later than usual one summer morning in 1984, Zoyd Wheeler drifted awake in sunlight through a creeping fig that hung in the window, with a squadron of blue jays stomping around on the roof."''' 
Nice prolepsis going on in this opening sentence which subtly telegraphs ''Vineland'' themes. The pacific experience of drifting awake and Zoyd would definitely be drifting in filtered sunlight one summer morning is contrasted by the foreshadowings of threats creeping figs (a highly invasive plant) connecting to federal prosecutor Brock Vond who is referred to throughout as a "creep" and a "megacreep," notably on pp. [[Chapter_8#Page 108|108]], [[Chapter_9#Page 141|141]] and [[Chapter_9#Page 189|189]]. And those "squadrons of blue jays stomping around..." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Jay blue jays] are scavengers and considered "adaptable, aggressive and omnivorous"; they also have a reputation as raiders of other birds' nests, stealing eggs, chicks [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Jay]. In ''Vineland'' these blue jays will morph into squadrons of "private vigilantes" in blue planes, on [[Chapter_12#Page 221|p. 221]]. And, natch, there's that ominous Orwellian year of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four 1984]. Of course, the reference to a "vine" in the novel's opening sentence, even if it's creeping, is ''appropo''. Finally, the color blue figures prominently in ''Vineland'', and particularly Frenesi's blue eyes. [[Blue in Vineland|Read more about the color blue in ''Vineland''...]]

It's also worth noting how this book begins, as does [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/index.php?title=Main_Page ''Gravity's Rainbow''], with a protagonist waking from a portentous dream, with light percolating in.

'''"Zoyd Wheeler"''' 
Rhymes with void, shares Z with Zuniga. Zoyd's last name perhaps references Wheeler Hall at University of California at Berkeley, at the epicenter of student unrest in the 60s.

The suffix -oid is like -ish; think humanoid, freakazoid, etc. So Zoyd is Z-ish. What comes to mind about Z? It's the last letter of the alphabet, so Zoyd is near the bottom. "Boyd" might be a good name for the heroic, hard-charging hero of an adventure or detective story, but not Zoyd. What else? Getting Z's means sleeping, so perhaps Zoyd is sleepy. Z is the first letter of zero, and the one-zero dichotomy shows up often in ''Vineland''. Finally, remember Z for Zorro and the leftish 1960's political film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(film) Z]

'''blue jays'''
[[image:Jays.jpg|thumb|right|Jays]]
The blue jay [''Cyanocitta cristata''] does not range west of the Rocky Mountains. The birds Zoyd hears are Stellar's jays [''C. stellari''], with dark heads and a more uniformly blue body.

'''"mental disability check"''' 
This instantly identifies Zoyd as a sixties character with a sixties scam. In the late sixties, Bay Area actor/writer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Coyote Peter Coyote] (b. 1941) wrote and performed a then-popular song called "ATD" celebrating the coolness of getting onto ATD (Aid to the Totally Disabled) for feigned mental problems to avoid having to work at some evil-collaborative (i.e., straight) job. The trick, of course, was convincing your caseworker that you were a nut. Zoyd's annual window-dive is a comic version of a now-classic ritual-scam turned into a media circus (as are most remains of the sixties). Given the importance of the Tube in Vineland, it's no accident that what was originally a private act of financial desperation has become a filler on TV news (complete with a fake window). Of course, as it turns out, this particular scam is not Zoyd's idea.

'''Prairie''' 
Zoyd's daughter would likely be Prairie Wheeler, thus her name might connect to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_wheel Tibetan Prayer Wheel], a mechanical device used as an equivalent to the recitation of a mantra. The prayer wheel consists of a hollow metal cylinder, often beautifully embossed, mounted on a rod and containing a consecrated paper bearing a mantra. Each turn of the wheel by hand is considered equivalent to orally reciting the prayer. Variants to the handheld prayer wheel are large cylinders that can be set in motion by hand or attached to windmills or waterwheels and thus kept in continuous motion.

Note that [http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=415 Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park] is up around where the fictional town of Vineland is supposed to exist.

'''"country music was playing out of somebody's truck radio"''' 
Good Mendocino atmosphere throughout; clearly, Pynchon has been there.

'''"Count Chocula"''' 
An actual cereal that made its first appears in 1971, along with another monster-themed offering from General Mills, Franken Berry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Chocula Wikipedia]

<div id="frootloops">'''"Froot Loops again"'''</div>
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Froot_Loops Froot Loops] is a brand of breakfast cereal introduced by Kellogg's in 1963. A stoner favorite, they appear in [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=F#frootloops Inherent Vice] too.

'''"Nestle's Quik"''' 
A chocolate flavoring for milk mix that was developed in the U.S. by 1948. It was introduced in Europe in 1950 as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nesquik Nesquik] and that name was adapted in the U.S. in 1999.

'''"Cucumber Lounge"''' 
A phallic name, for sure. And cucumbers are one of Humboldt County's major crops, right up there with marijuana.

'''"the Log Jam in Del Norte"''' 
And another phallic club name playing off the county's logging industry.

Del Norte County in Northern California - so Pynchon has sharply indicated both the date and the location of the action.

==Page 4==
'''"elegant little...chain saw, about the size of a Mini-Mac"''' 
Mini-Mac = the Mac-10 machine pistol of US make. Zoyd's lady-like chainsaw goes well with his drag costume, and the effeminate clientele (drinking "kiwi mimosas.") It also makes a nice almost-rhyme with Sheriff Willis Chunko's gold-handled chainsaw on [[Chapter 15#Page 373|page 373]].

==Page 6==
'''"orientational vibes"''' 
Great satire on gay men who like to dress like lumberjacks, possibly inspired by the Monty Python song, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lumberjack_Song_(Monty_Python) "I am a Lumberjack and I'm OK"]. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zey8567bcg Watch the video...]

==Page 7==
'''"Six Rivers Conference"''' 
To the south of the eerie and mysterious Seventh River? ([[Chapter 4#Page 49|See p. 49.]])

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Rivers_National_Forest Six Rivers National Forest] is a U.S. National Forest located in the northwestern corner of California, with a U.S. Mail address in Eureka, CA. The Six Rivers Youth Football Conference is also headquartered in Eureka.

'''"nacreous pretty saw"''' 
Referring to the mother-of-pearl grips on "Cheryl's" chainsaw.

'''"hotshot PI lawyers"''' 
PI = Normally short for personal injury, but here perhaps purchase of information, as noted on [[Chapter 3#Page 24|p. 24]].

:The context definitely suggests Personal Injury, not Purchase of Information. "these are all folks now who like to sue..." and PI lawsuits are what they're bringing.

'''"George Lucas and all his crew"''' 
The forest sequences of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars Star Wars] sequel were shot in the area.

==Page 8==
'''...say there Lemay!''' 
General "Bomb them back to the Stone Age!" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Lemay Curtis Lemay] ?

'''His partner, Van Meter, was calling from the Cucumber Lounge...''' 
The name is likely a tip of the hat to Solomon Lee Van Meter, Jr. (1888-1937) who's brilliant idea was to invent a parachute that was strapped onto the pilot instead of attached to the plane itself, as early parachutes were. He also invented the quick-release mechanism called the ripcord. His patents were granted in 1916. From the [http://www.ket.org/trips/aviation/vanmeter.htm Aviation Museum of Kentucky website]

Or mebbe to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_Van_Meter Homer Van Meter], gunman and right hand man for John Dillinger, filmically portrayed by the likes of Elisha Cook, Jr., (1957) and Harry Dean Stanton (1973). The best line from the Wikipedia page linked above has it that "There are conflicting accounts of Van Meter's personality, although all agree that he was an inveterate clown and prankster."

Or perhaps [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_morrison Van Morrison], a singer popular in the sixties (and beyond).

'''Vineland County''' 
[[Image:Ncounties.jpg|thumb|Northern California Counties|right]]
There is no Vineland County on the California map. Pynchon appears to have created Vineland County from parts of Mendocino, Humboldt, and Del Norte Counties. However, on page 43 of ''Inherent Vice'', Pynchon writes "Scott had been playing with a local group known as the Corvairs, till half of them decided to join the northward migration of those years up to Humboldt, Vineland, and Del Norte". This leaves out Mendocino, which was part of the "hippie migration", and best fits the name Vineland, since it's the only one of the three that's been a major grape producer in the past. Jump to [[Chapter_14#Page_317|page 317]] for more evidence that Vineland lies on the border between Humboldt and Del Norte Counties.

==Page 9==
'''"cop vehicles...playing the 'Jeopardy' theme on their sirens."''' 
The first of many TV show / theme song references, this one to the popular game show [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeopardy Jeopardy!] which began airing on March 30, 1964.

'''"unrelenting...bickering...[caused by] unquiet ghosts"''' 
A pre-hint of the Thanatoids?

==Page 10==
'''"one of those gotta-shit throbs of fear."''' 
An apt description, if you've ever felt it. Pynchon seems big on these visceral fear reactions; see also [[Chapter 4#Page 45|p. 45]] ("intestinal pangs of fear"), [[Chapter 8#Page 116|p. 116]] ("stone bowelflash"), [[Chapter 11#Page 207|p. 207]] ("a throb of fear went right up his asshole"), [[Chapter 14#Page 299|p. 299]] ("rectal spasms of fear,") and elsewhere.

'''Zoyd’s longtime pursuer, DEA field agent Hector Zuñiga''' 
To hector is to harass. Pynchon often alludes to opera in his work, and in Georges Bizet's French opéra comique, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen ''Carmen''] (1875), there is the character Zuniga (''without'' the tilde), an officer who arrests the beautiful gypsy Carmen after she is involved in a fight with another woman at the cigarette factory where they work. [http://classicalmusic.about.com/od/opera/qt/carmensynopsis.htm Synopsis]

'''"Dream on, Zoyd."''' 
Pynchon seems to be using the authorial voice with slightly higher profile than previously, speaking directly to characters (and readers) with comments like this.

'''"Hector stood over by the toilets pretending to play a Zaxxon machine..."''' 
Zaxxon is a 1982 arcade game developed by Ikegami Tsushinki and released by Sega. The game gives the player the experience of flying a fighter craft through a fortress while shooting at enemy entities (missiles, enemy gunfire, etc.). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaxxon Wikipedia]

'''"Wayvone"''' 
The name may be a play on "rave on," but it's also been suggested that it might derive from huevon, a Spanish word meaning egg, but also referring to a testicle -- hence someone with "big balls." (Pynchon did live in Mexico for a while...) In any case, Wayvone is also a remittance man, someone who gets paid a small but regular amount of money to stay out of trouble in some far-away place. Pynchon seems fond of the type -- there are several in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''V.''] and [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''], and the latter even has a remittance horse (named Snake). Is it pronounced "wavy one"?

[[image:double-sole-shoes-cerruti.jpg|thumb|200px|Double-sole shoes & mid-80s Cerruit suit]]'''"Ralph Jr. was all dolled up in a Cerruti suit, white shirt with cuff links, touch them you die double soled shoes from someplace off-shore, the works."''' 
Cerruti suits have been around since the 1950s, a symbol of prestige and excellence in men's suits. Italian designer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nino_Cerruti Nino Cerruti] (b. 1930) is the creator of the line, which continues to this day (as does Mr. Cerruti). In the 1980s, Wayvone's look was fashionable with the greed-is-good Wall Street crowd.

The expensive foreign suit and shoes (inappropriate for rural Northern California), the Italian designer, the oblique reference to his father's City occupation, his perhaps-Italian name (way-voh-nee, rhyming with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajones cojone] or maybe [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_capone Capone], a Capone-of-the-Waves i.e. a California Capone?) all stereotype him as a Mafioso.

==Page 12==
'''"technical virgin"''' 
Meaning Zoyd has more-or-less resisted Zuniga's attempt to "turn" him into an informer/betrayer. The sexual metaphor prefigures many references to Frenesi's pussy (which she blames for driving her far beyond this stage).

'''"Wheel of Fortune"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_of_Fortune_(U.S._syndicated_game_show) Wheel of Fortune] is an American Tube game show, hosted by Pat Sajak and Vanna White. It is the longest-running syndicated game show in American television history.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 1

2011-12-25T23:57:02Z

Pthomas: /* Page 3 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Jacket Flap==
Read ''Vineland's'' original book jacket flap [[Vineland_Jacket_Flap_Copy|here]].

'''"less than harmonic convergence"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_Convergence Harmonic Convergence] was a planetary alignment occurring in 1987 that was heralded by New Age astrologers as ushering-in an age of peace, rather than war, as a prelude to the Mayan "end of history" in 2012.

==Page 3==

[[image:creeping-fig.jpg|right|thumb|175px|caption|Creeping Fig (''Ficus pumila'')]]'''"Later than usual one summer morning in 1984, Zoyd Wheeler drifted awake in sunlight through a creeping fig that hung in the window, with a squadron of blue jays stomping around on the roof."''' 
Nice prolepsis going on in this opening sentence which subtly telegraphs ''Vineland'' themes. The pacific experience of drifting awake and Zoyd would definitely be drifting in filtered sunlight one summer morning is contrasted by the foreshadowings of threats creeping figs (a highly invasive plant) connecting to federal prosecutor Brock Vond who is referred to throughout as a "creep" and a "megacreep," notably on pp. [[Chapter_8#Page 108|108]], [[Chapter_9#Page 141|141]] and [[Chapter_9#Page 189|189]]. And those "squadrons of blue jays stomping around..." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Jay blue jays] are scavengers and considered "adaptable, aggressive and omnivorous"; they also have a reputation as raiders of other birds' nests, stealing eggs, chicks [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Jay]. In ''Vineland'' these blue jays will morph into squadrons of "private vigilantes" in blue planes, on [[Chapter_12#Page 221|p. 221]]. And, natch, there's that ominous Orwellian year of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four 1984]. Of course, the reference to a "vine" in the novel's opening sentence, even if it's creeping, is ''appropo''. Finally, the color blue figures prominently in ''Vineland'', and particularly Frenesi's blue eyes. [[Blue in Vineland|Read more about the color blue in ''Vineland''...]]

It's also worth noting how this book begins, as does [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/index.php?title=Main_Page ''Gravity's Rainbow''], with a protagonist waking from a portentous dream, with light percolating in.

'''"Zoyd Wheeler"''' 
Rhymes with void, shares Z with Zuniga. Zoyd's last name perhaps references Wheeler Hall at University of California at Berkeley, at the epicenter of student unrest in the 60s.

The suffix -oid is like -ish; think humanoid, freakazoid, etc. So Zoyd is Z-ish. What comes to mind about Z? It's the last letter of the alphabet, so Zoyd is near the bottom. "Boyd" might be a good name for the heroic, hard-charging hero of an adventure or detective story, but not Zoyd. What else? Getting Z's means sleeping, so perhaps Zoyd is sleepy. Z is the first letter of zero, and the one-zero dichotomy shows up often in ''Vineland''. Finally, remember Z for Zorro and the leftish 1960's political film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(film) Z]

'''blue jays'''

The blue jay [''Cyanocitta cristata''] does not range west of the Rocky Mountains. The birds Zoyd hears are Stellar's jays [''C. stellari''], with dark heads and a more uniformly blue body.

'''"mental disability check"''' 
This instantly identifies Zoyd as a sixties character with a sixties scam. In the late sixties, Bay Area actor/writer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Coyote Peter Coyote] (b. 1941) wrote and performed a then-popular song called "ATD" celebrating the coolness of getting onto ATD (Aid to the Totally Disabled) for feigned mental problems to avoid having to work at some evil-collaborative (i.e., straight) job. The trick, of course, was convincing your caseworker that you were a nut. Zoyd's annual window-dive is a comic version of a now-classic ritual-scam turned into a media circus (as are most remains of the sixties). Given the importance of the Tube in Vineland, it's no accident that what was originally a private act of financial desperation has become a filler on TV news (complete with a fake window). Of course, as it turns out, this particular scam is not Zoyd's idea.

'''Prairie''' 
Zoyd's daughter would likely be Prairie Wheeler, thus her name might connect to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_wheel Tibetan Prayer Wheel], a mechanical device used as an equivalent to the recitation of a mantra. The prayer wheel consists of a hollow metal cylinder, often beautifully embossed, mounted on a rod and containing a consecrated paper bearing a mantra. Each turn of the wheel by hand is considered equivalent to orally reciting the prayer. Variants to the handheld prayer wheel are large cylinders that can be set in motion by hand or attached to windmills or waterwheels and thus kept in continuous motion.

Note that [http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=415 Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park] is up around where the fictional town of Vineland is supposed to exist.

'''"country music was playing out of somebody's truck radio"''' 
Good Mendocino atmosphere throughout; clearly, Pynchon has been there.

'''"Count Chocula"''' 
An actual cereal that made its first appears in 1971, along with another monster-themed offering from General Mills, Franken Berry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Chocula Wikipedia]

<div id="frootloops">'''"Froot Loops again"'''</div>
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Froot_Loops Froot Loops] is a brand of breakfast cereal introduced by Kellogg's in 1963. A stoner favorite, they appear in [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=F#frootloops Inherent Vice] too.

'''"Nestle's Quik"''' 
A chocolate flavoring for milk mix that was developed in the U.S. by 1948. It was introduced in Europe in 1950 as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nesquik Nesquik] and that name was adapted in the U.S. in 1999.

'''"Cucumber Lounge"''' 
A phallic name, for sure. And cucumbers are one of Humboldt County's major crops, right up there with marijuana.

'''"the Log Jam in Del Norte"''' 
And another phallic club name playing off the county's logging industry.

Del Norte County in Northern California - so Pynchon has sharply indicated both the date and the location of the action.

==Page 4==
'''"elegant little...chain saw, about the size of a Mini-Mac"''' 
Mini-Mac = the Mac-10 machine pistol of US make. Zoyd's lady-like chainsaw goes well with his drag costume, and the effeminate clientele (drinking "kiwi mimosas.") It also makes a nice almost-rhyme with Sheriff Willis Chunko's gold-handled chainsaw on [[Chapter 15#Page 373|page 373]].

==Page 6==
'''"orientational vibes"''' 
Great satire on gay men who like to dress like lumberjacks, possibly inspired by the Monty Python song, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lumberjack_Song_(Monty_Python) "I am a Lumberjack and I'm OK"]. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zey8567bcg Watch the video...]

==Page 7==
'''"Six Rivers Conference"''' 
To the south of the eerie and mysterious Seventh River? ([[Chapter 4#Page 49|See p. 49.]])

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Rivers_National_Forest Six Rivers National Forest] is a U.S. National Forest located in the northwestern corner of California, with a U.S. Mail address in Eureka, CA. The Six Rivers Youth Football Conference is also headquartered in Eureka.

'''"nacreous pretty saw"''' 
Referring to the mother-of-pearl grips on "Cheryl's" chainsaw.

'''"hotshot PI lawyers"''' 
PI = Normally short for personal injury, but here perhaps purchase of information, as noted on [[Chapter 3#Page 24|p. 24]].

:The context definitely suggests Personal Injury, not Purchase of Information. "these are all folks now who like to sue..." and PI lawsuits are what they're bringing.

'''"George Lucas and all his crew"''' 
The forest sequences of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars Star Wars] sequel were shot in the area.

==Page 8==
'''...say there Lemay!''' 
General "Bomb them back to the Stone Age!" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Lemay Curtis Lemay] ?

'''His partner, Van Meter, was calling from the Cucumber Lounge...''' 
The name is likely a tip of the hat to Solomon Lee Van Meter, Jr. (1888-1937) who's brilliant idea was to invent a parachute that was strapped onto the pilot instead of attached to the plane itself, as early parachutes were. He also invented the quick-release mechanism called the ripcord. His patents were granted in 1916. From the [http://www.ket.org/trips/aviation/vanmeter.htm Aviation Museum of Kentucky website]

Or mebbe to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_Van_Meter Homer Van Meter], gunman and right hand man for John Dillinger, filmically portrayed by the likes of Elisha Cook, Jr., (1957) and Harry Dean Stanton (1973). The best line from the Wikipedia page linked above has it that "There are conflicting accounts of Van Meter's personality, although all agree that he was an inveterate clown and prankster."

Or perhaps [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_morrison Van Morrison], a singer popular in the sixties (and beyond).

'''Vineland County''' 
[[Image:Ncounties.jpg|thumb|Northern California Counties|right]]
There is no Vineland County on the California map. Pynchon appears to have created Vineland County from parts of Mendocino, Humboldt, and Del Norte Counties. However, on page 43 of ''Inherent Vice'', Pynchon writes "Scott had been playing with a local group known as the Corvairs, till half of them decided to join the northward migration of those years up to Humboldt, Vineland, and Del Norte". This leaves out Mendocino, which was part of the "hippie migration", and best fits the name Vineland, since it's the only one of the three that's been a major grape producer in the past. Jump to [[Chapter_14#Page_317|page 317]] for more evidence that Vineland lies on the border between Humboldt and Del Norte Counties.

==Page 9==
'''"cop vehicles...playing the 'Jeopardy' theme on their sirens."''' 
The first of many TV show / theme song references, this one to the popular game show [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeopardy Jeopardy!] which began airing on March 30, 1964.

'''"unrelenting...bickering...[caused by] unquiet ghosts"''' 
A pre-hint of the Thanatoids?

==Page 10==
'''"one of those gotta-shit throbs of fear."''' 
An apt description, if you've ever felt it. Pynchon seems big on these visceral fear reactions; see also [[Chapter 4#Page 45|p. 45]] ("intestinal pangs of fear"), [[Chapter 8#Page 116|p. 116]] ("stone bowelflash"), [[Chapter 11#Page 207|p. 207]] ("a throb of fear went right up his asshole"), [[Chapter 14#Page 299|p. 299]] ("rectal spasms of fear,") and elsewhere.

'''Zoyd’s longtime pursuer, DEA field agent Hector Zuñiga''' 
To hector is to harass. Pynchon often alludes to opera in his work, and in Georges Bizet's French opéra comique, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen ''Carmen''] (1875), there is the character Zuniga (''without'' the tilde), an officer who arrests the beautiful gypsy Carmen after she is involved in a fight with another woman at the cigarette factory where they work. [http://classicalmusic.about.com/od/opera/qt/carmensynopsis.htm Synopsis]

'''"Dream on, Zoyd."''' 
Pynchon seems to be using the authorial voice with slightly higher profile than previously, speaking directly to characters (and readers) with comments like this.

'''"Hector stood over by the toilets pretending to play a Zaxxon machine..."''' 
Zaxxon is a 1982 arcade game developed by Ikegami Tsushinki and released by Sega. The game gives the player the experience of flying a fighter craft through a fortress while shooting at enemy entities (missiles, enemy gunfire, etc.). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaxxon Wikipedia]

'''"Wayvone"''' 
The name may be a play on "rave on," but it's also been suggested that it might derive from huevon, a Spanish word meaning egg, but also referring to a testicle -- hence someone with "big balls." (Pynchon did live in Mexico for a while...) In any case, Wayvone is also a remittance man, someone who gets paid a small but regular amount of money to stay out of trouble in some far-away place. Pynchon seems fond of the type -- there are several in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''V.''] and [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''], and the latter even has a remittance horse (named Snake). Is it pronounced "wavy one"?

[[image:double-sole-shoes-cerruti.jpg|thumb|200px|Double-sole shoes & mid-80s Cerruit suit]]'''"Ralph Jr. was all dolled up in a Cerruti suit, white shirt with cuff links, touch them you die double soled shoes from someplace off-shore, the works."''' 
Cerruti suits have been around since the 1950s, a symbol of prestige and excellence in men's suits. Italian designer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nino_Cerruti Nino Cerruti] (b. 1930) is the creator of the line, which continues to this day (as does Mr. Cerruti). In the 1980s, Wayvone's look was fashionable with the greed-is-good Wall Street crowd.

The expensive foreign suit and shoes (inappropriate for rural Northern California), the Italian designer, the oblique reference to his father's City occupation, his perhaps-Italian name (way-voh-nee, rhyming with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajones cojone] or maybe [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_capone Capone], a Capone-of-the-Waves i.e. a California Capone?) all stereotype him as a Mafioso.

==Page 12==
'''"technical virgin"''' 
Meaning Zoyd has more-or-less resisted Zuniga's attempt to "turn" him into an informer/betrayer. The sexual metaphor prefigures many references to Frenesi's pussy (which she blames for driving her far beyond this stage).

'''"Wheel of Fortune"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_of_Fortune_(U.S._syndicated_game_show) Wheel of Fortune] is an American Tube game show, hosted by Pat Sajak and Vanna White. It is the longest-running syndicated game show in American television history.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 1

2011-12-25T23:55:32Z

Pthomas: /* Page 3 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Jacket Flap==
Read ''Vineland's'' original book jacket flap [[Vineland_Jacket_Flap_Copy|here]].

'''"less than harmonic convergence"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_Convergence Harmonic Convergence] was a planetary alignment occurring in 1987 that was heralded by New Age astrologers as ushering-in an age of peace, rather than war, as a prelude to the Mayan "end of history" in 2012.

==Page 3==

[[image:creeping-fig.jpg|right|thumb|175px|caption|Creeping Fig (''Ficus pumila'')]]'''"Later than usual one summer morning in 1984, Zoyd Wheeler drifted awake in sunlight through a creeping fig that hung in the window, with a squadron of blue jays stomping around on the roof."''' 
Nice prolepsis going on in this opening sentence which subtly telegraphs ''Vineland'' themes. The pacific experience of drifting awake and Zoyd would definitely be drifting in filtered sunlight one summer morning is contrasted by the foreshadowings of threats creeping figs (a highly invasive plant) connecting to federal prosecutor Brock Vond who is referred to throughout as a "creep" and a "megacreep," notably on pp. [[Chapter_8#Page 108|108]], [[Chapter_9#Page 141|141]] and [[Chapter_9#Page 189|189]]. And those "squadrons of blue jays stomping around..." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Jay blue jays] are scavengers and considered "adaptable, aggressive and omnivorous"; they also have a reputation as raiders of other birds' nests, stealing eggs, chicks [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Jay]. In ''Vineland'' these blue jays will morph into squadrons of "private vigilantes" in blue planes, on [[Chapter_12#Page 221|p. 221]]. And, natch, there's that ominous Orwellian year of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four 1984]. Of course, the reference to a "vine" in the novel's opening sentence, even if it's creeping, is ''appropo''. Finally, the color blue figures prominently in ''Vineland'', and particularly Frenesi's blue eyes. [[Blue in Vineland|Read more about the color blue in ''Vineland''...]]

It's also worth noting how this book begins, as does [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/index.php?title=Main_Page ''Gravity's Rainbow''], with a protagonist waking from a portentous dream, with light percolating in.

'''"Zoyd Wheeler"''' 
Rhymes with void, shares Z with Zuniga. Zoyd's last name perhaps references Wheeler Hall at University of California at Berkeley, at the epicenter of student unrest in the 60s.

The suffix -oid is like -ish; think humanoid, freakazoid, etc. So Zoyd is Z-ish. What comes to mind about Z? It's the last letter of the alphabet, so Zoyd is near the bottom. "Boyd" might be a good name for the heroic, hard-charging hero of an adventure or detective story, but not Zoyd. What else? Getting Z's means sleeping, so perhaps Zoyd is sleepy. Z is the first letter of zero, and the one-zero dichotomy shows up often in ''Vineland''. Finally, remember Z for Zorro and the leftish 1960's political film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(film) Z]

'''blue jays'''

The blue jay [''Cyanocitta cristata''] does not range west of the Rocky Mountains. The birds Zoyd hears are Stellar's jays, with dark heads and a more uniformly blue body.

'''"mental disability check"''' 
This instantly identifies Zoyd as a sixties character with a sixties scam. In the late sixties, Bay Area actor/writer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Coyote Peter Coyote] (b. 1941) wrote and performed a then-popular song called "ATD" celebrating the coolness of getting onto ATD (Aid to the Totally Disabled) for feigned mental problems to avoid having to work at some evil-collaborative (i.e., straight) job. The trick, of course, was convincing your caseworker that you were a nut. Zoyd's annual window-dive is a comic version of a now-classic ritual-scam turned into a media circus (as are most remains of the sixties). Given the importance of the Tube in Vineland, it's no accident that what was originally a private act of financial desperation has become a filler on TV news (complete with a fake window). Of course, as it turns out, this particular scam is not Zoyd's idea.

'''Prairie''' 
Zoyd's daughter would likely be Prairie Wheeler, thus her name might connect to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_wheel Tibetan Prayer Wheel], a mechanical device used as an equivalent to the recitation of a mantra. The prayer wheel consists of a hollow metal cylinder, often beautifully embossed, mounted on a rod and containing a consecrated paper bearing a mantra. Each turn of the wheel by hand is considered equivalent to orally reciting the prayer. Variants to the handheld prayer wheel are large cylinders that can be set in motion by hand or attached to windmills or waterwheels and thus kept in continuous motion.

Note that [http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=415 Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park] is up around where the fictional town of Vineland is supposed to exist.

'''"country music was playing out of somebody's truck radio"''' 
Good Mendocino atmosphere throughout; clearly, Pynchon has been there.

'''"Count Chocula"''' 
An actual cereal that made its first appears in 1971, along with another monster-themed offering from General Mills, Franken Berry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Chocula Wikipedia]

<div id="frootloops">'''"Froot Loops again"'''</div>
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Froot_Loops Froot Loops] is a brand of breakfast cereal introduced by Kellogg's in 1963. A stoner favorite, they appear in [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=F#frootloops Inherent Vice] too.

'''"Nestle's Quik"''' 
A chocolate flavoring for milk mix that was developed in the U.S. by 1948. It was introduced in Europe in 1950 as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nesquik Nesquik] and that name was adapted in the U.S. in 1999.

'''"Cucumber Lounge"''' 
A phallic name, for sure. And cucumbers are one of Humboldt County's major crops, right up there with marijuana.

'''"the Log Jam in Del Norte"''' 
And another phallic club name playing off the county's logging industry.

Del Norte County in Northern California - so Pynchon has sharply indicated both the date and the location of the action.

==Page 4==
'''"elegant little...chain saw, about the size of a Mini-Mac"''' 
Mini-Mac = the Mac-10 machine pistol of US make. Zoyd's lady-like chainsaw goes well with his drag costume, and the effeminate clientele (drinking "kiwi mimosas.") It also makes a nice almost-rhyme with Sheriff Willis Chunko's gold-handled chainsaw on [[Chapter 15#Page 373|page 373]].

==Page 6==
'''"orientational vibes"''' 
Great satire on gay men who like to dress like lumberjacks, possibly inspired by the Monty Python song, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lumberjack_Song_(Monty_Python) "I am a Lumberjack and I'm OK"]. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zey8567bcg Watch the video...]

==Page 7==
'''"Six Rivers Conference"''' 
To the south of the eerie and mysterious Seventh River? ([[Chapter 4#Page 49|See p. 49.]])

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Rivers_National_Forest Six Rivers National Forest] is a U.S. National Forest located in the northwestern corner of California, with a U.S. Mail address in Eureka, CA. The Six Rivers Youth Football Conference is also headquartered in Eureka.

'''"nacreous pretty saw"''' 
Referring to the mother-of-pearl grips on "Cheryl's" chainsaw.

'''"hotshot PI lawyers"''' 
PI = Normally short for personal injury, but here perhaps purchase of information, as noted on [[Chapter 3#Page 24|p. 24]].

:The context definitely suggests Personal Injury, not Purchase of Information. "these are all folks now who like to sue..." and PI lawsuits are what they're bringing.

'''"George Lucas and all his crew"''' 
The forest sequences of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars Star Wars] sequel were shot in the area.

==Page 8==
'''...say there Lemay!''' 
General "Bomb them back to the Stone Age!" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Lemay Curtis Lemay] ?

'''His partner, Van Meter, was calling from the Cucumber Lounge...''' 
The name is likely a tip of the hat to Solomon Lee Van Meter, Jr. (1888-1937) who's brilliant idea was to invent a parachute that was strapped onto the pilot instead of attached to the plane itself, as early parachutes were. He also invented the quick-release mechanism called the ripcord. His patents were granted in 1916. From the [http://www.ket.org/trips/aviation/vanmeter.htm Aviation Museum of Kentucky website]

Or mebbe to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_Van_Meter Homer Van Meter], gunman and right hand man for John Dillinger, filmically portrayed by the likes of Elisha Cook, Jr., (1957) and Harry Dean Stanton (1973). The best line from the Wikipedia page linked above has it that "There are conflicting accounts of Van Meter's personality, although all agree that he was an inveterate clown and prankster."

Or perhaps [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_morrison Van Morrison], a singer popular in the sixties (and beyond).

'''Vineland County''' 
[[Image:Ncounties.jpg|thumb|Northern California Counties|right]]
There is no Vineland County on the California map. Pynchon appears to have created Vineland County from parts of Mendocino, Humboldt, and Del Norte Counties. However, on page 43 of ''Inherent Vice'', Pynchon writes "Scott had been playing with a local group known as the Corvairs, till half of them decided to join the northward migration of those years up to Humboldt, Vineland, and Del Norte". This leaves out Mendocino, which was part of the "hippie migration", and best fits the name Vineland, since it's the only one of the three that's been a major grape producer in the past. Jump to [[Chapter_14#Page_317|page 317]] for more evidence that Vineland lies on the border between Humboldt and Del Norte Counties.

==Page 9==
'''"cop vehicles...playing the 'Jeopardy' theme on their sirens."''' 
The first of many TV show / theme song references, this one to the popular game show [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeopardy Jeopardy!] which began airing on March 30, 1964.

'''"unrelenting...bickering...[caused by] unquiet ghosts"''' 
A pre-hint of the Thanatoids?

==Page 10==
'''"one of those gotta-shit throbs of fear."''' 
An apt description, if you've ever felt it. Pynchon seems big on these visceral fear reactions; see also [[Chapter 4#Page 45|p. 45]] ("intestinal pangs of fear"), [[Chapter 8#Page 116|p. 116]] ("stone bowelflash"), [[Chapter 11#Page 207|p. 207]] ("a throb of fear went right up his asshole"), [[Chapter 14#Page 299|p. 299]] ("rectal spasms of fear,") and elsewhere.

'''Zoyd’s longtime pursuer, DEA field agent Hector Zuñiga''' 
To hector is to harass. Pynchon often alludes to opera in his work, and in Georges Bizet's French opéra comique, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen ''Carmen''] (1875), there is the character Zuniga (''without'' the tilde), an officer who arrests the beautiful gypsy Carmen after she is involved in a fight with another woman at the cigarette factory where they work. [http://classicalmusic.about.com/od/opera/qt/carmensynopsis.htm Synopsis]

'''"Dream on, Zoyd."''' 
Pynchon seems to be using the authorial voice with slightly higher profile than previously, speaking directly to characters (and readers) with comments like this.

'''"Hector stood over by the toilets pretending to play a Zaxxon machine..."''' 
Zaxxon is a 1982 arcade game developed by Ikegami Tsushinki and released by Sega. The game gives the player the experience of flying a fighter craft through a fortress while shooting at enemy entities (missiles, enemy gunfire, etc.). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaxxon Wikipedia]

'''"Wayvone"''' 
The name may be a play on "rave on," but it's also been suggested that it might derive from huevon, a Spanish word meaning egg, but also referring to a testicle -- hence someone with "big balls." (Pynchon did live in Mexico for a while...) In any case, Wayvone is also a remittance man, someone who gets paid a small but regular amount of money to stay out of trouble in some far-away place. Pynchon seems fond of the type -- there are several in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''V.''] and [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''], and the latter even has a remittance horse (named Snake). Is it pronounced "wavy one"?

[[image:double-sole-shoes-cerruti.jpg|thumb|200px|Double-sole shoes & mid-80s Cerruit suit]]'''"Ralph Jr. was all dolled up in a Cerruti suit, white shirt with cuff links, touch them you die double soled shoes from someplace off-shore, the works."''' 
Cerruti suits have been around since the 1950s, a symbol of prestige and excellence in men's suits. Italian designer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nino_Cerruti Nino Cerruti] (b. 1930) is the creator of the line, which continues to this day (as does Mr. Cerruti). In the 1980s, Wayvone's look was fashionable with the greed-is-good Wall Street crowd.

The expensive foreign suit and shoes (inappropriate for rural Northern California), the Italian designer, the oblique reference to his father's City occupation, his perhaps-Italian name (way-voh-nee, rhyming with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajones cojone] or maybe [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_capone Capone], a Capone-of-the-Waves i.e. a California Capone?) all stereotype him as a Mafioso.

==Page 12==
'''"technical virgin"''' 
Meaning Zoyd has more-or-less resisted Zuniga's attempt to "turn" him into an informer/betrayer. The sexual metaphor prefigures many references to Frenesi's pussy (which she blames for driving her far beyond this stage).

'''"Wheel of Fortune"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_of_Fortune_(U.S._syndicated_game_show) Wheel of Fortune] is an American Tube game show, hosted by Pat Sajak and Vanna White. It is the longest-running syndicated game show in American television history.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 1

2011-12-25T23:55:09Z

Pthomas:

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Jacket Flap==
Read ''Vineland's'' original book jacket flap [[Vineland_Jacket_Flap_Copy|here]].

'''"less than harmonic convergence"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmonic_Convergence Harmonic Convergence] was a planetary alignment occurring in 1987 that was heralded by New Age astrologers as ushering-in an age of peace, rather than war, as a prelude to the Mayan "end of history" in 2012.

==Page 3==

[[image:creeping-fig.jpg|right|thumb|175px|caption|Creeping Fig (''Ficus pumila'')]]'''"Later than usual one summer morning in 1984, Zoyd Wheeler drifted awake in sunlight through a creeping fig that hung in the window, with a squadron of blue jays stomping around on the roof."''' 
Nice prolepsis going on in this opening sentence which subtly telegraphs ''Vineland'' themes. The pacific experience of drifting awake and Zoyd would definitely be drifting in filtered sunlight one summer morning is contrasted by the foreshadowings of threats creeping figs (a highly invasive plant) connecting to federal prosecutor Brock Vond who is referred to throughout as a "creep" and a "megacreep," notably on pp. [[Chapter_8#Page 108|108]], [[Chapter_9#Page 141|141]] and [[Chapter_9#Page 189|189]]. And those "squadrons of blue jays stomping around..." [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Jay blue jays] are scavengers and considered "adaptable, aggressive and omnivorous"; they also have a reputation as raiders of other birds' nests, stealing eggs, chicks [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Jay]. In ''Vineland'' these blue jays will morph into squadrons of "private vigilantes" in blue planes, on [[Chapter_12#Page 221|p. 221]]. And, natch, there's that ominous Orwellian year of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four 1984]. Of course, the reference to a "vine" in the novel's opening sentence, even if it's creeping, is ''appropo''. Finally, the color blue figures prominently in ''Vineland'', and particularly Frenesi's blue eyes. [[Blue in Vineland|Read more about the color blue in ''Vineland''...]]

It's also worth noting how this book begins, as does [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/index.php?title=Main_Page ''Gravity's Rainbow''], with a protagonist waking from a portentous dream, with light percolating in.

'''"Zoyd Wheeler"''' 
Rhymes with void, shares Z with Zuniga. Zoyd's last name perhaps references Wheeler Hall at University of California at Berkeley, at the epicenter of student unrest in the 60s.

The suffix -oid is like -ish; think humanoid, freakazoid, etc. So Zoyd is Z-ish. What comes to mind about Z? It's the last letter of the alphabet, so Zoyd is near the bottom. "Boyd" might be a good name for the heroic, hard-charging hero of an adventure or detective story, but not Zoyd. What else? Getting Z's means sleeping, so perhaps Zoyd is sleepy. Z is the first letter of zero, and the one-zero dichotomy shows up often in ''Vineland''. Finally, remember Z for Zorro and the leftish 1960's political film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(film) Z]

'''blue jays'''
The blue jay [''Cyanocitta cristata''] does not range west of the Rocky Mountains. The birds Zoyd hears are Stellar's jays, with dark heads and a more uniformly blue body.

'''"mental disability check"''' 
This instantly identifies Zoyd as a sixties character with a sixties scam. In the late sixties, Bay Area actor/writer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Coyote Peter Coyote] (b. 1941) wrote and performed a then-popular song called "ATD" celebrating the coolness of getting onto ATD (Aid to the Totally Disabled) for feigned mental problems to avoid having to work at some evil-collaborative (i.e., straight) job. The trick, of course, was convincing your caseworker that you were a nut. Zoyd's annual window-dive is a comic version of a now-classic ritual-scam turned into a media circus (as are most remains of the sixties). Given the importance of the Tube in Vineland, it's no accident that what was originally a private act of financial desperation has become a filler on TV news (complete with a fake window). Of course, as it turns out, this particular scam is not Zoyd's idea.

'''Prairie''' 
Zoyd's daughter would likely be Prairie Wheeler, thus her name might connect to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prayer_wheel Tibetan Prayer Wheel], a mechanical device used as an equivalent to the recitation of a mantra. The prayer wheel consists of a hollow metal cylinder, often beautifully embossed, mounted on a rod and containing a consecrated paper bearing a mantra. Each turn of the wheel by hand is considered equivalent to orally reciting the prayer. Variants to the handheld prayer wheel are large cylinders that can be set in motion by hand or attached to windmills or waterwheels and thus kept in continuous motion.

Note that [http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=415 Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park] is up around where the fictional town of Vineland is supposed to exist.

'''"country music was playing out of somebody's truck radio"''' 
Good Mendocino atmosphere throughout; clearly, Pynchon has been there.

'''"Count Chocula"''' 
An actual cereal that made its first appears in 1971, along with another monster-themed offering from General Mills, Franken Berry. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Chocula Wikipedia]

<div id="frootloops">'''"Froot Loops again"'''</div>
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Froot_Loops Froot Loops] is a brand of breakfast cereal introduced by Kellogg's in 1963. A stoner favorite, they appear in [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=F#frootloops Inherent Vice] too.

'''"Nestle's Quik"''' 
A chocolate flavoring for milk mix that was developed in the U.S. by 1948. It was introduced in Europe in 1950 as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nesquik Nesquik] and that name was adapted in the U.S. in 1999.

'''"Cucumber Lounge"''' 
A phallic name, for sure. And cucumbers are one of Humboldt County's major crops, right up there with marijuana.

'''"the Log Jam in Del Norte"''' 
And another phallic club name playing off the county's logging industry.

Del Norte County in Northern California - so Pynchon has sharply indicated both the date and the location of the action.

==Page 4==
'''"elegant little...chain saw, about the size of a Mini-Mac"''' 
Mini-Mac = the Mac-10 machine pistol of US make. Zoyd's lady-like chainsaw goes well with his drag costume, and the effeminate clientele (drinking "kiwi mimosas.") It also makes a nice almost-rhyme with Sheriff Willis Chunko's gold-handled chainsaw on [[Chapter 15#Page 373|page 373]].

==Page 6==
'''"orientational vibes"''' 
Great satire on gay men who like to dress like lumberjacks, possibly inspired by the Monty Python song, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lumberjack_Song_(Monty_Python) "I am a Lumberjack and I'm OK"]. [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5zey8567bcg Watch the video...]

==Page 7==
'''"Six Rivers Conference"''' 
To the south of the eerie and mysterious Seventh River? ([[Chapter 4#Page 49|See p. 49.]])

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Six_Rivers_National_Forest Six Rivers National Forest] is a U.S. National Forest located in the northwestern corner of California, with a U.S. Mail address in Eureka, CA. The Six Rivers Youth Football Conference is also headquartered in Eureka.

'''"nacreous pretty saw"''' 
Referring to the mother-of-pearl grips on "Cheryl's" chainsaw.

'''"hotshot PI lawyers"''' 
PI = Normally short for personal injury, but here perhaps purchase of information, as noted on [[Chapter 3#Page 24|p. 24]].

:The context definitely suggests Personal Injury, not Purchase of Information. "these are all folks now who like to sue..." and PI lawsuits are what they're bringing.

'''"George Lucas and all his crew"''' 
The forest sequences of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars Star Wars] sequel were shot in the area.

==Page 8==
'''...say there Lemay!''' 
General "Bomb them back to the Stone Age!" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curtis_Lemay Curtis Lemay] ?

'''His partner, Van Meter, was calling from the Cucumber Lounge...''' 
The name is likely a tip of the hat to Solomon Lee Van Meter, Jr. (1888-1937) who's brilliant idea was to invent a parachute that was strapped onto the pilot instead of attached to the plane itself, as early parachutes were. He also invented the quick-release mechanism called the ripcord. His patents were granted in 1916. From the [http://www.ket.org/trips/aviation/vanmeter.htm Aviation Museum of Kentucky website]

Or mebbe to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_Van_Meter Homer Van Meter], gunman and right hand man for John Dillinger, filmically portrayed by the likes of Elisha Cook, Jr., (1957) and Harry Dean Stanton (1973). The best line from the Wikipedia page linked above has it that "There are conflicting accounts of Van Meter's personality, although all agree that he was an inveterate clown and prankster."

Or perhaps [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Van_morrison Van Morrison], a singer popular in the sixties (and beyond).

'''Vineland County''' 
[[Image:Ncounties.jpg|thumb|Northern California Counties|right]]
There is no Vineland County on the California map. Pynchon appears to have created Vineland County from parts of Mendocino, Humboldt, and Del Norte Counties. However, on page 43 of ''Inherent Vice'', Pynchon writes "Scott had been playing with a local group known as the Corvairs, till half of them decided to join the northward migration of those years up to Humboldt, Vineland, and Del Norte". This leaves out Mendocino, which was part of the "hippie migration", and best fits the name Vineland, since it's the only one of the three that's been a major grape producer in the past. Jump to [[Chapter_14#Page_317|page 317]] for more evidence that Vineland lies on the border between Humboldt and Del Norte Counties.

==Page 9==
'''"cop vehicles...playing the 'Jeopardy' theme on their sirens."''' 
The first of many TV show / theme song references, this one to the popular game show [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeopardy Jeopardy!] which began airing on March 30, 1964.

'''"unrelenting...bickering...[caused by] unquiet ghosts"''' 
A pre-hint of the Thanatoids?

==Page 10==
'''"one of those gotta-shit throbs of fear."''' 
An apt description, if you've ever felt it. Pynchon seems big on these visceral fear reactions; see also [[Chapter 4#Page 45|p. 45]] ("intestinal pangs of fear"), [[Chapter 8#Page 116|p. 116]] ("stone bowelflash"), [[Chapter 11#Page 207|p. 207]] ("a throb of fear went right up his asshole"), [[Chapter 14#Page 299|p. 299]] ("rectal spasms of fear,") and elsewhere.

'''Zoyd’s longtime pursuer, DEA field agent Hector Zuñiga''' 
To hector is to harass. Pynchon often alludes to opera in his work, and in Georges Bizet's French opéra comique, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carmen ''Carmen''] (1875), there is the character Zuniga (''without'' the tilde), an officer who arrests the beautiful gypsy Carmen after she is involved in a fight with another woman at the cigarette factory where they work. [http://classicalmusic.about.com/od/opera/qt/carmensynopsis.htm Synopsis]

'''"Dream on, Zoyd."''' 
Pynchon seems to be using the authorial voice with slightly higher profile than previously, speaking directly to characters (and readers) with comments like this.

'''"Hector stood over by the toilets pretending to play a Zaxxon machine..."''' 
Zaxxon is a 1982 arcade game developed by Ikegami Tsushinki and released by Sega. The game gives the player the experience of flying a fighter craft through a fortress while shooting at enemy entities (missiles, enemy gunfire, etc.). [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zaxxon Wikipedia]

'''"Wayvone"''' 
The name may be a play on "rave on," but it's also been suggested that it might derive from huevon, a Spanish word meaning egg, but also referring to a testicle -- hence someone with "big balls." (Pynchon did live in Mexico for a while...) In any case, Wayvone is also a remittance man, someone who gets paid a small but regular amount of money to stay out of trouble in some far-away place. Pynchon seems fond of the type -- there are several in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''V.''] and [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''], and the latter even has a remittance horse (named Snake). Is it pronounced "wavy one"?

[[image:double-sole-shoes-cerruti.jpg|thumb|200px|Double-sole shoes & mid-80s Cerruit suit]]'''"Ralph Jr. was all dolled up in a Cerruti suit, white shirt with cuff links, touch them you die double soled shoes from someplace off-shore, the works."''' 
Cerruti suits have been around since the 1950s, a symbol of prestige and excellence in men's suits. Italian designer [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nino_Cerruti Nino Cerruti] (b. 1930) is the creator of the line, which continues to this day (as does Mr. Cerruti). In the 1980s, Wayvone's look was fashionable with the greed-is-good Wall Street crowd.

The expensive foreign suit and shoes (inappropriate for rural Northern California), the Italian designer, the oblique reference to his father's City occupation, his perhaps-Italian name (way-voh-nee, rhyming with [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cajones cojone] or maybe [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_capone Capone], a Capone-of-the-Waves i.e. a California Capone?) all stereotype him as a Mafioso.

==Page 12==
'''"technical virgin"''' 
Meaning Zoyd has more-or-less resisted Zuniga's attempt to "turn" him into an informer/betrayer. The sexual metaphor prefigures many references to Frenesi's pussy (which she blames for driving her far beyond this stage).

'''"Wheel of Fortune"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheel_of_Fortune_(U.S._syndicated_game_show) Wheel of Fortune] is an American Tube game show, hosted by Pat Sajak and Vanna White. It is the longest-running syndicated game show in American television history.

{{Vineland PbP}}

File:Jays.jpg

2011-12-25T23:53:27Z

Pthomas: blue jay and Stellar's jay

blue jay and Stellar's jay