Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

Chapter 11

2015-01-23T19:48:14Z

Froberger: /* Page 204 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 204==
'''"legendary Trasero County coast"''' 
Why legendary? This is Pynchon's second reference to an unexplained "legendary" location. Is he just hot on this locution, or are we missing something? In any case, Trasero is probably San Clemente. Why else a statue of Nixon?

:A fine naming. In Spanish ''Trasero'' is "buttocks" if used as a noun, or something that is in the back if used as an adjective. So we have in one name yet another ass reference and the information that this county is behind the other counties, geographically and ideologically. Stressing its meaning, we even can read that this is a preterite county.

:Pynchon may enjoy exploiting the ambiguity in the meaning of "legendary". It can mean either "famous" or "famous but invented".

: "Legendary" is a word commonly used when talking about famous surfing spots. My guess is that Pynchon, among all the above, is also playing with that cliche. Nice phrase.

'''"a military reservation"''' 
Probably Camp Pendleton. However, military bases are everywhere in California, and especially everywhere in this novel. Note the shadowy Base in Chapter 6. The Base itself is unknown, but its periphery is marked by sub-communities like "Gate 9."

'''"College of the Surf"''' 
Probably Whittier College, Nixon's alma mater.

Trasero County and College of the Surf are Pynchonian inventions. College of the Surf is "bracketed by the two ultraconservative counties of Orange and San Diego", so Trasero County lies on the border between Orange and San Diego Counties, just as mythical Vineland County lies between Humboldt and Del Norte Counties. There are no actual colleges near this border, although Camp Pendleton is close. Whittier College is far northeast, and away from the coast. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_nixon Nixon] didn't become President until 1969, roughly the time frame of this part of the novel. As Pynchon indicates, he was living in San Clemente. Since statues of former Vice Presidents and newly elected Presidents are rarely erected by the public, presumably the statue was constructed by the rich "Southern California money, oil, construction, pictures" men who endowed the college. They viewed him as their hope to conquer the rest of the country, which is why Nixon's statue faces inland.
[[Image:Pepperdine.jpg|thumb|Pepperdine University|right]]
The Southern California university that closest resembles College of the Surf is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepperdine_University Pepperdine University]. It sits on a bluff overlooking Malibu north of Los Angeles and is extremely conservative. A giant white monolithic cross towers over the campus. It is close to the former home of Ronald Reagan in Pacific Palisades. It used to be located in South Central LA, where it was attacked in the Watts Riots of 1965 (Pynchon wrote about the [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_watts.html aftermath]). In 1969 it was almost burned down by demonstrators, which precipitated the move to Malibu.

'''"music...finding the ears of sentries...like hostile-natives sounds in a movie about white men fighting savage tribes."''' 
Great writing, and a powerful vision of a "free" campus next to a military base.

'''"the brand-new field of Computer Science"''' 
Those zeros and ones again...

==Page 205==
'''"dissent from official reality...the same dread disease..."''' 
Definitely. Still.

'''"Dewey Weber"''' 
David Earl "Dewey" Weber (1938-1993), a legendary Sixties longboard surfer and builder, known for his trademark red trunks, his peerless style, and his capacity for alcohol. At one point in the mid-Sixties Weber was the largest surfboard manufacturer in the world. His ''New York Times'' obituary:

:Dewey Weber; Surfing Legend, 53 [sic] 
:Dewey Weber, a surfer who became a designer of surfboards and a legend on Southern California's beaches in the 1950's and 60's, is dead. He was 53.

:The police said Mr. Weber had been ill for several weeks and that his doctor said the cause of death was liver problems. They said a friend found him dead Wednesday in his surfboard shop here. Mr. Weber appeared in Bruce Brown's 1959 movie "Slippery When Wet."

[http://www.legendarysurfers.com/surf/legends/lsc210.html More on Dewey Weber...]

'''"Mike Curb Congregation records"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Curb Mike Curb] (b. 1944), who later became lieutenant governor of California, worked at one point as an MGM Records executive—and while he was there he formed this vanity group. Its one and only hit was a tune called "Burning Bridges," a heavy-handed criticism of the hippie lifestyle. Before the song fell off the radar forever, it was featured in the film Kelly's Heroes. Funny that Pynchon never mentions this.

'''"California mopery statutes"''' 
Mopery = an obsolete term for loitering. Clearly an appropriate crime for California, where slow driving is close to a capital offense. Pynchon manages to work mopery into virtually every book he's ever written.

==Page 206==
'''"potent Vietnamese buds"''' 
What a shock, to find that you can't fight a war overseas without some feedback back home!

'''"long crowdwaves, carrying smaller bursts of violence that exploded like seeds in a surfer's cigarette"''' 
That's a marijuana cigarette. Also a comically mixed-metaphor that combines mathematical/signal analysis and doper imagery.

'''"Weed Atman, preoccupied with the darker implications of a paper on group theory"''' 
As has been remarked, Pynchon lived in this area of California during this period. Pynchon applied to the UC Berkeley mathematics department but was rejected. Pynchon has been described by those who know him as being very tall. Wee dat man? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Pynchon Pynchon bio]

In mathematics, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_(mathematics) group theory] is, very roughly, the study of symmetry. The symmetries occurring most in Pynchon's novels are bilateral (binaries, doppelgangers) and triangular (love triangles). Also, Pynchon may be making a pun, since Weed is going from isolation to involvement in political groups.

'''"the tallest person"''' 
So Weed has a weedy build. Cf [[Chapter_9#Page_188|page 188]] for more on Weed's name.

'''"a domain bounded by a set of points partway to the next person of height equal to or greater than..."''' 
An extended conceit in mock geometric clothing. Like the example on p. 117, this is probably self-satire, as indicated once again by the concluding em-dash as Pynchon restrains himself. Ostensibly mathematician Weed is thinking this thought, but it's clearly Pynchon stepping in front of the curtain for a second.

==Page 207==
'''"...a throb of fear went right up his asshole..."''' 
Another visceral fear reaction. See also pages [[Chapter 1#Page 10|10]], [[Chapter 4#Page 45|45]], [[Chapter 8#Page 116|116]], [[Chapter 14#Page 299|299]].

'''"I'm just tall, that's all."''' 
Borrowed from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Reed Jimmy Reed's] (1925-1976) blues, "Big Boss Man."

'''"Greg Noll Lab"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Noll Greg Noll] (b. 1937), "Da Bull," is another legendary surfer, same vintage and hangouts as Dewey Weber. [[#Page 205|See page 205]].

'''"Olympics Auditorium"''' 
Presumably named for the singing group ("My Baby Loves the Western Movies," "I’m a Hog For You, Baby") rather than the Greek sporting event.

'''"Las Nalgas Beach"''' 
Spanish for "the buttocks," or "the spankings." More badasses.

'''"Rex Snuvvle"''' 
Another cool name.

'''"lost tribe with failed cause"''' 
Thanatoids? Hippies? Herreros and/or Gauchos in Gravity's Rainbow? It would be easy to come up with lots of other examples.

==Page 208==
'''"geist that could've been polter along with zeit"''' 
Clever wordplay on poltergeist and zeitgeist, but essentially meaningless -- much like the chipmunks on [[Chapter 9#Page 180|page 180]].

'''"not much by Berkeley or Columbia standards"''' 
These were the days of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_speech_movement Free Speech Movement], the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Days_of_rage Days of Rage], etc.

'''"Rex did manage to place Weed in what looked like the emerging junta"''' 
Notice how Rex is doing the maneuvering. It would seem as if he worked for Vond even before Frenesi.

It's good to be the King.
Rex Snuvvle
The Latin Rex is obvious, his cognomen is revealing if we look at the Language of Leif the Lucky.
Etymologically King Snuvvle is related both to the Swedish snubbla = to stumble and the Norwegian Snovle = to sniffle

==Page 209==
'''"A sudden lust for information"''' 
Not often seen in SoCal, but it serves to reveal the usual sleazy land deals.

'''"a 16mm Arri 'M' on a Tyler Mini-Mount"''' 
Arri = Arriflex, a good, light, 16mm camera. Tyler Mini-Mount = a small, shock-absorbing camera mount, spring-loaded and counterweighted to soak up the low-frequency vibration of rotating helicopter blades (and not much use for anything else). All in all, this is state of the art hardware, guerrilla-film-wise.

'''"He paid no more than the lab costs"''' 
Suddenly Frenesi is shooting film for Vond. How come? This key plot event is never really explained.

==Page 210==
'''"COINTELPRO"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cointelpro COINTELPRO], short for Counterintelligence Program, was a secret and sometimes illegal series of FBI projects aimed at infiltrating and undermining dissident groups within the United States. It was begun by J. Edgar Hoover in 1956 during the Eisenhower Administration and continued until 1971 during the Nixon Administration, when it became public knowledge and was shut down by Hoover.

COINTELPRO is the real-world model for Brock Vond's projects. Pynchon has moved the program from the FBI to its parent agency the Department of Justice in order to emphasize the parallels with Orwell's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four ''Ninteen Eighty-Four''] and remove the specific association with J. Edgar Hoover.

'''"zooming in and out every chance she got on Weed's crotch."''' 
Apparently Frenesi is hung up on Weed too.

'''"'Subtle,' remarked DL."''' 
Cutback to DL and Ditzah watching footage. As before, this effect is both effective and striking.

==Page 211==
'''"She hitched a ride up to LAX with Jinx..."''' 
Is Frenesi already "the latest girlfriend?"

'''"just kept on writing equations"''' 
Nice scene of the wives and girlfriends de-mystifying Weed's mathematical preoccupation.

==Page 212==
'''"gray mother storms..."''' 
Fine, scary description of the gathering storm.

'''"DOJ"''' 
Department of Justice. Or maybe Department of Jesus ([[#Page 213|See p. 213]]).

==Page 213==
'''"For what? The fucking? Anything else?"''' 
Maybe the old American weakness for authority.

'''Looks like we're in the hands of Jesus again ... Fu-Jesus"''' 
The preacher identifies the storm as being sent by God. He eschews the superficial (to him) scientific explanations of the storm in favor of a deeper supernatural explanation. He predicts that someday, under a different president, the US government will be reorganized according to a Christian ideology (Department of Jesus) rather than a rationalist ideology (Department of Justice). In fact, the preacher's explanation of the storm is correct. It has been sent by the author of ''Vineland'' for symbolic reasons, not meteorological reasons.

'''"I want his spirit..."''' 
Here Vond is portrayed like the Devil, or at least a vampire. (See p. [[Chapter 11#Page 217|217]] and [[Chapter 15#Page 376|376]].) Or the snake in Sister Rochelle's feminist Eden fable ([[Chapter 9#Page 166|See p. 166]]).

Vampires don't want their victims' spirits or souls, just their blood. The other analogies make more sense.

Also, to a fetishistic sadist, the most satisfying slave is one who resists at first but eventually accepts slavery voluntarily. This confirms to the sadist his (or her) own power.

==Page 214==
'''"a secret about power in the world ... missed the point again"''' 
Brock is trying to tell Frenesi that he wants to crush Weed simply to exert power over him. It's not homophobia, since he wants to exert power over Frenesi too, not just have sex. But Pynchon asserts that Brock is too young, there's more to it than Brock understands, and it's not a secret.

'''"She gave him the little-girl photofloods, 4800 degrees of daylight blue"''' 
Pynchon is riffing on Frenesi's beautiful blue-on-blue eyes, her "wide invincible gaze....useful in a lot of situations, including ignorance." And sure enough, Daylight Blue Photoflood lamps do produce a color temperature of 4800 degrees Kelvin, with wavelengths short enough so you can shoot "outdoor," or daylight, film indoors.

==Page 215==
'''"rubberized drapes"''' 
On page 136, the slave auction in Tokyo also took place in a room with rubberized drapes.

'''"a funnel cloud...swung slowly..."''' 
The storm continues. Amazing. Usually storms in fiction signify. What does this one mean? The uprising at CotS? The larger social conflict: fuzz against junk? Or Dorothy Gale's cyclone, the agent of her [[Chapter 8#Page 120|not being in Kansas any more?]]

This is a key moment for Frenesi, since she is deciding to betray Weed to Vond. The storm signifies the power that attracts Frenesi, that she wishes to surrender to, a power greater than herself. She dreamed of it on [[Chapter_10#Page_202|page 202]]. This is what attracts her to prosecutor Brock Vond, ninja DL, Weed when a leader, Zoyd when a rock-star, and men in uniforms, any uniforms. That is why the storm turns her on. The preacher saw in the storm the power of God, and predicted that someday the entire nation would surrender to it. God represents the ultimate power, the power to transcend time, mortality, life. The desire to transcend ordinary life, here ascribed to Frenesi, is a constant theme in Pynchon's novels, and in ''Vineland'', as in ''Gravity's Rainbow'', he usually (but not always) focuses on its evil consequences. Perhaps this is what Pynchon means when he says that Brock and Frenesi are too young to understand.

'''"sword-shape of outside patio light...to fall across the bed"''' 
What is happening outside the room also affects what is happening inside. Brock Vond has been given a sword.

==Page 216==
'''"She might do it--not for him, but...because it looked like Brock's stretch of the river..."''' 
Does this mean Frenesi "turns" for purely opportunistic reasons? Because she thinks Vond is gonna win? If so, she abandons her ideals amazingly easily. It might be that she feels so powerless and caught.

Probably the last is closest. The storm attacks her metaphorically, just as it attacks the city. It seeks to paralyze her, remove her ability to freely act. Shock and Awe. She has lost control, and is surrendering herself to fate and the flow of time, not just Brock Vond. He's only a stage in her life, she feels, and she must soldier on. She hasn't lost her ideals; she tries to rationalize her betrayal by imagining that she could redeem Brock Vond through love. But she doesn't really believe it, and neither does Pynchon, as the next page shows.

'''"light she imagined as sun plus sky, with an 85 filter in"''' 
An extended cinematic metaphor, seemingly designed to impress us with how much Frenesi knows about film exposure. An 85 filter lets indoor film, rated at 3200 degrees Kelvin, be used outdoors (in the light of Frenesi's 4800-degree K baby blues). The metaphor's deeper function is as a fantasy about getting Brock out from under his rock.

==Page 217==
'''"daylit commodity of the sixties"''' 
daylit = Frenesi's blue orbs again.

'''"to redeem even Brock"''' 
Scarcely believable.

'''"what she thought were closed eyelids had been open all the time"''' 
Vampires sleep with their eyes open.

This could mean many things. He could be watchful or paranoid. He could be a snake, which [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpHU3OUxtTM has no eyelids]. He could be dreaming while awake, i.e. mad.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 10

2015-01-23T19:46:27Z

Froberger: /* Page 193 */

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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.

Similar, Predator-esque camo, turns up in [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page ''Against the Day''] as well.

==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.

Trivia alert: tachyons figure prominently in the 1980 serial [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Leisure_Hive The Leisure Hive] of Doctor Who. Be careful spotting possible Doctor Who references in Pynchon. Once you start, there's no end to them, and all, perhaps, purely coincidental. This one, however, seemed worthy of mentioning since "The Leisure Hive" was a famous Doctor Who serial that predated "Vineland" and actually had a kind of tachyon chamber in it.

'''"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".

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 11

2015-01-23T18:23:20Z

Froberger: /* Page 204 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 204==
'''"legendary Trasero County coast"''' 
Why legendary? This is Pynchon's second reference to an unexplained "legendary" location. Is he just hot on this locution, or are we missing something? In any case, Trasero is probably San Clemente. Why else a statue of Nixon?

:A fine naming. In Spanish ''Trasero'' is "buttocks" if used as a noun, or something that is in the back if used as an adjective. So we have in one name yet another ass reference and the information that this county is behind the other counties, geographically and ideologically. Stressing its meaning, we even can read that this is a preterite county.

:Pynchon may enjoy exploiting the ambiguity in the meaning of "legendary". It can mean either "famous" or "famous but invented".

: "Legendary" is a word commonly used when talking about famous surfing spots.

'''"a military reservation"''' 
Probably Camp Pendleton. However, military bases are everywhere in California, and especially everywhere in this novel. Note the shadowy Base in Chapter 6. The Base itself is unknown, but its periphery is marked by sub-communities like "Gate 9."

'''"College of the Surf"''' 
Probably Whittier College, Nixon's alma mater.

Trasero County and College of the Surf are Pynchonian inventions. College of the Surf is "bracketed by the two ultraconservative counties of Orange and San Diego", so Trasero County lies on the border between Orange and San Diego Counties, just as mythical Vineland County lies between Humboldt and Del Norte Counties. There are no actual colleges near this border, although Camp Pendleton is close. Whittier College is far northeast, and away from the coast. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_nixon Nixon] didn't become President until 1969, roughly the time frame of this part of the novel. As Pynchon indicates, he was living in San Clemente. Since statues of former Vice Presidents and newly elected Presidents are rarely erected by the public, presumably the statue was constructed by the rich "Southern California money, oil, construction, pictures" men who endowed the college. They viewed him as their hope to conquer the rest of the country, which is why Nixon's statue faces inland.
[[Image:Pepperdine.jpg|thumb|Pepperdine University|right]]
The Southern California university that closest resembles College of the Surf is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepperdine_University Pepperdine University]. It sits on a bluff overlooking Malibu north of Los Angeles and is extremely conservative. A giant white monolithic cross towers over the campus. It is close to the former home of Ronald Reagan in Pacific Palisades. It used to be located in South Central LA, where it was attacked in the Watts Riots of 1965 (Pynchon wrote about the [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_watts.html aftermath]). In 1969 it was almost burned down by demonstrators, which precipitated the move to Malibu.

'''"music...finding the ears of sentries...like hostile-natives sounds in a movie about white men fighting savage tribes."''' 
Great writing, and a powerful vision of a "free" campus next to a military base.

'''"the brand-new field of Computer Science"''' 
Those zeros and ones again...

==Page 205==
'''"dissent from official reality...the same dread disease..."''' 
Definitely. Still.

'''"Dewey Weber"''' 
David Earl "Dewey" Weber (1938-1993), a legendary Sixties longboard surfer and builder, known for his trademark red trunks, his peerless style, and his capacity for alcohol. At one point in the mid-Sixties Weber was the largest surfboard manufacturer in the world. His ''New York Times'' obituary:

:Dewey Weber; Surfing Legend, 53 [sic] 
:Dewey Weber, a surfer who became a designer of surfboards and a legend on Southern California's beaches in the 1950's and 60's, is dead. He was 53.

:The police said Mr. Weber had been ill for several weeks and that his doctor said the cause of death was liver problems. They said a friend found him dead Wednesday in his surfboard shop here. Mr. Weber appeared in Bruce Brown's 1959 movie "Slippery When Wet."

[http://www.legendarysurfers.com/surf/legends/lsc210.html More on Dewey Weber...]

'''"Mike Curb Congregation records"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Curb Mike Curb] (b. 1944), who later became lieutenant governor of California, worked at one point as an MGM Records executive—and while he was there he formed this vanity group. Its one and only hit was a tune called "Burning Bridges," a heavy-handed criticism of the hippie lifestyle. Before the song fell off the radar forever, it was featured in the film Kelly's Heroes. Funny that Pynchon never mentions this.

'''"California mopery statutes"''' 
Mopery = an obsolete term for loitering. Clearly an appropriate crime for California, where slow driving is close to a capital offense. Pynchon manages to work mopery into virtually every book he's ever written.

==Page 206==
'''"potent Vietnamese buds"''' 
What a shock, to find that you can't fight a war overseas without some feedback back home!

'''"long crowdwaves, carrying smaller bursts of violence that exploded like seeds in a surfer's cigarette"''' 
That's a marijuana cigarette. Also a comically mixed-metaphor that combines mathematical/signal analysis and doper imagery.

'''"Weed Atman, preoccupied with the darker implications of a paper on group theory"''' 
As has been remarked, Pynchon lived in this area of California during this period. Pynchon applied to the UC Berkeley mathematics department but was rejected. Pynchon has been described by those who know him as being very tall. Wee dat man? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Pynchon Pynchon bio]

In mathematics, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_(mathematics) group theory] is, very roughly, the study of symmetry. The symmetries occurring most in Pynchon's novels are bilateral (binaries, doppelgangers) and triangular (love triangles). Also, Pynchon may be making a pun, since Weed is going from isolation to involvement in political groups.

'''"the tallest person"''' 
So Weed has a weedy build. Cf [[Chapter_9#Page_188|page 188]] for more on Weed's name.

'''"a domain bounded by a set of points partway to the next person of height equal to or greater than..."''' 
An extended conceit in mock geometric clothing. Like the example on p. 117, this is probably self-satire, as indicated once again by the concluding em-dash as Pynchon restrains himself. Ostensibly mathematician Weed is thinking this thought, but it's clearly Pynchon stepping in front of the curtain for a second.

==Page 207==
'''"...a throb of fear went right up his asshole..."''' 
Another visceral fear reaction. See also pages [[Chapter 1#Page 10|10]], [[Chapter 4#Page 45|45]], [[Chapter 8#Page 116|116]], [[Chapter 14#Page 299|299]].

'''"I'm just tall, that's all."''' 
Borrowed from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Reed Jimmy Reed's] (1925-1976) blues, "Big Boss Man."

'''"Greg Noll Lab"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Noll Greg Noll] (b. 1937), "Da Bull," is another legendary surfer, same vintage and hangouts as Dewey Weber. [[#Page 205|See page 205]].

'''"Olympics Auditorium"''' 
Presumably named for the singing group ("My Baby Loves the Western Movies," "I’m a Hog For You, Baby") rather than the Greek sporting event.

'''"Las Nalgas Beach"''' 
Spanish for "the buttocks," or "the spankings." More badasses.

'''"Rex Snuvvle"''' 
Another cool name.

'''"lost tribe with failed cause"''' 
Thanatoids? Hippies? Herreros and/or Gauchos in Gravity's Rainbow? It would be easy to come up with lots of other examples.

==Page 208==
'''"geist that could've been polter along with zeit"''' 
Clever wordplay on poltergeist and zeitgeist, but essentially meaningless -- much like the chipmunks on [[Chapter 9#Page 180|page 180]].

'''"not much by Berkeley or Columbia standards"''' 
These were the days of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_speech_movement Free Speech Movement], the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Days_of_rage Days of Rage], etc.

'''"Rex did manage to place Weed in what looked like the emerging junta"''' 
Notice how Rex is doing the maneuvering. It would seem as if he worked for Vond even before Frenesi.

It's good to be the King.
Rex Snuvvle
The Latin Rex is obvious, his cognomen is revealing if we look at the Language of Leif the Lucky.
Etymologically King Snuvvle is related both to the Swedish snubbla = to stumble and the Norwegian Snovle = to sniffle

==Page 209==
'''"A sudden lust for information"''' 
Not often seen in SoCal, but it serves to reveal the usual sleazy land deals.

'''"a 16mm Arri 'M' on a Tyler Mini-Mount"''' 
Arri = Arriflex, a good, light, 16mm camera. Tyler Mini-Mount = a small, shock-absorbing camera mount, spring-loaded and counterweighted to soak up the low-frequency vibration of rotating helicopter blades (and not much use for anything else). All in all, this is state of the art hardware, guerrilla-film-wise.

'''"He paid no more than the lab costs"''' 
Suddenly Frenesi is shooting film for Vond. How come? This key plot event is never really explained.

==Page 210==
'''"COINTELPRO"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cointelpro COINTELPRO], short for Counterintelligence Program, was a secret and sometimes illegal series of FBI projects aimed at infiltrating and undermining dissident groups within the United States. It was begun by J. Edgar Hoover in 1956 during the Eisenhower Administration and continued until 1971 during the Nixon Administration, when it became public knowledge and was shut down by Hoover.

COINTELPRO is the real-world model for Brock Vond's projects. Pynchon has moved the program from the FBI to its parent agency the Department of Justice in order to emphasize the parallels with Orwell's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four ''Ninteen Eighty-Four''] and remove the specific association with J. Edgar Hoover.

'''"zooming in and out every chance she got on Weed's crotch."''' 
Apparently Frenesi is hung up on Weed too.

'''"'Subtle,' remarked DL."''' 
Cutback to DL and Ditzah watching footage. As before, this effect is both effective and striking.

==Page 211==
'''"She hitched a ride up to LAX with Jinx..."''' 
Is Frenesi already "the latest girlfriend?"

'''"just kept on writing equations"''' 
Nice scene of the wives and girlfriends de-mystifying Weed's mathematical preoccupation.

==Page 212==
'''"gray mother storms..."''' 
Fine, scary description of the gathering storm.

'''"DOJ"''' 
Department of Justice. Or maybe Department of Jesus ([[#Page 213|See p. 213]]).

==Page 213==
'''"For what? The fucking? Anything else?"''' 
Maybe the old American weakness for authority.

'''Looks like we're in the hands of Jesus again ... Fu-Jesus"''' 
The preacher identifies the storm as being sent by God. He eschews the superficial (to him) scientific explanations of the storm in favor of a deeper supernatural explanation. He predicts that someday, under a different president, the US government will be reorganized according to a Christian ideology (Department of Jesus) rather than a rationalist ideology (Department of Justice). In fact, the preacher's explanation of the storm is correct. It has been sent by the author of ''Vineland'' for symbolic reasons, not meteorological reasons.

'''"I want his spirit..."''' 
Here Vond is portrayed like the Devil, or at least a vampire. (See p. [[Chapter 11#Page 217|217]] and [[Chapter 15#Page 376|376]].) Or the snake in Sister Rochelle's feminist Eden fable ([[Chapter 9#Page 166|See p. 166]]).

Vampires don't want their victims' spirits or souls, just their blood. The other analogies make more sense.

Also, to a fetishistic sadist, the most satisfying slave is one who resists at first but eventually accepts slavery voluntarily. This confirms to the sadist his (or her) own power.

==Page 214==
'''"a secret about power in the world ... missed the point again"''' 
Brock is trying to tell Frenesi that he wants to crush Weed simply to exert power over him. It's not homophobia, since he wants to exert power over Frenesi too, not just have sex. But Pynchon asserts that Brock is too young, there's more to it than Brock understands, and it's not a secret.

'''"She gave him the little-girl photofloods, 4800 degrees of daylight blue"''' 
Pynchon is riffing on Frenesi's beautiful blue-on-blue eyes, her "wide invincible gaze....useful in a lot of situations, including ignorance." And sure enough, Daylight Blue Photoflood lamps do produce a color temperature of 4800 degrees Kelvin, with wavelengths short enough so you can shoot "outdoor," or daylight, film indoors.

==Page 215==
'''"rubberized drapes"''' 
On page 136, the slave auction in Tokyo also took place in a room with rubberized drapes.

'''"a funnel cloud...swung slowly..."''' 
The storm continues. Amazing. Usually storms in fiction signify. What does this one mean? The uprising at CotS? The larger social conflict: fuzz against junk? Or Dorothy Gale's cyclone, the agent of her [[Chapter 8#Page 120|not being in Kansas any more?]]

This is a key moment for Frenesi, since she is deciding to betray Weed to Vond. The storm signifies the power that attracts Frenesi, that she wishes to surrender to, a power greater than herself. She dreamed of it on [[Chapter_10#Page_202|page 202]]. This is what attracts her to prosecutor Brock Vond, ninja DL, Weed when a leader, Zoyd when a rock-star, and men in uniforms, any uniforms. That is why the storm turns her on. The preacher saw in the storm the power of God, and predicted that someday the entire nation would surrender to it. God represents the ultimate power, the power to transcend time, mortality, life. The desire to transcend ordinary life, here ascribed to Frenesi, is a constant theme in Pynchon's novels, and in ''Vineland'', as in ''Gravity's Rainbow'', he usually (but not always) focuses on its evil consequences. Perhaps this is what Pynchon means when he says that Brock and Frenesi are too young to understand.

'''"sword-shape of outside patio light...to fall across the bed"''' 
What is happening outside the room also affects what is happening inside. Brock Vond has been given a sword.

==Page 216==
'''"She might do it--not for him, but...because it looked like Brock's stretch of the river..."''' 
Does this mean Frenesi "turns" for purely opportunistic reasons? Because she thinks Vond is gonna win? If so, she abandons her ideals amazingly easily. It might be that she feels so powerless and caught.

Probably the last is closest. The storm attacks her metaphorically, just as it attacks the city. It seeks to paralyze her, remove her ability to freely act. Shock and Awe. She has lost control, and is surrendering herself to fate and the flow of time, not just Brock Vond. He's only a stage in her life, she feels, and she must soldier on. She hasn't lost her ideals; she tries to rationalize her betrayal by imagining that she could redeem Brock Vond through love. But she doesn't really believe it, and neither does Pynchon, as the next page shows.

'''"light she imagined as sun plus sky, with an 85 filter in"''' 
An extended cinematic metaphor, seemingly designed to impress us with how much Frenesi knows about film exposure. An 85 filter lets indoor film, rated at 3200 degrees Kelvin, be used outdoors (in the light of Frenesi's 4800-degree K baby blues). The metaphor's deeper function is as a fantasy about getting Brock out from under his rock.

==Page 217==
'''"daylit commodity of the sixties"''' 
daylit = Frenesi's blue orbs again.

'''"to redeem even Brock"''' 
Scarcely believable.

'''"what she thought were closed eyelids had been open all the time"''' 
Vampires sleep with their eyes open.

This could mean many things. He could be watchful or paranoid. He could be a snake, which [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpHU3OUxtTM has no eyelids]. He could be dreaming while awake, i.e. mad.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 11

2015-01-23T18:13:57Z

Froberger: /* Page 204 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 204==
'''"legendary Trasero County coast"''' 
Why legendary? This is Pynchon's second reference to an unexplained "legendary" location. Is he just hot on this locution, or are we missing something? In any case, Trasero is probably San Clemente. Why else a statue of Nixon?

:A fine naming. In Spanish ''Trasero'' is "buttocks" if used as a noun, or something that is in the back if used as an adjective. So we have in one name yet another ass reference and the information that this county is behind the other counties, geographically and ideologically. Stressing its meaning, we even can read that this is a preterite county.

:Pynchon may enjoy exploiting the ambiguity in the meaning of "legendary". It can mean either "famous" or "famous but invented".

: "Legendary" is an often used when talking about famous surfing spots.

'''"a military reservation"''' 
Probably Camp Pendleton. However, military bases are everywhere in California, and especially everywhere in this novel. Note the shadowy Base in Chapter 6. The Base itself is unknown, but its periphery is marked by sub-communities like "Gate 9."

'''"College of the Surf"''' 
Probably Whittier College, Nixon's alma mater.

Trasero County and College of the Surf are Pynchonian inventions. College of the Surf is "bracketed by the two ultraconservative counties of Orange and San Diego", so Trasero County lies on the border between Orange and San Diego Counties, just as mythical Vineland County lies between Humboldt and Del Norte Counties. There are no actual colleges near this border, although Camp Pendleton is close. Whittier College is far northeast, and away from the coast. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_nixon Nixon] didn't become President until 1969, roughly the time frame of this part of the novel. As Pynchon indicates, he was living in San Clemente. Since statues of former Vice Presidents and newly elected Presidents are rarely erected by the public, presumably the statue was constructed by the rich "Southern California money, oil, construction, pictures" men who endowed the college. They viewed him as their hope to conquer the rest of the country, which is why Nixon's statue faces inland.
[[Image:Pepperdine.jpg|thumb|Pepperdine University|right]]
The Southern California university that closest resembles College of the Surf is [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepperdine_University Pepperdine University]. It sits on a bluff overlooking Malibu north of Los Angeles and is extremely conservative. A giant white monolithic cross towers over the campus. It is close to the former home of Ronald Reagan in Pacific Palisades. It used to be located in South Central LA, where it was attacked in the Watts Riots of 1965 (Pynchon wrote about the [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_watts.html aftermath]). In 1969 it was almost burned down by demonstrators, which precipitated the move to Malibu.

'''"music...finding the ears of sentries...like hostile-natives sounds in a movie about white men fighting savage tribes."''' 
Great writing, and a powerful vision of a "free" campus next to a military base.

'''"the brand-new field of Computer Science"''' 
Those zeros and ones again...

==Page 205==
'''"dissent from official reality...the same dread disease..."''' 
Definitely. Still.

'''"Dewey Weber"''' 
David Earl "Dewey" Weber (1938-1993), a legendary Sixties longboard surfer and builder, known for his trademark red trunks, his peerless style, and his capacity for alcohol. At one point in the mid-Sixties Weber was the largest surfboard manufacturer in the world. His ''New York Times'' obituary:

:Dewey Weber; Surfing Legend, 53 [sic] 
:Dewey Weber, a surfer who became a designer of surfboards and a legend on Southern California's beaches in the 1950's and 60's, is dead. He was 53.

:The police said Mr. Weber had been ill for several weeks and that his doctor said the cause of death was liver problems. They said a friend found him dead Wednesday in his surfboard shop here. Mr. Weber appeared in Bruce Brown's 1959 movie "Slippery When Wet."

[http://www.legendarysurfers.com/surf/legends/lsc210.html More on Dewey Weber...]

'''"Mike Curb Congregation records"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Curb Mike Curb] (b. 1944), who later became lieutenant governor of California, worked at one point as an MGM Records executive—and while he was there he formed this vanity group. Its one and only hit was a tune called "Burning Bridges," a heavy-handed criticism of the hippie lifestyle. Before the song fell off the radar forever, it was featured in the film Kelly's Heroes. Funny that Pynchon never mentions this.

'''"California mopery statutes"''' 
Mopery = an obsolete term for loitering. Clearly an appropriate crime for California, where slow driving is close to a capital offense. Pynchon manages to work mopery into virtually every book he's ever written.

==Page 206==
'''"potent Vietnamese buds"''' 
What a shock, to find that you can't fight a war overseas without some feedback back home!

'''"long crowdwaves, carrying smaller bursts of violence that exploded like seeds in a surfer's cigarette"''' 
That's a marijuana cigarette. Also a comically mixed-metaphor that combines mathematical/signal analysis and doper imagery.

'''"Weed Atman, preoccupied with the darker implications of a paper on group theory"''' 
As has been remarked, Pynchon lived in this area of California during this period. Pynchon applied to the UC Berkeley mathematics department but was rejected. Pynchon has been described by those who know him as being very tall. Wee dat man? [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Pynchon Pynchon bio]

In mathematics, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_(mathematics) group theory] is, very roughly, the study of symmetry. The symmetries occurring most in Pynchon's novels are bilateral (binaries, doppelgangers) and triangular (love triangles). Also, Pynchon may be making a pun, since Weed is going from isolation to involvement in political groups.

'''"the tallest person"''' 
So Weed has a weedy build. Cf [[Chapter_9#Page_188|page 188]] for more on Weed's name.

'''"a domain bounded by a set of points partway to the next person of height equal to or greater than..."''' 
An extended conceit in mock geometric clothing. Like the example on p. 117, this is probably self-satire, as indicated once again by the concluding em-dash as Pynchon restrains himself. Ostensibly mathematician Weed is thinking this thought, but it's clearly Pynchon stepping in front of the curtain for a second.

==Page 207==
'''"...a throb of fear went right up his asshole..."''' 
Another visceral fear reaction. See also pages [[Chapter 1#Page 10|10]], [[Chapter 4#Page 45|45]], [[Chapter 8#Page 116|116]], [[Chapter 14#Page 299|299]].

'''"I'm just tall, that's all."''' 
Borrowed from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_Reed Jimmy Reed's] (1925-1976) blues, "Big Boss Man."

'''"Greg Noll Lab"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greg_Noll Greg Noll] (b. 1937), "Da Bull," is another legendary surfer, same vintage and hangouts as Dewey Weber. [[#Page 205|See page 205]].

'''"Olympics Auditorium"''' 
Presumably named for the singing group ("My Baby Loves the Western Movies," "I’m a Hog For You, Baby") rather than the Greek sporting event.

'''"Las Nalgas Beach"''' 
Spanish for "the buttocks," or "the spankings." More badasses.

'''"Rex Snuvvle"''' 
Another cool name.

'''"lost tribe with failed cause"''' 
Thanatoids? Hippies? Herreros and/or Gauchos in Gravity's Rainbow? It would be easy to come up with lots of other examples.

==Page 208==
'''"geist that could've been polter along with zeit"''' 
Clever wordplay on poltergeist and zeitgeist, but essentially meaningless -- much like the chipmunks on [[Chapter 9#Page 180|page 180]].

'''"not much by Berkeley or Columbia standards"''' 
These were the days of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_speech_movement Free Speech Movement], the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Days_of_rage Days of Rage], etc.

'''"Rex did manage to place Weed in what looked like the emerging junta"''' 
Notice how Rex is doing the maneuvering. It would seem as if he worked for Vond even before Frenesi.

It's good to be the King.
Rex Snuvvle
The Latin Rex is obvious, his cognomen is revealing if we look at the Language of Leif the Lucky.
Etymologically King Snuvvle is related both to the Swedish snubbla = to stumble and the Norwegian Snovle = to sniffle

==Page 209==
'''"A sudden lust for information"''' 
Not often seen in SoCal, but it serves to reveal the usual sleazy land deals.

'''"a 16mm Arri 'M' on a Tyler Mini-Mount"''' 
Arri = Arriflex, a good, light, 16mm camera. Tyler Mini-Mount = a small, shock-absorbing camera mount, spring-loaded and counterweighted to soak up the low-frequency vibration of rotating helicopter blades (and not much use for anything else). All in all, this is state of the art hardware, guerrilla-film-wise.

'''"He paid no more than the lab costs"''' 
Suddenly Frenesi is shooting film for Vond. How come? This key plot event is never really explained.

==Page 210==
'''"COINTELPRO"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cointelpro COINTELPRO], short for Counterintelligence Program, was a secret and sometimes illegal series of FBI projects aimed at infiltrating and undermining dissident groups within the United States. It was begun by J. Edgar Hoover in 1956 during the Eisenhower Administration and continued until 1971 during the Nixon Administration, when it became public knowledge and was shut down by Hoover.

COINTELPRO is the real-world model for Brock Vond's projects. Pynchon has moved the program from the FBI to its parent agency the Department of Justice in order to emphasize the parallels with Orwell's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four ''Ninteen Eighty-Four''] and remove the specific association with J. Edgar Hoover.

'''"zooming in and out every chance she got on Weed's crotch."''' 
Apparently Frenesi is hung up on Weed too.

'''"'Subtle,' remarked DL."''' 
Cutback to DL and Ditzah watching footage. As before, this effect is both effective and striking.

==Page 211==
'''"She hitched a ride up to LAX with Jinx..."''' 
Is Frenesi already "the latest girlfriend?"

'''"just kept on writing equations"''' 
Nice scene of the wives and girlfriends de-mystifying Weed's mathematical preoccupation.

==Page 212==
'''"gray mother storms..."''' 
Fine, scary description of the gathering storm.

'''"DOJ"''' 
Department of Justice. Or maybe Department of Jesus ([[#Page 213|See p. 213]]).

==Page 213==
'''"For what? The fucking? Anything else?"''' 
Maybe the old American weakness for authority.

'''Looks like we're in the hands of Jesus again ... Fu-Jesus"''' 
The preacher identifies the storm as being sent by God. He eschews the superficial (to him) scientific explanations of the storm in favor of a deeper supernatural explanation. He predicts that someday, under a different president, the US government will be reorganized according to a Christian ideology (Department of Jesus) rather than a rationalist ideology (Department of Justice). In fact, the preacher's explanation of the storm is correct. It has been sent by the author of ''Vineland'' for symbolic reasons, not meteorological reasons.

'''"I want his spirit..."''' 
Here Vond is portrayed like the Devil, or at least a vampire. (See p. [[Chapter 11#Page 217|217]] and [[Chapter 15#Page 376|376]].) Or the snake in Sister Rochelle's feminist Eden fable ([[Chapter 9#Page 166|See p. 166]]).

Vampires don't want their victims' spirits or souls, just their blood. The other analogies make more sense.

Also, to a fetishistic sadist, the most satisfying slave is one who resists at first but eventually accepts slavery voluntarily. This confirms to the sadist his (or her) own power.

==Page 214==
'''"a secret about power in the world ... missed the point again"''' 
Brock is trying to tell Frenesi that he wants to crush Weed simply to exert power over him. It's not homophobia, since he wants to exert power over Frenesi too, not just have sex. But Pynchon asserts that Brock is too young, there's more to it than Brock understands, and it's not a secret.

'''"She gave him the little-girl photofloods, 4800 degrees of daylight blue"''' 
Pynchon is riffing on Frenesi's beautiful blue-on-blue eyes, her "wide invincible gaze....useful in a lot of situations, including ignorance." And sure enough, Daylight Blue Photoflood lamps do produce a color temperature of 4800 degrees Kelvin, with wavelengths short enough so you can shoot "outdoor," or daylight, film indoors.

==Page 215==
'''"rubberized drapes"''' 
On page 136, the slave auction in Tokyo also took place in a room with rubberized drapes.

'''"a funnel cloud...swung slowly..."''' 
The storm continues. Amazing. Usually storms in fiction signify. What does this one mean? The uprising at CotS? The larger social conflict: fuzz against junk? Or Dorothy Gale's cyclone, the agent of her [[Chapter 8#Page 120|not being in Kansas any more?]]

This is a key moment for Frenesi, since she is deciding to betray Weed to Vond. The storm signifies the power that attracts Frenesi, that she wishes to surrender to, a power greater than herself. She dreamed of it on [[Chapter_10#Page_202|page 202]]. This is what attracts her to prosecutor Brock Vond, ninja DL, Weed when a leader, Zoyd when a rock-star, and men in uniforms, any uniforms. That is why the storm turns her on. The preacher saw in the storm the power of God, and predicted that someday the entire nation would surrender to it. God represents the ultimate power, the power to transcend time, mortality, life. The desire to transcend ordinary life, here ascribed to Frenesi, is a constant theme in Pynchon's novels, and in ''Vineland'', as in ''Gravity's Rainbow'', he usually (but not always) focuses on its evil consequences. Perhaps this is what Pynchon means when he says that Brock and Frenesi are too young to understand.

'''"sword-shape of outside patio light...to fall across the bed"''' 
What is happening outside the room also affects what is happening inside. Brock Vond has been given a sword.

==Page 216==
'''"She might do it--not for him, but...because it looked like Brock's stretch of the river..."''' 
Does this mean Frenesi "turns" for purely opportunistic reasons? Because she thinks Vond is gonna win? If so, she abandons her ideals amazingly easily. It might be that she feels so powerless and caught.

Probably the last is closest. The storm attacks her metaphorically, just as it attacks the city. It seeks to paralyze her, remove her ability to freely act. Shock and Awe. She has lost control, and is surrendering herself to fate and the flow of time, not just Brock Vond. He's only a stage in her life, she feels, and she must soldier on. She hasn't lost her ideals; she tries to rationalize her betrayal by imagining that she could redeem Brock Vond through love. But she doesn't really believe it, and neither does Pynchon, as the next page shows.

'''"light she imagined as sun plus sky, with an 85 filter in"''' 
An extended cinematic metaphor, seemingly designed to impress us with how much Frenesi knows about film exposure. An 85 filter lets indoor film, rated at 3200 degrees Kelvin, be used outdoors (in the light of Frenesi's 4800-degree K baby blues). The metaphor's deeper function is as a fantasy about getting Brock out from under his rock.

==Page 217==
'''"daylit commodity of the sixties"''' 
daylit = Frenesi's blue orbs again.

'''"to redeem even Brock"''' 
Scarcely believable.

'''"what she thought were closed eyelids had been open all the time"''' 
Vampires sleep with their eyes open.

This could mean many things. He could be watchful or paranoid. He could be a snake, which [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OpHU3OUxtTM has no eyelids]. He could be dreaming while awake, i.e. mad.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 10

2015-01-23T18:01:50Z

Froberger: /* Page 193 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==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.

Similar, Predator-esque camo, turns up in [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page ''Against the Day''] as well.

==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".

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 10

2015-01-18T23:35:33Z

Froberger: /* Page 193 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==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.

Similar, Predator-esque camo, turns up in [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page ''Against the Day''] as well.

==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.

[http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Tachyon Tachyons] frequently show up in the Star Trek Universe.

'''"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".

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 9

2015-01-17T11:28:29Z

Froberger: /* Page 151 */

{{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.

Or, this was simply the visual effect of Vond's vampiric hypnotic stare. Takeshi thought he was seeing himself for that instant, even though Vond may not look anything like him.

'''"''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.

Variant of the old [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_trick bed trick.] See Shakespeare's "All's Well that Ends Well" and "Measure for Measure" among many other early English plays.

'''"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==
'''Father Flanagan''' 
Father Edward Joseph Flanagan (July 13, 1886 in Ballymoe, County Roscommon, Ireland; † May 15, 1948 in Berlin, Germany) was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. He was the founder of what is arguably the most famous orphanage — Boys Town. The campus is not just an orphanage, but now a center for troubled youth. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_J._Flanagan WIKI]

'''"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.

'''''woge''''' 
Woge is a German word translated as surge, wave, or billows. The tale about the woges here is similar to those of Germanic mythology, & Celtic mythology, in regard to fairy folk, etc.

''Woge'' or ''wo-ge''' is a word in the Yurok language referring to a mythic race of intelligent pre-human beings. They were supplanted by the coming of humans, but somehow remain in spirit. They are invoked in the [http://www.yuroktribe.org/government/councilsupport/documents/Constitution.pdf constitution] of the Yurok tribe. See [http://books.google.com/books?id=CrGUkuQx6MYC&pg=PR32&lpg=PR32&dq=woge+Yurok&source=bl&ots=nnv0ftM9cx&sig=sHFK_BoGgmAgK1t-sgl5TNKa22U&hl=en&sa=X&ei=kcU7UZ-VHcWzqgGj3oCgBQ&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=woge%20Yurok&f=false here] for more information on the ''woge'' in Yurok mythology.

==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==
'''"... the theme from Ghostbusters (1984)"''' 
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oznj6AFeiRE Listen on YouTube]

'''"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==
'''Louis Martini''' 
Historic Napa Valley winery, [http://www.louismartini.com/ WEBSITE]

'''"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. AND Pynchon deploys the same pun in [http://bleedingedge.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_17#Page_189 ''Bleeding Edge'' on page 189].

Listen on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo35O1AJOfg 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 9

2015-01-16T21:57:43Z

Froberger: /* Page 151 */

{{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.

Or, this was simply the visual effect of Vond's vampiric hypnotic stare. Takeshi thought he was seeing himself for that instant, even though Vond may not look anything like him.

'''"''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.

Variant of the old [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bed_trick bed trick] where the man usually mistakes one woman for another in the darkness of a bedroom. See Shakespeare's "All's Well that Ends Well" and "Measure for Measure."

'''"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==
'''Father Flanagan''' 
Father Edward Joseph Flanagan (July 13, 1886 in Ballymoe, County Roscommon, Ireland; † May 15, 1948 in Berlin, Germany) was a priest of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. He was the founder of what is arguably the most famous orphanage — Boys Town. The campus is not just an orphanage, but now a center for troubled youth. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_J._Flanagan WIKI]

'''"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.

'''''woge''''' 
Woge is a German word translated as surge, wave, or billows. The tale about the woges here is similar to those of Germanic mythology, & Celtic mythology, in regard to fairy folk, etc.

''Woge'' or ''wo-ge''' is a word in the Yurok language referring to a mythic race of intelligent pre-human beings. They were supplanted by the coming of humans, but somehow remain in spirit. They are invoked in the [http://www.yuroktribe.org/government/councilsupport/documents/Constitution.pdf constitution] of the Yurok tribe. See [http://books.google.com/books?id=CrGUkuQx6MYC&pg=PR32&lpg=PR32&dq=woge+Yurok&source=bl&ots=nnv0ftM9cx&sig=sHFK_BoGgmAgK1t-sgl5TNKa22U&hl=en&sa=X&ei=kcU7UZ-VHcWzqgGj3oCgBQ&ved=0CDAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=woge%20Yurok&f=false here] for more information on the ''woge'' in Yurok mythology.

==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==
'''"... the theme from Ghostbusters (1984)"''' 
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oznj6AFeiRE Listen on YouTube]

'''"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==
'''Louis Martini''' 
Historic Napa Valley winery, [http://www.louismartini.com/ WEBSITE]

'''"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. AND Pynchon deploys the same pun in [http://bleedingedge.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_17#Page_189 ''Bleeding Edge'' on page 189].

Listen on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo35O1AJOfg 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?"

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==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==
'''"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.
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==Page 92==
'''"The Wayvone estate..."''' 
The description sets Wayvone's digs in Woodside or Atherton -- pricey suburbs down the peninsula from San Francisco.

'''"Gelsomina, the baby"''' 
Also the childlike heroine of director [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fellini Federico Fellini's] ''La Strada'' [1954].

'''"ventunesimo"''' 
Italian for 21st.

==Page 94==
'''"Testa puntita"''' 
Italian: pointed head.

'''Brunello di Montalcino''' 
Brunello di Montalcino is a red Italian wine produced in the vineyards surrounding the town of Montalcino located about 120 km south of Florence in the Tuscany wine region... In 1980, Brunello di Montalcino was awarded the first Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) designation and today is one of Italy's best-known and most expensive wines. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunello_wine WIKI]

==Page 95==
'''"Lugares Altos"''' 
Spanish: high places.

Could easily see a "community" being named this in the Bay Area, esp. perhaps around the Los Altos Hills area?

'''deuteragonist of Donkey Kong''' 
Second fiddle to the ape [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_Kong_(character) Donkey Kong] in the popular Nintendo game series, i.e. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario Mario].

'''"Mr. Wayvone's compliments"''' 
Two-Ton's deadpan delivery, and instructions to the band, constitute perfect movie-Mafia schtick.

==Page 96==
'''"C'e la Luna"''' 
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1mjNJntpRQ Youtube] has a version by Louis Prima where he sings in both English and Italian, along with lyrics in the description.

'''"Cielo e Mar"''' 
[http://www.aria-database.com/search.php?individualAria=791 Aria-database] has lyrics to this aria from Ponchielli's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Gioconda_%28opera%29 La Gioconda.] 
Pavoratti sings the aria in operatic context on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VLArVAadJ8 YouTube.] (Shades of Doc longing for Shasta?)

==Page 97==
'''"Italian Wedding Fake Book by Deleuze & Guattari"''' 
If this book isn't real, it oughtta be. Fake books are collections of songs that provide basic chord changes for working musicians who need to play said tunes in a hurry like on a gig. The auteurial attribution is a very sly academic joke. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deleuze Gilles Deleuze] (1925-1995) and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Félix_Guattari Felix Guattari] (1930-1992) were post-modernist philosophers best known for two esoteric volumes on capitalism and schizophrenia, originally written in French. Volume one was ''Anti-Oedipus''; volume two was ''A Thousand Plateaus.''

==Page 99==
'''"Suddenly she saw another reflection, one that might've been there for a while"''' 
We'll soon learn about DL's prowess at the ninja arts, including the one of not being seen unless she wants to be.

'''"...wearing a green party dress...athletic, even warriorlike..."''' 
DL is described very much like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis Artemis/Diana], the Greek/Roman goddess and virgin huntress whose color is green.

'''"''Down'' in the streets of Honolu-lu ..."''' 
Although Pynchon correctly summarizes the images in the ''Hawaii Five-O'' opening sequence and implies that DL's scanner plays the opening theme, the lyrics are a Pynchonian invention. The theme is instrumental. Watch the ''Hawaii Five-O'' opening on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AepyGm9Me6w YouTube].

==Page 100==
'''"Darryl Louise Chastain"''' 
Even DL's last name, Chastain, is suggestive of chastity (as you'd expect in a virgin huntress), but "stained," imperfect. She's a flawed avatar, a preterite goddess.

'''"Dumbo with that feather..."''' 
The reference is to Disney's animated cartoon feature, ''Dumbo'' [1941]. The feather was a security symbol that gave the little elephant the confidence to fly when he clutched it in his trunk. (It is rumored that Dumbo is one of Pynchon's favorite movies. Dumbo also appears in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''].)

==Page 101==

'''"Frenesi Gates"''' 
Gates of Frenzy? Cf [[Chapter_3#Page_27|page 27]]

'''"whatever story DL told...could never be the story she knew."''' 
The first ominous hint of the events in Trasero County.

'''"But DL only smiled back..."''' 
That is, DL doesn't tell Prairie that she's too young to be so paranoid. In other words, paranoia is the correct response.

==Page 102==
'''gowns from the upper reaches of Magnin's''' 
The Joseph Magnin Company was a high-end specialty department store founded in San Francisco, California by Joseph Magnin. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Magnin_Co. WIKI]

'''"Shondra and the kids look wonderful"''' 
The first (easy to miss) inkling of a connection between DL and Ralph Sr.

'''''Porca miseria''''' 
''Damn''

==Page 103==
'''"You think I'm one of those kids on Phil Donahue..."''' 
That is, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Donahue The Phil Donahue Show]. Prairie (like most of America) is quick to define herself via a TV show.

==Page 104==
'''kunoichi''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunoichi Female ninja]

'''Just a girlie, with-a-gun...''' 
DL's song brings to mind the famous photo of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patty_hearst Patty Hearst].
[[Image:Patty_Hearst.jpg‎|thumb|Patty Hearst|right]]

==Page 105==
'''"gunsel"''' 
Good noir word with an interesting [http://www.worldwidewords.org/topicalwords/tw-gun1.htm history,] its meaning in the 20th century shifting from a male, especially young, homosexual, to a gunman.

'''DL's car has features "not on the standard model."''' [[Image:TransAm.jpg|thumb|KITT, a Black 1984 Trans-Am|right]]
More Pynchonian mysterioso. And it's a black Trans-Am! A b-a-a-d car, and the perfect ride for a would-be ninja.

Also brings to mind the most popular, computerized, modified Trans-Am on the Tube in the 80's: KITT, from ''Night Rider''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KITT]

==Page 106==
'''They depart "to the stately Neo-glasspack wind chorale, combustion shaped to music, varying as she shifted gears... blending finally into the ground hum of freeway traffic far below."''' 
Pure poetry, and also an exemplary use of punctuation. Go, Pynchon, go! Glasspacks are the most popular straight-through hot-rod muffler replacements ever made. The fiberglass packing provides a slight muffling effect, but does not impede the all-important exhaust speed of combusted products. Sounds great, too.

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==Page 92==
'''"The Wayvone estate..."''' 
The description sets Wayvone's digs in Woodside or Atherton -- pricey suburbs down the peninsula from San Francisco.

'''"Gelsomina, the baby"''' 
Also the childlike heroine of director [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fellini Federico Fellini's] ''La Strada'' [1954].

'''"ventunesimo"''' 
Italian for 21st.

==Page 94==
'''"Testa puntita"''' 
Italian: pointed head.

'''Brunello di Montalcino''' 
Brunello di Montalcino is a red Italian wine produced in the vineyards surrounding the town of Montalcino located about 120 km south of Florence in the Tuscany wine region... In 1980, Brunello di Montalcino was awarded the first Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) designation and today is one of Italy's best-known and most expensive wines. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunello_wine WIKI]

==Page 95==
'''"Lugares Altos"''' 
Spanish: high places.

Could easily see a "community" being named this in the Bay Area, esp. perhaps around the Los Altos Hills area?

'''deuteragonist of Donkey Kong''' 
Second fiddle to the ape [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_Kong_(character) Donkey Kong] in the popular Nintendo game series, i.e. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario Mario].

'''"Mr. Wayvone's compliments"''' 
Two-Ton's deadpan delivery, and instructions to the band, constitute perfect movie-Mafia schtick.

==Page 96==
'''"C'e la Luna"''' 
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1mjNJntpRQ Youtube] has a version by Louis Prima where he sings in both English and Italian, along with lyrics in the description.

'''"Cielo e Mar"''' 
[http://www.aria-database.com/search.php?individualAria=791 Aria-database] has lyrics to this aria from Ponchielli's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Gioconda_%28opera%29 La Gioconda.] 
Pavoratti sings the aria in operatic context on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VLArVAadJ8 YouTube.] (Shades of Doc longing for Shasta?)

==Page 97==
'''"Italian Wedding Fake Book by Deleuze & Guattari"''' 
If this book isn't real, it oughtta be. Fake books are collections of songs that provide basic chord changes for working musicians who need to play said tunes in a hurry like on a gig. The auteurial attribution is a very sly academic joke. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deleuze Gilles Deleuze] (1925-1995) and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Félix_Guattari Felix Guattari] (1930-1992) were post-modernist philosophers best known for two esoteric volumes on capitalism and schizophrenia, originally written in French. Volume one was ''Anti-Oedipus''; volume two was ''A Thousand Plateaus.''

==Page 99==
'''"Suddenly she saw another reflection, one that might've been there for a while"''' 
We'll soon learn about DL's prowess at the ninja arts, including the one of not being seen unless she wants to be.

'''"...wearing a green party dress...athletic, even warriorlike..."''' 
DL is described very much like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis Artemis/Diana], the Greek/Roman goddess and virgin huntress whose color is green.

'''"''Down'' in the streets of Honolu-lu ..."''' 
Although Pynchon correctly summarizes the images in the ''Hawaii Five-O'' opening sequence and implies that DL's scanner plays the opening theme, the lyrics are a Pynchonian invention. The theme is instrumental. Watch the ''Hawaii Five-O'' opening on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AepyGm9Me6w YouTube].

==Page 100==
'''"Darryl Louise Chastain"''' 
Even DL's last name, Chastain, is suggestive of chastity (as you'd expect in a virgin huntress), but "stained," imperfect. She's a flawed avatar, a preterite goddess.

'''"Dumbo with that feather..."''' 
The reference is to Disney's animated cartoon feature, ''Dumbo'' [1941]. The feather was a security symbol that gave the little elephant the confidence to fly when he clutched it in his trunk. (It is rumored that Dumbo is one of Pynchon's favorite movies. Dumbo also appears in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''].)

==Page 101==

'''"Frenesi Gates"''' 
Gates of Frenzy? Cf [[Chapter_3#Page_27|page 27]]

'''"whatever story DL told...could never be the story she knew."''' 
The first ominous hint of the events in Trasero County.

'''"But DL only smiled back..."''' 
That is, DL doesn't tell Prairie that she's too young to be so paranoid. In other words, paranoia is the correct response.

==Page 102==
'''gowns from the upper reaches of Magnin's''' 
The Joseph Magnin Company was a high-end specialty department store founded in San Francisco, California by Joseph Magnin. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Magnin_Co. WIKI]

'''"Shondra and the kids look wonderful"''' 
The first (easy to miss) inkling of a connection between DL and Ralph Sr.

'''''Porca miseria''''' 
''Damn''

==Page 103==
'''"You think I'm one of those kids on Phil Donahue..."''' 
That is, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Donahue The Phil Donahue Show]. Prairie (like most of America) is quick to define herself via a TV show.

==Page 104==
'''kunoichi''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunoichi Female ninja]

'''Just a girlie, with-a-gun...''' 
DL's song brings to mind the famous photo of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patty_hearst Patty Hearst].
[[Image:Patty_Hearst.jpg‎|thumb|Patty Hearst|right]]

==Page 105==
'''DL's car has features "not on the standard model."''' [[Image:TransAm.jpg|thumb|KITT, a Black 1984 Trans-Am|right]]
More Pynchonian mysterioso. And it's a black Trans-Am! A b-a-a-d car, and the perfect ride for a would-be ninja.

Also brings to mind the most popular, computerized, modified Trans-Am on the Tube in the 80's: KITT, from ''Night Rider''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KITT]

==Page 106==
'''They depart "to the stately Neo-glasspack wind chorale, combustion shaped to music, varying as she shifted gears... blending finally into the ground hum of freeway traffic far below."''' 
Pure poetry, and also an exemplary use of punctuation. Go, Pynchon, go! Glasspacks are the most popular straight-through hot-rod muffler replacements ever made. The fiberglass packing provides a slight muffling effect, but does not impede the all-important exhaust speed of combusted products. Sounds great, too.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 7

2015-01-15T00:11:05Z

Froberger: /* Page 96 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 92==
'''"The Wayvone estate..."''' 
The description sets Wayvone's digs in Woodside or Atherton -- pricey suburbs down the peninsula from San Francisco.

'''"Gelsomina, the baby"''' 
Also the childlike heroine of director [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fellini Federico Fellini's] ''La Strada'' [1954].

'''"ventunesimo"''' 
Italian for 21st.

==Page 94==
'''"Testa puntita"''' 
Italian: pointed head.

'''Brunello di Montalcino''' 
Brunello di Montalcino is a red Italian wine produced in the vineyards surrounding the town of Montalcino located about 120 km south of Florence in the Tuscany wine region... In 1980, Brunello di Montalcino was awarded the first Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) designation and today is one of Italy's best-known and most expensive wines. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunello_wine WIKI]

==Page 95==
'''"Lugares Altos"''' 
Spanish: high places.

Could easily see a "community" being named this in the Bay Area, esp. perhaps around the Los Altos Hills area?

'''deuteragonist of Donkey Kong''' 
Second fiddle to the ape [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_Kong_(character) Donkey Kong] in the popular Nintendo game series, i.e. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario Mario].

'''"Mr. Wayvone's compliments"''' 
Two-Ton's deadpan delivery, and instructions to the band, constitute perfect movie-Mafia schtick.

==Page 96==
'''"Cielo e Mar"''' 
[http://www.aria-database.com/search.php?individualAria=791 Aria-database] has lyrics to this aria from Ponchielli's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/La_Gioconda_%28opera%29 La Gioconda.] Pavoratti sings the aria in operatic context on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1VLArVAadJ8 YouTube.] Shades of Doc longing for Shasta?

==Page 97==
'''"Italian Wedding Fake Book by Deleuze & Guattari"''' 
If this book isn't real, it oughtta be. Fake books are collections of songs that provide basic chord changes for working musicians who need to play said tunes in a hurry like on a gig. The auteurial attribution is a very sly academic joke. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deleuze Gilles Deleuze] (1925-1995) and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Félix_Guattari Felix Guattari] (1930-1992) were post-modernist philosophers best known for two esoteric volumes on capitalism and schizophrenia, originally written in French. Volume one was ''Anti-Oedipus''; volume two was ''A Thousand Plateaus.''

==Page 99==
'''"Suddenly she saw another reflection, one that might've been there for a while"''' 
We'll soon learn about DL's prowess at the ninja arts, including the one of not being seen unless she wants to be.

'''"...wearing a green party dress...athletic, even warriorlike..."''' 
DL is described very much like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis Artemis/Diana], the Greek/Roman goddess and virgin huntress whose color is green.

'''"''Down'' in the streets of Honolu-lu ..."''' 
Although Pynchon correctly summarizes the images in the ''Hawaii Five-O'' opening sequence and implies that DL's scanner plays the opening theme, the lyrics are a Pynchonian invention. The theme is instrumental. Watch the ''Hawaii Five-O'' opening on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AepyGm9Me6w YouTube].

==Page 100==
'''"Darryl Louise Chastain"''' 
Even DL's last name, Chastain, is suggestive of chastity (as you'd expect in a virgin huntress), but "stained," imperfect. She's a flawed avatar, a preterite goddess.

'''"Dumbo with that feather..."''' 
The reference is to Disney's animated cartoon feature, ''Dumbo'' [1941]. The feather was a security symbol that gave the little elephant the confidence to fly when he clutched it in his trunk. (It is rumored that Dumbo is one of Pynchon's favorite movies. Dumbo also appears in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''].)

==Page 101==

'''"Frenesi Gates"''' 
Gates of Frenzy? Cf [[Chapter_3#Page_27|page 27]]

'''"whatever story DL told...could never be the story she knew."''' 
The first ominous hint of the events in Trasero County.

'''"But DL only smiled back..."''' 
That is, DL doesn't tell Prairie that she's too young to be so paranoid. In other words, paranoia is the correct response.

==Page 102==
'''gowns from the upper reaches of Magnin's''' 
The Joseph Magnin Company was a high-end specialty department store founded in San Francisco, California by Joseph Magnin. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Magnin_Co. WIKI]

'''"Shondra and the kids look wonderful"''' 
The first (easy to miss) inkling of a connection between DL and Ralph Sr.

'''''Porca miseria''''' 
''Damn''

==Page 103==
'''"You think I'm one of those kids on Phil Donahue..."''' 
That is, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Donahue The Phil Donahue Show]. Prairie (like most of America) is quick to define herself via a TV show.

==Page 104==
'''kunoichi''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunoichi Female ninja]

'''Just a girlie, with-a-gun...''' 
DL's song brings to mind the famous photo of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patty_hearst Patty Hearst].
[[Image:Patty_Hearst.jpg‎|thumb|Patty Hearst|right]]

==Page 105==
'''DL's car has features "not on the standard model."''' [[Image:TransAm.jpg|thumb|KITT, a Black 1984 Trans-Am|right]]
More Pynchonian mysterioso. And it's a black Trans-Am! A b-a-a-d car, and the perfect ride for a would-be ninja.

Also brings to mind the most popular, computerized, modified Trans-Am on the Tube in the 80's: KITT, from ''Night Rider''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KITT]

==Page 106==
'''They depart "to the stately Neo-glasspack wind chorale, combustion shaped to music, varying as she shifted gears... blending finally into the ground hum of freeway traffic far below."''' 
Pure poetry, and also an exemplary use of punctuation. Go, Pynchon, go! Glasspacks are the most popular straight-through hot-rod muffler replacements ever made. The fiberglass packing provides a slight muffling effect, but does not impede the all-important exhaust speed of combusted products. Sounds great, too.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 7

2015-01-15T00:01:55Z

Froberger:

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 92==
'''"The Wayvone estate..."''' 
The description sets Wayvone's digs in Woodside or Atherton -- pricey suburbs down the peninsula from San Francisco.

'''"Gelsomina, the baby"''' 
Also the childlike heroine of director [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fellini Federico Fellini's] ''La Strada'' [1954].

'''"ventunesimo"''' 
Italian for 21st.

==Page 94==
'''"Testa puntita"''' 
Italian: pointed head.

'''Brunello di Montalcino''' 
Brunello di Montalcino is a red Italian wine produced in the vineyards surrounding the town of Montalcino located about 120 km south of Florence in the Tuscany wine region... In 1980, Brunello di Montalcino was awarded the first Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita (DOCG) designation and today is one of Italy's best-known and most expensive wines. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brunello_wine WIKI]

==Page 95==
'''"Lugares Altos"''' 
Spanish: high places.

Could easily see a "community" being named this in the Bay Area, esp. perhaps around the Los Altos Hills area?

'''deuteragonist of Donkey Kong''' 
Second fiddle to the ape [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donkey_Kong_(character) Donkey Kong] in the popular Nintendo game series, i.e. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario Mario].

'''"Mr. Wayvone's compliments"''' 
Two-Ton's deadpan delivery, and instructions to the band, constitute perfect movie-Mafia schtick.

==Page 96==
'''"Cielo e Mar"''' 

==Page 97==
'''"Italian Wedding Fake Book by Deleuze & Guattari"''' 
If this book isn't real, it oughtta be. Fake books are collections of songs that provide basic chord changes for working musicians who need to play said tunes in a hurry like on a gig. The auteurial attribution is a very sly academic joke. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deleuze Gilles Deleuze] (1925-1995) and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Félix_Guattari Felix Guattari] (1930-1992) were post-modernist philosophers best known for two esoteric volumes on capitalism and schizophrenia, originally written in French. Volume one was ''Anti-Oedipus''; volume two was ''A Thousand Plateaus.''

==Page 99==
'''"Suddenly she saw another reflection, one that might've been there for a while"''' 
We'll soon learn about DL's prowess at the ninja arts, including the one of not being seen unless she wants to be.

'''"...wearing a green party dress...athletic, even warriorlike..."''' 
DL is described very much like [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artemis Artemis/Diana], the Greek/Roman goddess and virgin huntress whose color is green.

'''"''Down'' in the streets of Honolu-lu ..."''' 
Although Pynchon correctly summarizes the images in the ''Hawaii Five-O'' opening sequence and implies that DL's scanner plays the opening theme, the lyrics are a Pynchonian invention. The theme is instrumental. Watch the ''Hawaii Five-O'' opening on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AepyGm9Me6w YouTube].

==Page 100==
'''"Darryl Louise Chastain"''' 
Even DL's last name, Chastain, is suggestive of chastity (as you'd expect in a virgin huntress), but "stained," imperfect. She's a flawed avatar, a preterite goddess.

'''"Dumbo with that feather..."''' 
The reference is to Disney's animated cartoon feature, ''Dumbo'' [1941]. The feather was a security symbol that gave the little elephant the confidence to fly when he clutched it in his trunk. (It is rumored that Dumbo is one of Pynchon's favorite movies. Dumbo also appears in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''].)

==Page 101==

'''"Frenesi Gates"''' 
Gates of Frenzy? Cf [[Chapter_3#Page_27|page 27]]

'''"whatever story DL told...could never be the story she knew."''' 
The first ominous hint of the events in Trasero County.

'''"But DL only smiled back..."''' 
That is, DL doesn't tell Prairie that she's too young to be so paranoid. In other words, paranoia is the correct response.

==Page 102==
'''gowns from the upper reaches of Magnin's''' 
The Joseph Magnin Company was a high-end specialty department store founded in San Francisco, California by Joseph Magnin. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Magnin_Co. WIKI]

'''"Shondra and the kids look wonderful"''' 
The first (easy to miss) inkling of a connection between DL and Ralph Sr.

'''''Porca miseria''''' 
''Damn''

==Page 103==
'''"You think I'm one of those kids on Phil Donahue..."''' 
That is, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phil_Donahue The Phil Donahue Show]. Prairie (like most of America) is quick to define herself via a TV show.

==Page 104==
'''kunoichi''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunoichi Female ninja]

'''Just a girlie, with-a-gun...''' 
DL's song brings to mind the famous photo of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patty_hearst Patty Hearst].
[[Image:Patty_Hearst.jpg‎|thumb|Patty Hearst|right]]

==Page 105==
'''DL's car has features "not on the standard model."''' [[Image:TransAm.jpg|thumb|KITT, a Black 1984 Trans-Am|right]]
More Pynchonian mysterioso. And it's a black Trans-Am! A b-a-a-d car, and the perfect ride for a would-be ninja.

Also brings to mind the most popular, computerized, modified Trans-Am on the Tube in the 80's: KITT, from ''Night Rider''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KITT]

==Page 106==
'''They depart "to the stately Neo-glasspack wind chorale, combustion shaped to music, varying as she shifted gears... blending finally into the ground hum of freeway traffic far below."''' 
Pure poetry, and also an exemplary use of punctuation. Go, Pynchon, go! Glasspacks are the most popular straight-through hot-rod muffler replacements ever made. The fiberglass packing provides a slight muffling effect, but does not impede the all-important exhaust speed of combusted products. Sounds great, too.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 6

2015-01-14T23:25:10Z

Froberger: /* Page 79 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==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.

'''sunlight streaming in unmitigated by tree leaves''' 
I/o/w, unlike the sunlight into Zoyd's window which passes through a "creeping fig", see [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1#Page_3 pg. 3].

==Page 69==
'''"looming federal monolith in Westwood"''' 
Wilshire Federal Building, on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilshire_Federal_Building Wiki.] Pynchon aptly describes this building.

==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 73==
'''"nobody else around," as Wilson Pickett might say.''' 
Reference to Pickett's song, "In the Midnight Hour" - [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KFYUJ63nk8 Listen to it]

==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]].

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPwRkrijM8o Listen to the track here.]

'''"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).

'''Mario Savio''' 
Mario Savio (December 8, 1942 – November 6, 1996) was an American political activist and a key member in the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. He is most famous for his passionate speeches, especially his "put your bodies upon the gears" address given at Sproul Hall, University of California, Berkeley on December 2, 1964. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Savio WIKI]

'''not only in Sproul Plaza but against Sproul himself''' 
Robert Gordon Sproul (May 22, 1891 – September 10, 1975) was eleventh President of the University of California serving from 1930 to 1958. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gordon_Sproul WIKI]

'''"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].

'''Anson Weeks and his Orchestra''' 
Anson Weeks (February 14, 1896, Oakland, California – February 7, 1969, Sacramento, California) was leader of a popular West Coast dance band in the late 1920s through the 1960s, primarily in San Francisco. His first recording was in Oakland on February 7, 1925, but it was not successful. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anson_Weeks WIKI]

'''Top of the Mark''' 
Bar atop the Mark Hopkins Hotel in the Nob Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. It is still there, and features jazz regularly. [http://www.intercontinentalmarkhopkins.com/top_of_the_mark/entertainment/ WEBSITE]

'''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.

'''Kate Smith''' 
Kathryn Elizabeth "Kate" Smith (May 1, 1907 – June 17, 1986) was an American singer, an Alto, best known for her rendition of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America". Smith had a radio, television, and recording career spanning five decades, which reached its pinnacle in the 1940s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Smith WIKI]

'''"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.

Hot shots described by W.S. Burroughs on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJDxJS8-qIA Youtube], from the [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Pn79iNS-Js Dead City Radio] "Naked Lunch" reading. Some of us treasure that recording.

'''"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.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 6

2015-01-14T10:49:46Z

Froberger:

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==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.

'''sunlight streaming in unmitigated by tree leaves''' 
I/o/w, unlike the sunlight into Zoyd's window which passes through a "creeping fig", see [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1#Page_3 pg. 3].

==Page 69==
'''"looming federal monolith in Westwood"''' 
Wilshire Federal Building, on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilshire_Federal_Building Wiki.] Pynchon aptly describes this building.

==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 73==
'''"nobody else around," as Wilson Pickett might say.''' 
Reference to Pickett's song, "In the Midnight Hour" - [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KFYUJ63nk8 Listen to it]

==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]].

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPwRkrijM8o Listen to the track here.]

'''"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).

'''Mario Savio''' 
Mario Savio (December 8, 1942 – November 6, 1996) was an American political activist and a key member in the Berkeley Free Speech Movement. He is most famous for his passionate speeches, especially his "put your bodies upon the gears" address given at Sproul Hall, University of California, Berkeley on December 2, 1964. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mario_Savio WIKI]

'''not only in Sproul Plaza but against Sproul himself''' 
Robert Gordon Sproul (May 22, 1891 – September 10, 1975) was eleventh President of the University of California serving from 1930 to 1958. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gordon_Sproul WIKI]

'''"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].

'''Anson Weeks and his Orchestra''' 
Anson Weeks (February 14, 1896, Oakland, California – February 7, 1969, Sacramento, California) was leader of a popular West Coast dance band in the late 1920s through the 1960s, primarily in San Francisco. His first recording was in Oakland on February 7, 1925, but it was not successful. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anson_Weeks WIKI]

'''Top of the Mark''' 
Bar atop the Mark Hopkins Hotel in the Nob Hill neighborhood of San Francisco. It is still there, and features jazz regularly. [http://www.intercontinentalmarkhopkins.com/top_of_the_mark/entertainment/ WEBSITE]

'''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.

'''Kate Smith''' 
Kathryn Elizabeth "Kate" Smith (May 1, 1907 – June 17, 1986) was an American singer, an Alto, best known for her rendition of Irving Berlin's "God Bless America". Smith had a radio, television, and recording career spanning five decades, which reached its pinnacle in the 1940s. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kate_Smith WIKI]

'''"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.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 5

2015-01-14T00:35:54Z

Froberger:

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==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/gsdl2.85/cgi-bin/hdict?e=q-11000-00---off-0hdict--00-1----0-10-0---0---0direct-10-ED--4-------0-1lpm--11-haw-Zz-1---Zz-1-home-ilikai--00-3-1-00-0--4----0-0-11-00-2utfZz-8-00&a=d&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 64==
'''"Do You Believe in Magic?"''' 
The Lovin' Spoonful song, on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-FnYHPDpk4 Youtube.]

==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.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 4

2015-01-12T23:57:03Z

Froberger: /* Page 39 */

{{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!

'''Ecrivisses a la Maison''' 
Crawfish at Home

'''"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 38==
[[Image:Burgie.jpg|thumb|Burgie Beer Can (1970)|right]]
'''who ended up doing the Stroll''' 
The Stroll was both a slow rock 'n' roll dance and a song that was popular in late 1950s. The dance called the Stroll began in black communities to the songs "C. C. Rider" and "Betty and Dupree" by Chuck Willis. Willis was known as "The King of the Stroll" prior to the release of the song of that name. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stroll WIKI]

In the 1950's the Stroll was typically done as a slow [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrGLNtZ0rEg line dance], but [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XoGPZVujo8 here] is a more animated version from 1957 with only four dancers (as Pynchon suggests).

'''"Pipeline"''' 
"Pipeline" is a surf rock tune by The Chantays which was recorded in 1962. The tune, originally called "Liberty's Whip," was renamed after the band members saw a surfing movie showing scenes of the Banzai Pipeline in Hawaii. The tune, fitting in with the popular surfing craze of the time, swiftly rose up the Billboard Pop charts, reaching #4, and becoming a classic hit of its time. The tune is notable for using Alberti bass chords. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipeline_%28song%29 WIKI] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ4pleqiHgI Listen on YouTube]

'''a can of Burgie''' 
Burgermeister Brewing Company was a brewery out of San Francisco during the 50's & 60's. One of their beers was called Burgie. For history see [http://www.sfcityguides.org/public_guidelines.html?article=373&submitted=TRUE&srch_text=&submitted2=&topic=Food here] and [http://www.falstaffbrewing.com/falstaff-brewery-photo.htm here]. To watch a Burgie TV commercial from this era on YouTube, click [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djXEmH4EePM here].

==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.

'''"Frank Zappa's face...Mount Rushmore"''' 
From an interview quoted on the [http://wiki.killuglyradio.com/wiki/Richard_Nixon Zappa Wiki], Frank contemplated the need for an additional Rushmore-like mountain carved with the faces of Richard Nixon, J. Edgar Hoover and Ronald Reagan. The interview is dated as 1990, so it's possible Pynchon hadn't come across the quote at the time of Vineland's publication.

Perhaps Zoyd is simply seeing a similarity between Teddy Roosevelt's mustache and Zappa's.

'''"...do you think that love can save anybody?"''' 
"Save" is Calvinist/Christian terminology -- another reference to the binary distinction between elect and preterite, one and zero.

==Page 40==
'''"I was awake. But out of my body."''' 
Typical hippie stuff here, Zoyd practicing Astral Projection. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_projection WIKI]

'''"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.

'''Lucky Lager''' 
Lucky Lager was first commercially introduced in 1934 by the General Brewing Company. The General Brewing Company was founded in San Francisco, California by Eugene Selvage (who would remain owner and CEO until 1961). The following decade saw Lucky Lager grow to be the sales leader in the entire West. After the Vancouver brewery shut down in July 1985, the Olympia Brewing Company in Tumwater, WA began to produce this lager. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lager WIKI]

'''"...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!).

Also, Humbo sounds a lot like Gumbo; Zoyd's deliveries to those "California Cajun" restaurants mentioned earlier in the chapter.

'''"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"...

'''"Little Charlie and the Nightcats singing 'TV Crazy'"''' 
Real band, real song.

Hear it on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSC_ft-heNU YouTube.]

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].

'''"'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.

'''beignets and chicory coffee''' 
Ideal New Orleans breakfast, most famously served at the Cafe Du Monde. [http://www.cafedumonde.com/ CAFE DU MONDE SITE]

'''"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==
'''''El Mil Amores''''' 
A Thousand Loves

'''"script possibilities"''' 
Presumably, an off-the-cuff creation of a believable cover story concerning some vehicle's provenance.

'''the Mattole''' 
The Mattole River is a river on the north coast of California, that flows northerly, then westerly into the Pacific Ocean. Communities, from north to south, closely associated with the Mattole River include: Petrolia, Honeydew, Ettersburg, Thorn Junction, and Whitethorn. The river enters the ocean at the Mattole Estuary about 4 miles west-southwest of Petrolia and 10 miles south of Cape Mendocino. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattole_River WIKI]

==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.

'''Brecht''' 
Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director. An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the Berliner Ensemble – the post-war theatre company operated by Brecht and his wife, long-time collaborator and actress Helene Weigel. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht WIKI]

'''"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?.

'''civil RICO''' 
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly referred to as the RICO Act or simply RICO, is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. The RICO Act focuses specifically on racketeering, and it allows for the leaders of a syndicate to be tried for the crimes which they ordered others to do or assisted them, closing a perceived loophole that allowed someone who told a man to, for example, murder, to be exempt from the trial because he did not actually do it. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racketeer_Influenced_and_Corrupt_Organizations_Act WIKI]

==Page 51==
[[Image:DharmaArt.jpg|thumb|Dharma Wheel by Tenzin Wangchuk (2008)|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.

This bit also brings to mind Rev. Wicks Cherrycoke's conveyance in ''Mason & Dixon''.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 4

2015-01-12T22:33:28Z

Froberger: /* Page 43 */

{{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!

'''Ecrivisses a la Maison''' 
Crawfish at Home

'''"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 38==
[[Image:Burgie.jpg|thumb|Burgie Beer Can (1970)|right]]
'''who ended up doing the Stroll''' 
The Stroll was both a slow rock 'n' roll dance and a song that was popular in late 1950s. The dance called the Stroll began in black communities to the songs "C. C. Rider" and "Betty and Dupree" by Chuck Willis. Willis was known as "The King of the Stroll" prior to the release of the song of that name. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Stroll WIKI]

In the 1950's the Stroll was typically done as a slow [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UrGLNtZ0rEg line dance], but [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1XoGPZVujo8 here] is a more animated version from 1957 with only four dancers (as Pynchon suggests).

'''"Pipeline"''' 
"Pipeline" is a surf rock tune by The Chantays which was recorded in 1962. The tune, originally called "Liberty's Whip," was renamed after the band members saw a surfing movie showing scenes of the Banzai Pipeline in Hawaii. The tune, fitting in with the popular surfing craze of the time, swiftly rose up the Billboard Pop charts, reaching #4, and becoming a classic hit of its time. The tune is notable for using Alberti bass chords. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pipeline_%28song%29 WIKI] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ4pleqiHgI Listen on YouTube]

'''a can of Burgie''' 
Burgermeister Brewing Company was a brewery out of San Francisco during the 50's & 60's. One of their beers was called Burgie. For history see [http://www.sfcityguides.org/public_guidelines.html?article=373&submitted=TRUE&srch_text=&submitted2=&topic=Food here] and [http://www.falstaffbrewing.com/falstaff-brewery-photo.htm here]. To watch a Burgie TV commercial from this era on YouTube, click [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djXEmH4EePM here].

==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.

'''"...do you think that love can save anybody?"''' 
"Save" is Calvinist/Christian terminology -- another reference to the binary distinction between elect and preterite, one and zero.

==Page 40==
'''"I was awake. But out of my body."''' 
Typical hippie stuff here, Zoyd practicing Astral Projection. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astral_projection WIKI]

'''"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.

'''Lucky Lager''' 
Lucky Lager was first commercially introduced in 1934 by the General Brewing Company. The General Brewing Company was founded in San Francisco, California by Eugene Selvage (who would remain owner and CEO until 1961). The following decade saw Lucky Lager grow to be the sales leader in the entire West. After the Vancouver brewery shut down in July 1985, the Olympia Brewing Company in Tumwater, WA began to produce this lager. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucky_Lager WIKI]

'''"...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!).

Also, Humbo sounds a lot like Gumbo; Zoyd's deliveries to those "California Cajun" restaurants mentioned earlier in the chapter.

'''"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"...

'''"Little Charlie and the Nightcats singing 'TV Crazy'"''' 
Real band, real song.

Hear it on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSC_ft-heNU YouTube.]

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].

'''"'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.

'''beignets and chicory coffee''' 
Ideal New Orleans breakfast, most famously served at the Cafe Du Monde. [http://www.cafedumonde.com/ CAFE DU MONDE SITE]

'''"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==
'''''El Mil Amores''''' 
A Thousand Loves

'''"script possibilities"''' 
Presumably, an off-the-cuff creation of a believable cover story concerning some vehicle's provenance.

'''the Mattole''' 
The Mattole River is a river on the north coast of California, that flows northerly, then westerly into the Pacific Ocean. Communities, from north to south, closely associated with the Mattole River include: Petrolia, Honeydew, Ettersburg, Thorn Junction, and Whitethorn. The river enters the ocean at the Mattole Estuary about 4 miles west-southwest of Petrolia and 10 miles south of Cape Mendocino. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mattole_River WIKI]

==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.

'''Brecht''' 
Bertolt Brecht (1898–1956) was a German poet, playwright, and theatre director. An influential theatre practitioner of the 20th century, Brecht made equally significant contributions to dramaturgy and theatrical production, the latter particularly through the seismic impact of the tours undertaken by the Berliner Ensemble – the post-war theatre company operated by Brecht and his wife, long-time collaborator and actress Helene Weigel. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bertolt_Brecht WIKI]

'''"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?.

'''civil RICO''' 
The Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, commonly referred to as the RICO Act or simply RICO, is a United States federal law that provides for extended criminal penalties and a civil cause of action for acts performed as part of an ongoing criminal organization. The RICO Act focuses specifically on racketeering, and it allows for the leaders of a syndicate to be tried for the crimes which they ordered others to do or assisted them, closing a perceived loophole that allowed someone who told a man to, for example, murder, to be exempt from the trial because he did not actually do it. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racketeer_Influenced_and_Corrupt_Organizations_Act WIKI]

==Page 51==
[[Image:DharmaArt.jpg|thumb|Dharma Wheel by Tenzin Wangchuk (2008)|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.

This bit also brings to mind Rev. Wicks Cherrycoke's conveyance in ''Mason & Dixon''.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 1

2015-01-06T21:32:27Z

Froberger:

{{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"''' 
Zen + Void = Zoyd...

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]

[http://www.allmusic.com/artist/art-zoyd-mn0000526901/biography Art Zoyd] is the name of French avant-prog group formed in the 1960s, with no member actually named Art Zoyd. Much of their music can be found on YouTube, such as [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BabJM50buuI Phase IV] from 1982. According to Wiki, some of their albums credit the fictional Art Zoyd as having helped with the production. Does anyone know where the band got its name?

'''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. And yet another phallic reference, "nacreous" being a common adjective to describe a male's ejaculate.

'''"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 or 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.

Vineland was actually a farming community in real history that was located in Santa Clara County, near Los Gatos, Calif. in the later half of the 19th century. I came across this studying old voter registration records. While Pynchon's fictional town and county seem to be further north, this general area of Calif. is central in the book.

==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. Listen on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6rHqrLA7aw YouTube].

'''"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/Cojones 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}}