Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

Chapter 1

2010-04-26T00:04:20Z

Georgeman: /* Page 12 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==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 portentious dream, with light percolating in.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'''Vineland County''' 
[[Image:Ncounties.jpg|thumb|Northern California Counties|right]]
There is no Vineland County on the California map. Pynchon appears to have created Vineland County from parts of Mendocino, Humboldt, and Del Norte Counties. However, on page 43 of ''Inherent Vice'', Pynchon writes "Scott had been playing with a local group known as the Corvairs, till half of them decided to join the northward migration of those years up to Humboldt, Vineland, and Del Norte". This leaves out Mendocino, which was part of the "hippie migration", and best fits the name Vineland, since it's the only one of the three that's been a major grape producer in the past. If you're not afraid of possible spoilers, jump to [[Chapter_14#Page_317|page 317]] for more evidence that Vineland lies between Humboldt and Del Norte Counties.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 1

2010-04-25T23:54:59Z

Georgeman: /* Page 3 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==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 portentious dream, with light percolating in.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'''Vineland County''' 
[[Image:Ncounties.jpg|thumb|Northern California Counties|right]]
There is no Vineland County on the California map. Pynchon appears to have created Vineland County from parts of Mendocino, Humboldt, and Del Norte Counties. However, on page 43 of ''Inherent Vice'', Pynchon writes "Scott had been playing with a local group known as the Corvairs, till half of them decided to join the northward migration of those years up to Humboldt, Vineland, and Del Norte". This leaves out Mendocino, which was part of the "hippie migration", and best fits the name Vineland, since it's the only one of the three that's been a major grape producer in the past. If you're not afraid of possible spoilers, jump to [[Chapter_14#Page_317|page 317]] for more evidence that Vineland lies between Humboldt and Del Norte Counties.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 3

2010-04-16T11:07:46Z

Georgeman: /* Page 23 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 22==
'''"Sylvester and Tweety"''' 
The famous animated cartoon characters (a cat and a canary, natch) are used to described the comic/violent relationship between Zoyd and Zuniga. This also works as effective shorthand to encourage the reader to read the book as a cartoon. At least for now.

'''sharing a house in Gordita Beach''' 
"Gordita Beach" is, according to the article [http://www.theaesthetic.com/NewFiles/pynchon.html "Thomas Pynchon and the South Bay"], a fictionalized Manhattan Beach where Pynchon is believed to have lived in 1969-1970 while working on [http://gravitysrainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow'']. The article states: "Pynchon doesn't refer to Manhattan Beach by name. Rather, he uses the name Gordita Beach to refer to his one-time home." And Gordita Beach is the home of Doc Sportello in Pynchon's 2009 novel [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Inherent Vice'']. The surf band the [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=C#corvairs Corvairs], elements of which Zoyd lives with, are also present in ''Inherent Vice''.

==Page 23==
'''"Melrose Fife"''' 
Possibly inspired by a NYC radio jingle of the late forties and early fifties that went "Melrose five, five-three-hundred, Melrose five, five-three-hundred...".

'''"musician Scott Oof"''' 
Another inspired name. Scott Oof, as essentially the same character, is in Pynchon's 2009 novel [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Inherent Vice''] which takes place about 10 or 15 years before the events in ''Vineland''. Scott is the protagonist Doc Sportello's cousin.

'''"What I'm really here about..."''' 
This is an old "head" joke. ["Head" = sixties slang for weed-head, or "soft" drug-user.] The cop raps at the door and says "I'm here about drugs," and the doper says, "Thank God! We're all out!" It's right up there with the one where the cop says, "Your papers, please!" and the head whips out his Zig-Zags.

==Page 24==
'''That fatal five-spot was not the last Purchase-of-Information disbursement in the neighborhood.''' 
Cf. [[Chapter_1#Page 7|p. 7]]

'''"some grandiose pilot project bankrolled with inexhaustible taxpayer millions"''' 
Typically Pynchonian paranoid reference.

'''Hector's PI money''' 
PI = Purchase-of-Information. See above.

==Page 25==
'''"GS-13"''' 
Mid-level US Government job rating. Entry level is GS-4; the President is, like, GS-25.

==Page 26==
'''"hummed a tune..."''' 
Distraction drives Hector to humming "Meet the Flintstones," the second TV theme song so far.

'''"defunding"''' 
The first we learn of Frenesi's demotion/demolition, her "disappearance from the computer," her figurative conversion from a one to a zero. (See note on Pynchon's central binary metaphor, [[Chapter 6#Page 71|p. 71]], et al..)

==Page 28==
'''"When the State withers away, Hector"''' 
From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engels Friedrich Engels], of course, in whose expectation the State is not abolished, it withers away.

'''"Eastwood-style"''' 
In the style of actor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engels Clint (Dirty Harry) Eastwood].

'''"I won't aks you to grow up, but...aks yourself, OK, Who was saved? That's all, rill easy..."''' 
Great rap from Hector, demonstrating Pynchon's flawless ear for dialect and accent. "Who was saved?" ties into the preterite theme.

==Page 29==
'''"the samurai condition"''' 
The notion of a samurai "always being prepared to die" will be echoed on [[Chapter 9#Page 161|page 161]] when Takeshi is shown to be technically dead, hence living without fear of death, hence always prepared to die. Which makes him a perfect samurai. Or Thanatoid.

==Page 31==
'''"maybe it goes beyond your ex-old lady..."''' 
Pynchon introduces the paranoid conspiracy element he (and we) love so much. Nothing is what it seems; there's always some mystery behind everything.

'''"zomoskepsis"''' 
As far as we can tell, this is a made-up word. But it's well-made, and means just what it says: The study, or contemplation, of soup or meat broth, from the ancient greek words "ζωμός", meaning soup, and "σκέψις", meaning thought/contemplation. Pynchon seems to enjoy making up words. Now and then you run across another "skepsis" word. Two of our advisors spotted "omphaloskepsis" (navel-gazing) in the beginning chapters of Umberto Eco's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foucault%27s_Pendulum ''Foucault's Pendulum''].

'''"Nothin' meaner than an old hippie that's gone sour."''' 
Pynchon himself?

==Page 32==
'''"Check's in the mayo"''' 
A brilliant throw-away Feghoot. In the fifties, a science fiction writer named Grendel Briarton wrote a series of short, funny pieces for Fantasy and Science Fiction Magazine titled, "Through Time and Space With Ferdinand Feghoot." They all worked the same way: establishing a silly and complicated story line for the sole purpose of setting up a painfully outrageous pun. Pynchon is addicted to the form; one of the best Feghoots ever written is the "Forty million Frenchmen" gag ("for DeMille young Frenchmen...") on page 559 of [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_557-563# ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

==Page 33==
'''"National Endowment for Video Education and Rehabilitation"''' 
Dr. Deeply's Tubal detox operation (NEVER) is clearly a gag on Betty Ford's "Just Say No" Drug Abuse Clinic. This is also the first statement of a central theme: America's national addiction isn't to drugs, it's to the Tube.

'''"Hector...hasn't quite been himself, signed himself in with us for some therapy..."''' 
Another reference to the vicious addictiveness of TV.

{{Vineland PbP}}