Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

Chapter 3

2015-09-16T19:40:11Z

Hotrats: /* Page 28 */

{{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.

'''shortly after Reagan was elected governor of California''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_reagan Ronald Reagan] was first elected governor in 1966 and took office in 1967.

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

'''the Corvairs''' [[Image:Corvair.jpg|thumb|1965 Corvair Corsa Coupe|right]]
It would have been unfortunate to have had your band named the Corvairs in 1967. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvair Chevrolet Corvair] was the only American mass-produced car to ever have a rear-mounted engine like a VW. In 1965, Ralph Nader published [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsafe_at_Any_Speed Unsafe at Any Speed], which showed that General Motors had ignored safety concerns and used a design prone to roll-overs. Sales tanked and GM eventually cancelled the entire line in 1969. Although some automobile aficionados cursed Ralph Nader, for most Americans the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvair Corvair] became a sick joke and a symbol of corporate callousness.

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

Also, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melrose_Avenue Melrose Avenue] is a famous street in Los Angeles, containing Paramount Pictures and other well-known spots.

Also, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_Fife Barney Fife] is the rail-thin deputy sheriff on the TV comedy [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andy_Griffith_Show The Andy Griffith Show].

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

'''"What I'm really here about..."''' 
This is an old "head" joke. ["Head" = sixties slang for weed-head, or "soft" drug-user.] The cop raps at the door and says "I'm here about drugs," and the doper says, "Thank God! We're all out!". A similar joke appears in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' - “You will show me your papers!" hollers the leader of the raid. Säure smiles and holds up a pack of Zig-Zags, just in from Paris. (p.442)

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

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

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

In most mysteries, PI stands for Private Investigator, so Pynchon is making a cynical joke.

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

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

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

==Page 27==
'''"Frenesi"''' 
Likely pronounced "free 'n' easy"...

Frenesi is Spanish for frenzy. It's also the title of a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frenesi song]. You can download [http://www.tuxjunction.net/media/frenesi.mp3 Artie Shaw's original 1940's version]. Linda Ronstadt's version, updated with Spanish lyrics, is on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7ldf9koTSM YouTube].

Salman Rushdie points out that Frenesi is an anagram of free and sin. [[Vineland_Review,_New_York_Times|Read Rushdie's review of ''Vineland'']].

[[image:pier.jpg|thumb|Hermosa Beach Pier|right]]
'''"shot the old Hermosa Pier durin a lightnin storm"'''

LA pier extending 1000 feet out from Hermosa Beach, built 1913. To "shoot the pier" is to ride a surfboard under it, hopefully avoiding the pilings. To do so during a lightning storm, presumably at night, is suicidal bravado.

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

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

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

==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''].

'''"not like th' old Weatherpeople or nothin..."''' 
The Weather Underground was an American radical left organization. Originally called Weatherman, the group became known colloquially as the Weathermen although its full name, as given in official communiques, was the Weather Underground Organization or WUO. Weatherman first organized in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their supporters. Their goal was to create a clandestine revolutionary party for the violent overthrow of the US government. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground WIKI]

'''"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}}

Chapter 3

2015-09-16T19:38:44Z

Hotrats: /* Page 23 */ Link to GR

{{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.

'''shortly after Reagan was elected governor of California''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_reagan Ronald Reagan] was first elected governor in 1966 and took office in 1967.

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

'''the Corvairs''' [[Image:Corvair.jpg|thumb|1965 Corvair Corsa Coupe|right]]
It would have been unfortunate to have had your band named the Corvairs in 1967. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvair Chevrolet Corvair] was the only American mass-produced car to ever have a rear-mounted engine like a VW. In 1965, Ralph Nader published [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsafe_at_Any_Speed Unsafe at Any Speed], which showed that General Motors had ignored safety concerns and used a design prone to roll-overs. Sales tanked and GM eventually cancelled the entire line in 1969. Although some automobile aficionados cursed Ralph Nader, for most Americans the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvair Corvair] became a sick joke and a symbol of corporate callousness.

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

Also, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melrose_Avenue Melrose Avenue] is a famous street in Los Angeles, containing Paramount Pictures and other well-known spots.

Also, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_Fife Barney Fife] is the rail-thin deputy sheriff on the TV comedy [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andy_Griffith_Show The Andy Griffith Show].

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

'''"What I'm really here about..."''' 
This is an old "head" joke. ["Head" = sixties slang for weed-head, or "soft" drug-user.] The cop raps at the door and says "I'm here about drugs," and the doper says, "Thank God! We're all out!". A similar joke appears in ''Gravity's Rainbow'' - “You will show me your papers!" hollers the leader of the raid. Säure smiles and holds up a pack of Zig-Zags, just in from Paris. (p.442)

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

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

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

In most mysteries, PI stands for Private Investigator, so Pynchon is making a cynical joke.

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

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

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

==Page 27==
'''"Frenesi"''' 
Likely pronounced "free 'n' easy"...

Frenesi is Spanish for frenzy. It's also the title of a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frenesi song]. You can download [http://www.tuxjunction.net/media/frenesi.mp3 Artie Shaw's original 1940's version]. Linda Ronstadt's version, updated with Spanish lyrics, is on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7ldf9koTSM YouTube].

Salman Rushdie points out that Frenesi is an anagram of free and sin. [[Vineland_Review,_New_York_Times|Read Rushdie's review of ''Vineland'']].

[[image:pier.jpg|thumb|Hermosa Beach Pier|right]]
'''"shot the old Hermosa Pier durin a lightnin storm"'''

LA pier extending 1000 feet out from Hermosa Beach, built 1913. To "shoot the pier" is to ride a surfboard under it, hopefully avoiding the pilings. To do so during a lightning storm, presumably at night, is suicidal bravado.

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

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

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

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

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

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

'''"not like th' old Weatherpeople or nothin..."''' 
The Weather Underground was an American radical left organization. Originally called Weatherman, the group became known colloquially as the Weathermen although its full name, as given in official communiques, was the Weather Underground Organization or WUO. Weatherman first organized in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their supporters. Their goal was to create a clandestine revolutionary party for the violent overthrow of the US government. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground WIKI]

'''"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}}

Chapter 3

2015-09-16T19:26:02Z

Hotrats: /* 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.

'''shortly after Reagan was elected governor of California''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_reagan Ronald Reagan] was first elected governor in 1966 and took office in 1967.

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

'''the Corvairs''' [[Image:Corvair.jpg|thumb|1965 Corvair Corsa Coupe|right]]
It would have been unfortunate to have had your band named the Corvairs in 1967. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvair Chevrolet Corvair] was the only American mass-produced car to ever have a rear-mounted engine like a VW. In 1965, Ralph Nader published [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsafe_at_Any_Speed Unsafe at Any Speed], which showed that General Motors had ignored safety concerns and used a design prone to roll-overs. Sales tanked and GM eventually cancelled the entire line in 1969. Although some automobile aficionados cursed Ralph Nader, for most Americans the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_Corvair Corvair] became a sick joke and a symbol of corporate callousness.

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

Also, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melrose_Avenue Melrose Avenue] is a famous street in Los Angeles, containing Paramount Pictures and other well-known spots.

Also, [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barney_Fife Barney Fife] is the rail-thin deputy sheriff on the TV comedy [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Andy_Griffith_Show The Andy Griffith Show].

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

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

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

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

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

In most mysteries, PI stands for Private Investigator, so Pynchon is making a cynical joke.

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

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

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

==Page 27==
'''"Frenesi"''' 
Likely pronounced "free 'n' easy"...

Frenesi is Spanish for frenzy. It's also the title of a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frenesi song]. You can download [http://www.tuxjunction.net/media/frenesi.mp3 Artie Shaw's original 1940's version]. Linda Ronstadt's version, updated with Spanish lyrics, is on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7ldf9koTSM YouTube].

Salman Rushdie points out that Frenesi is an anagram of free and sin. [[Vineland_Review,_New_York_Times|Read Rushdie's review of ''Vineland'']].

[[image:pier.jpg|thumb|Hermosa Beach Pier|right]]
'''"shot the old Hermosa Pier durin a lightnin storm"'''

LA pier extending 1000 feet out from Hermosa Beach, built 1913. To "shoot the pier" is to ride a surfboard under it, hopefully avoiding the pilings. To do so during a lightning storm, presumably at night, is suicidal bravado.

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

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

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

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

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

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

'''"not like th' old Weatherpeople or nothin..."''' 
The Weather Underground was an American radical left organization. Originally called Weatherman, the group became known colloquially as the Weathermen although its full name, as given in official communiques, was the Weather Underground Organization or WUO. Weatherman first organized in 1969 as a faction of Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) composed for the most part of the national office leadership of SDS and their supporters. Their goal was to create a clandestine revolutionary party for the violent overthrow of the US government. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weather_Underground WIKI]

'''"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}}

Chapter 2

2015-09-16T15:12:41Z

Hotrats: /* Page 17 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 14==
'''"logger types, fallers, choker setters..."''' 
Faller (aka "cutters") are the elites of logging. Their work is very dangerous as they cut down the trees that are then processed by others. The faller often works shorter hours, and usually works alone. A choker setter fastens chokers devices constructed from five-to eight-foot lengths of 3/8ths diameter steel cable with a sliding bell attached around logs so they can be moved by the yarder, cat, or skidder. It's usually the initial job that a logger will obtain on a logging crew. [http://www.ccrh.org/oral/women&timber/glossary.htm]

[[image:clara-bow.jpg|thumb|100px|right|Clara Bow]]'''Pia Zadora in ''The Clara Bow Story''''' 
The first of many fictitious movies. It's easy to tell, because Pynchon always provides a bracketed date [1980] when he references a real movie, but not a fictitious one. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pia_Zadora Pia Zadora], whose film career (eg. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus_Conquers_the_Martians ''Santa Claus Conquers the Martians'']) was going nowhere until she married Israeli multimillionaire Meshulam Riklis in 1977, had some success in film and music, but no longer. Not sure of the connection with the famous silent-film actress [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Bow Clara Bow].

Throughout ''Vineland'' Pynchon tosses off "Actor ''X'' in Movie Biography ''Y''" jokes. Each is a horrendous miscasting. In this case the truly charismatic Clara Bow is played by the money-inflated Pia Zadora.

In Orwell's 1984, the Party continuously rewrites history by falsifying records, altering photographs, and vaporizing witnesses. In Pynchon's 1984, Hollywood continuously rewrites history by producing made-for-TV movies.

'''"Zoy-oyd..."''' 
Prairie is a wonderfully drawn 14-year-old teenager.

'''"ancient surfer baggies [...] and a dilapidated Hussong's T-shirt..."''' 
Baggies swim trunks that were about knee-length and, yes, baggy were a radical departure from the short and tight men's swimware prevalent in the 60s. They were part of the surfer uniform and were memorialized in song by the Beach Boys and other "surf" groups (The Fantastic Baggies, for one!). So Zoyd's could be over 20 years old.
[[Image:HussongShirt.jpg|thumb|Image From A Hussong's T-shirt|right]]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussong's Hussong's], established in 1890 and located in Ensenada in Baja, Mexico, is the oldest cantina in the Californias, and was and is a popular surfers hangout serving primarily beer, piña colladas and peanuts. It’s also the place where the Margarita was invented—back in October, 1941 by bartender Don Carlos Orozco. Zoyd is indeed a California Boy. And it's somewhat likely that Pynchon swung by Hussong's during one of his Mexico visits.

'''"the Tube"''' 
Consistently capitalized throughout the book.

'''"a chair-high bag of Chee-tos and a sixpack of grapefruit soda from the health-food store."''' 
This combination of junk food and health food defines the North Coast redneck hippie perfectly. But Pynchon's insistent hammering on Zoyd's junk-food habit may go a little deeper like autobiography, maybe?

'''"news anchor Skip Tromblay"''' 
The French word ''trembles'' means "to tremble or shake" and is often used in describing someone's voice. The imperfect form is ''tremblais''. Quivering with excitement?

==Page 15==
'''"almost featured on 'Good Morning America'"''' 
15 minutes of almost fame.

'''"Day-Glo orange [...] some acid green"''' 
"Day-Glo" colors are associated with the Psychedelic Sixties, as they would glow when illuminated with a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_light black light], and "black-light" effects where ubiquitous during that period. "Acid green" makes an appearance in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_11 ''V''] and [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_181-189 ''Gravity's Rainbow''], see also Isaiah's tinted Mohawk on p.17.

'''"the million crystal trajectories, smooth as fountain-drops"''' 
Cf. In [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Crystal_Palace ''Gravity's Rainbow'']: "He's afraid of the way the glass will fall soon it will be a spectacle: the fall of a crystal palace." (p.3)

'''"useful distinction between...defenestrative [and transfenestrative] personality"''' 
Cool Pynchonian satire of California Psychobabble. "Defenestration" is throwing something or someone out an open window; "Transfenestration" is throwing someone ''through'' a closed window, breaking the glass, natch. According to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestration Wikipedia], the term was coined around the time of an incident in Prague Castle in the year of 1618, i.e., the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestrations_of_Prague Defenestrations of Prague].

==Page 16==
'''"named himself after what again, some robot?"'''

Zoyd's comment in response to Prairie calling her boyfriend "the Big I." "I, Robot" is the title of a 1939 short story by Eando Binder and a 1951 short story collection by Isaac Asimov. The Asimov stories are [very loosely] the basis for the Will Smith movie of the same name. This also explains Zoyd calling Isaiah "R2D2".

'''Isaiah Two Four''' 
Zoyd is right. This verse is about turning away from war toward peace: "And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

This verse is also the basis for the well known civil rights song "Ain't Gonna Study War No More" (aka, "Down by the Riverside").

'''"Love is strange"''' 
Refers to Mickey and Sylvia's ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Baker Mickey Baker] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Vanderpool's Sylvia Vanderpool]) 1957 Top-40 hit song [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Is_Strange "Love is Strange"]. Clearly on Pynchon's Top-40, as well; he used it as the lead for his [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_cholera.html ''New York Times Book Review'' piece] on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_in_the_Time_of_Cholera ''Love In the Time of Cholera'']:

:Love, as Mickey and Sylvia, in their 1956 [sic it reached #11 on the Billboard charts in March 1957] hit single, remind us, love is strange. As we grow older it gets stranger, until at some point mortality has come well within the frame of our attention, and there we are, suddenly caught between terminal dates while still talking a game of eternity. It's about then that we may begin to regard love songs, romance novels, soap operas and any live teen-age pronouncements at all on the subject of love with an increasingly impatient, not to mention intolerant, ear.

The tune was allegedly written by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Diddley Bo Diddley] although it was presented to Mickey and Sylvia as being composed by Bo's wife Ethel Smith. Apparently, Bo didn't want the credit because he was pissed off at his music publishers because they didn't pay him enough. Mickey Baker is considered by some to be the first great rock 'n' roll guitarist and, prior to the duo, he was in a rhythm and blues band with saxophonist [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Curtis King Curtis] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Taylor_%28jazz%29 Sam "The Man" Taylor]. After the success of "Love is Strange," Mickey moved to Paris where he remained for twenty-five years, touring, very rarely, as a blues guitarist.

Listen on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCvcZhX7oxk YouTube].

==Page 17==
'''"Joey Chitwood-type thrill show"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joie_Chitwood Joey Chitwood] (1912-1988), a legendary "Auto Daredevil," started touring with his death-defying troupe in the 1940s, and continued for decades. He was an inspiration for fellow daredevil [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evel_Knievel Evel Knievel] (1938-2007).

'''"his long Mohawk colored a vibrant acid green, except at the tips, where some magenta shade was airbrushed on. Now these happened to be Zoyd's two all-time favorite colors..."''' 
Also two of Pynchon's, the 'quaint sixties combo' of lime green and magenta turning up, like a Bodine character, in almost every novel.

==Page 18==
'''"the Uzi machine gun, 'badass of the desert.'"'''[[Image:Uzi.jpg|thumb|Uzi Submachine Gun|right]] 
Pynchon seems moderately hung up on rear ends in this book (and elsewhere). The phrase "badass" recurs constantly (as it did in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''] too, where it achieved Naval Significance as the USS John E. Badass). In addition there's Trasero County (trasero = Spanish for "rump,") Las Nalgas (Spanish for "buttocks,") and Culito Canyon (culito = Spanish for "little ass.") There's also an echo of Da Conho, the cook in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''V.''], whose fantasy involved shooting Muslims in Israel with a .30 caliber machine gun that went "yibble, yibble, yibble." ("Da Conho's machine gun was the only one in the world that went "yibble, yibble," Pynchon pointed out.)

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 2

2015-09-16T15:12:14Z

Hotrats: /* Page 17 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 14==
'''"logger types, fallers, choker setters..."''' 
Faller (aka "cutters") are the elites of logging. Their work is very dangerous as they cut down the trees that are then processed by others. The faller often works shorter hours, and usually works alone. A choker setter fastens chokers devices constructed from five-to eight-foot lengths of 3/8ths diameter steel cable with a sliding bell attached around logs so they can be moved by the yarder, cat, or skidder. It's usually the initial job that a logger will obtain on a logging crew. [http://www.ccrh.org/oral/women&timber/glossary.htm]

[[image:clara-bow.jpg|thumb|100px|right|Clara Bow]]'''Pia Zadora in ''The Clara Bow Story''''' 
The first of many fictitious movies. It's easy to tell, because Pynchon always provides a bracketed date [1980] when he references a real movie, but not a fictitious one. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pia_Zadora Pia Zadora], whose film career (eg. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus_Conquers_the_Martians ''Santa Claus Conquers the Martians'']) was going nowhere until she married Israeli multimillionaire Meshulam Riklis in 1977, had some success in film and music, but no longer. Not sure of the connection with the famous silent-film actress [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Bow Clara Bow].

Throughout ''Vineland'' Pynchon tosses off "Actor ''X'' in Movie Biography ''Y''" jokes. Each is a horrendous miscasting. In this case the truly charismatic Clara Bow is played by the money-inflated Pia Zadora.

In Orwell's 1984, the Party continuously rewrites history by falsifying records, altering photographs, and vaporizing witnesses. In Pynchon's 1984, Hollywood continuously rewrites history by producing made-for-TV movies.

'''"Zoy-oyd..."''' 
Prairie is a wonderfully drawn 14-year-old teenager.

'''"ancient surfer baggies [...] and a dilapidated Hussong's T-shirt..."''' 
Baggies swim trunks that were about knee-length and, yes, baggy were a radical departure from the short and tight men's swimware prevalent in the 60s. They were part of the surfer uniform and were memorialized in song by the Beach Boys and other "surf" groups (The Fantastic Baggies, for one!). So Zoyd's could be over 20 years old.
[[Image:HussongShirt.jpg|thumb|Image From A Hussong's T-shirt|right]]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussong's Hussong's], established in 1890 and located in Ensenada in Baja, Mexico, is the oldest cantina in the Californias, and was and is a popular surfers hangout serving primarily beer, piña colladas and peanuts. It’s also the place where the Margarita was invented—back in October, 1941 by bartender Don Carlos Orozco. Zoyd is indeed a California Boy. And it's somewhat likely that Pynchon swung by Hussong's during one of his Mexico visits.

'''"the Tube"''' 
Consistently capitalized throughout the book.

'''"a chair-high bag of Chee-tos and a sixpack of grapefruit soda from the health-food store."''' 
This combination of junk food and health food defines the North Coast redneck hippie perfectly. But Pynchon's insistent hammering on Zoyd's junk-food habit may go a little deeper like autobiography, maybe?

'''"news anchor Skip Tromblay"''' 
The French word ''trembles'' means "to tremble or shake" and is often used in describing someone's voice. The imperfect form is ''tremblais''. Quivering with excitement?

==Page 15==
'''"almost featured on 'Good Morning America'"''' 
15 minutes of almost fame.

'''"Day-Glo orange [...] some acid green"''' 
"Day-Glo" colors are associated with the Psychedelic Sixties, as they would glow when illuminated with a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_light black light], and "black-light" effects where ubiquitous during that period. "Acid green" makes an appearance in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_11 ''V''] and [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_181-189 ''Gravity's Rainbow''], see also Isaiah's tinted Mohawk on p.17.

'''"the million crystal trajectories, smooth as fountain-drops"''' 
Cf. In [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Crystal_Palace ''Gravity's Rainbow'']: "He's afraid of the way the glass will fall soon it will be a spectacle: the fall of a crystal palace." (p.3)

'''"useful distinction between...defenestrative [and transfenestrative] personality"''' 
Cool Pynchonian satire of California Psychobabble. "Defenestration" is throwing something or someone out an open window; "Transfenestration" is throwing someone ''through'' a closed window, breaking the glass, natch. According to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestration Wikipedia], the term was coined around the time of an incident in Prague Castle in the year of 1618, i.e., the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestrations_of_Prague Defenestrations of Prague].

==Page 16==
'''"named himself after what again, some robot?"'''

Zoyd's comment in response to Prairie calling her boyfriend "the Big I." "I, Robot" is the title of a 1939 short story by Eando Binder and a 1951 short story collection by Isaac Asimov. The Asimov stories are [very loosely] the basis for the Will Smith movie of the same name. This also explains Zoyd calling Isaiah "R2D2".

'''Isaiah Two Four''' 
Zoyd is right. This verse is about turning away from war toward peace: "And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

This verse is also the basis for the well known civil rights song "Ain't Gonna Study War No More" (aka, "Down by the Riverside").

'''"Love is strange"''' 
Refers to Mickey and Sylvia's ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Baker Mickey Baker] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Vanderpool's Sylvia Vanderpool]) 1957 Top-40 hit song [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Is_Strange "Love is Strange"]. Clearly on Pynchon's Top-40, as well; he used it as the lead for his [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_cholera.html ''New York Times Book Review'' piece] on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_in_the_Time_of_Cholera ''Love In the Time of Cholera'']:

:Love, as Mickey and Sylvia, in their 1956 [sic it reached #11 on the Billboard charts in March 1957] hit single, remind us, love is strange. As we grow older it gets stranger, until at some point mortality has come well within the frame of our attention, and there we are, suddenly caught between terminal dates while still talking a game of eternity. It's about then that we may begin to regard love songs, romance novels, soap operas and any live teen-age pronouncements at all on the subject of love with an increasingly impatient, not to mention intolerant, ear.

The tune was allegedly written by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Diddley Bo Diddley] although it was presented to Mickey and Sylvia as being composed by Bo's wife Ethel Smith. Apparently, Bo didn't want the credit because he was pissed off at his music publishers because they didn't pay him enough. Mickey Baker is considered by some to be the first great rock 'n' roll guitarist and, prior to the duo, he was in a rhythm and blues band with saxophonist [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Curtis King Curtis] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Taylor_%28jazz%29 Sam "The Man" Taylor]. After the success of "Love is Strange," Mickey moved to Paris where he remained for twenty-five years, touring, very rarely, as a blues guitarist.

Listen on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCvcZhX7oxk YouTube].

==Page 17==
'''"Joey Chitwood-type thrill show"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joie_Chitwood Joey Chitwood] (1912-1988), a legendary "Auto Daredevil," started touring with his death-defying troupe in the 1940s, and continued for decades. He was an inspiration for fellow daredevil [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evel_Knievel Evel Knievel] (1938-2007).

'''"his long Mohawk colored a vibrant acid green, except at the tips, where some magenta shade was airbrushed on. Now these happened to be Zoyd's two all-time favorite colors..."''' 
Also two of Pynchon's, the 'quaint sixties comb' of lime green and magenta turning up, like a Bodine character, in almost every novel.

==Page 18==
'''"the Uzi machine gun, 'badass of the desert.'"'''[[Image:Uzi.jpg|thumb|Uzi Submachine Gun|right]] 
Pynchon seems moderately hung up on rear ends in this book (and elsewhere). The phrase "badass" recurs constantly (as it did in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''] too, where it achieved Naval Significance as the USS John E. Badass). In addition there's Trasero County (trasero = Spanish for "rump,") Las Nalgas (Spanish for "buttocks,") and Culito Canyon (culito = Spanish for "little ass.") There's also an echo of Da Conho, the cook in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''V.''], whose fantasy involved shooting Muslims in Israel with a .30 caliber machine gun that went "yibble, yibble, yibble." ("Da Conho's machine gun was the only one in the world that went "yibble, yibble," Pynchon pointed out.)

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 2

2015-09-16T15:10:44Z

Hotrats: /* Page 15 */ Acid green x-ref

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 14==
'''"logger types, fallers, choker setters..."''' 
Faller (aka "cutters") are the elites of logging. Their work is very dangerous as they cut down the trees that are then processed by others. The faller often works shorter hours, and usually works alone. A choker setter fastens chokers devices constructed from five-to eight-foot lengths of 3/8ths diameter steel cable with a sliding bell attached around logs so they can be moved by the yarder, cat, or skidder. It's usually the initial job that a logger will obtain on a logging crew. [http://www.ccrh.org/oral/women&timber/glossary.htm]

[[image:clara-bow.jpg|thumb|100px|right|Clara Bow]]'''Pia Zadora in ''The Clara Bow Story''''' 
The first of many fictitious movies. It's easy to tell, because Pynchon always provides a bracketed date [1980] when he references a real movie, but not a fictitious one. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pia_Zadora Pia Zadora], whose film career (eg. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus_Conquers_the_Martians ''Santa Claus Conquers the Martians'']) was going nowhere until she married Israeli multimillionaire Meshulam Riklis in 1977, had some success in film and music, but no longer. Not sure of the connection with the famous silent-film actress [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Bow Clara Bow].

Throughout ''Vineland'' Pynchon tosses off "Actor ''X'' in Movie Biography ''Y''" jokes. Each is a horrendous miscasting. In this case the truly charismatic Clara Bow is played by the money-inflated Pia Zadora.

In Orwell's 1984, the Party continuously rewrites history by falsifying records, altering photographs, and vaporizing witnesses. In Pynchon's 1984, Hollywood continuously rewrites history by producing made-for-TV movies.

'''"Zoy-oyd..."''' 
Prairie is a wonderfully drawn 14-year-old teenager.

'''"ancient surfer baggies [...] and a dilapidated Hussong's T-shirt..."''' 
Baggies swim trunks that were about knee-length and, yes, baggy were a radical departure from the short and tight men's swimware prevalent in the 60s. They were part of the surfer uniform and were memorialized in song by the Beach Boys and other "surf" groups (The Fantastic Baggies, for one!). So Zoyd's could be over 20 years old.
[[Image:HussongShirt.jpg|thumb|Image From A Hussong's T-shirt|right]]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussong's Hussong's], established in 1890 and located in Ensenada in Baja, Mexico, is the oldest cantina in the Californias, and was and is a popular surfers hangout serving primarily beer, piña colladas and peanuts. It’s also the place where the Margarita was invented—back in October, 1941 by bartender Don Carlos Orozco. Zoyd is indeed a California Boy. And it's somewhat likely that Pynchon swung by Hussong's during one of his Mexico visits.

'''"the Tube"''' 
Consistently capitalized throughout the book.

'''"a chair-high bag of Chee-tos and a sixpack of grapefruit soda from the health-food store."''' 
This combination of junk food and health food defines the North Coast redneck hippie perfectly. But Pynchon's insistent hammering on Zoyd's junk-food habit may go a little deeper like autobiography, maybe?

'''"news anchor Skip Tromblay"''' 
The French word ''trembles'' means "to tremble or shake" and is often used in describing someone's voice. The imperfect form is ''tremblais''. Quivering with excitement?

==Page 15==
'''"almost featured on 'Good Morning America'"''' 
15 minutes of almost fame.

'''"Day-Glo orange [...] some acid green"''' 
"Day-Glo" colors are associated with the Psychedelic Sixties, as they would glow when illuminated with a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_light black light], and "black-light" effects where ubiquitous during that period. "Acid green" makes an appearance in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_11 ''V''] and [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_181-189 ''Gravity's Rainbow''], see also Isaiah's tinted Mohawk on p.17.

'''"the million crystal trajectories, smooth as fountain-drops"''' 
Cf. In [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Crystal_Palace ''Gravity's Rainbow'']: "He's afraid of the way the glass will fall soon it will be a spectacle: the fall of a crystal palace." (p.3)

'''"useful distinction between...defenestrative [and transfenestrative] personality"''' 
Cool Pynchonian satire of California Psychobabble. "Defenestration" is throwing something or someone out an open window; "Transfenestration" is throwing someone ''through'' a closed window, breaking the glass, natch. According to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestration Wikipedia], the term was coined around the time of an incident in Prague Castle in the year of 1618, i.e., the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestrations_of_Prague Defenestrations of Prague].

==Page 16==
'''"named himself after what again, some robot?"'''

Zoyd's comment in response to Prairie calling her boyfriend "the Big I." "I, Robot" is the title of a 1939 short story by Eando Binder and a 1951 short story collection by Isaac Asimov. The Asimov stories are [very loosely] the basis for the Will Smith movie of the same name. This also explains Zoyd calling Isaiah "R2D2".

'''Isaiah Two Four''' 
Zoyd is right. This verse is about turning away from war toward peace: "And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

This verse is also the basis for the well known civil rights song "Ain't Gonna Study War No More" (aka, "Down by the Riverside").

'''"Love is strange"''' 
Refers to Mickey and Sylvia's ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Baker Mickey Baker] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Vanderpool's Sylvia Vanderpool]) 1957 Top-40 hit song [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Is_Strange "Love is Strange"]. Clearly on Pynchon's Top-40, as well; he used it as the lead for his [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_cholera.html ''New York Times Book Review'' piece] on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_in_the_Time_of_Cholera ''Love In the Time of Cholera'']:

:Love, as Mickey and Sylvia, in their 1956 [sic it reached #11 on the Billboard charts in March 1957] hit single, remind us, love is strange. As we grow older it gets stranger, until at some point mortality has come well within the frame of our attention, and there we are, suddenly caught between terminal dates while still talking a game of eternity. It's about then that we may begin to regard love songs, romance novels, soap operas and any live teen-age pronouncements at all on the subject of love with an increasingly impatient, not to mention intolerant, ear.

The tune was allegedly written by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Diddley Bo Diddley] although it was presented to Mickey and Sylvia as being composed by Bo's wife Ethel Smith. Apparently, Bo didn't want the credit because he was pissed off at his music publishers because they didn't pay him enough. Mickey Baker is considered by some to be the first great rock 'n' roll guitarist and, prior to the duo, he was in a rhythm and blues band with saxophonist [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Curtis King Curtis] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Taylor_%28jazz%29 Sam "The Man" Taylor]. After the success of "Love is Strange," Mickey moved to Paris where he remained for twenty-five years, touring, very rarely, as a blues guitarist.

Listen on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCvcZhX7oxk YouTube].

==Page 17==
'''"Joey Chitwood-type thrill show"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joie_Chitwood Joey Chitwood] (1912-1988), a legendary "Auto Daredevil," started touring with his death-defying troupe in the 1940s, and continued for decades. He was an inspiration for fellow daredevil [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evel_Knievel Evel Knievel] (1938-2007).

'''"his long Mohawk colored a vibrant acid green, except at the tips, where some magenta shade was airbrushed on. Now these happened to be Zoyd's two all-time favorite colors..."''' 
Also two of Pynchon's, the dazzling combination 'lime green and magenta' appearing, like a Bodine character, in almost every novel.

==Page 18==
'''"the Uzi machine gun, 'badass of the desert.'"'''[[Image:Uzi.jpg|thumb|Uzi Submachine Gun|right]] 
Pynchon seems moderately hung up on rear ends in this book (and elsewhere). The phrase "badass" recurs constantly (as it did in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''] too, where it achieved Naval Significance as the USS John E. Badass). In addition there's Trasero County (trasero = Spanish for "rump,") Las Nalgas (Spanish for "buttocks,") and Culito Canyon (culito = Spanish for "little ass.") There's also an echo of Da Conho, the cook in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''V.''], whose fantasy involved shooting Muslims in Israel with a .30 caliber machine gun that went "yibble, yibble, yibble." ("Da Conho's machine gun was the only one in the world that went "yibble, yibble," Pynchon pointed out.)

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 2

2015-09-16T15:08:20Z

Hotrats: /* Page 17 */ Green and Magenta

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 14==
'''"logger types, fallers, choker setters..."''' 
Faller (aka "cutters") are the elites of logging. Their work is very dangerous as they cut down the trees that are then processed by others. The faller often works shorter hours, and usually works alone. A choker setter fastens chokers devices constructed from five-to eight-foot lengths of 3/8ths diameter steel cable with a sliding bell attached around logs so they can be moved by the yarder, cat, or skidder. It's usually the initial job that a logger will obtain on a logging crew. [http://www.ccrh.org/oral/women&timber/glossary.htm]

[[image:clara-bow.jpg|thumb|100px|right|Clara Bow]]'''Pia Zadora in ''The Clara Bow Story''''' 
The first of many fictitious movies. It's easy to tell, because Pynchon always provides a bracketed date [1980] when he references a real movie, but not a fictitious one. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pia_Zadora Pia Zadora], whose film career (eg. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus_Conquers_the_Martians ''Santa Claus Conquers the Martians'']) was going nowhere until she married Israeli multimillionaire Meshulam Riklis in 1977, had some success in film and music, but no longer. Not sure of the connection with the famous silent-film actress [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Bow Clara Bow].

Throughout ''Vineland'' Pynchon tosses off "Actor ''X'' in Movie Biography ''Y''" jokes. Each is a horrendous miscasting. In this case the truly charismatic Clara Bow is played by the money-inflated Pia Zadora.

In Orwell's 1984, the Party continuously rewrites history by falsifying records, altering photographs, and vaporizing witnesses. In Pynchon's 1984, Hollywood continuously rewrites history by producing made-for-TV movies.

'''"Zoy-oyd..."''' 
Prairie is a wonderfully drawn 14-year-old teenager.

'''"ancient surfer baggies [...] and a dilapidated Hussong's T-shirt..."''' 
Baggies swim trunks that were about knee-length and, yes, baggy were a radical departure from the short and tight men's swimware prevalent in the 60s. They were part of the surfer uniform and were memorialized in song by the Beach Boys and other "surf" groups (The Fantastic Baggies, for one!). So Zoyd's could be over 20 years old.
[[Image:HussongShirt.jpg|thumb|Image From A Hussong's T-shirt|right]]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussong's Hussong's], established in 1890 and located in Ensenada in Baja, Mexico, is the oldest cantina in the Californias, and was and is a popular surfers hangout serving primarily beer, piña colladas and peanuts. It’s also the place where the Margarita was invented—back in October, 1941 by bartender Don Carlos Orozco. Zoyd is indeed a California Boy. And it's somewhat likely that Pynchon swung by Hussong's during one of his Mexico visits.

'''"the Tube"''' 
Consistently capitalized throughout the book.

'''"a chair-high bag of Chee-tos and a sixpack of grapefruit soda from the health-food store."''' 
This combination of junk food and health food defines the North Coast redneck hippie perfectly. But Pynchon's insistent hammering on Zoyd's junk-food habit may go a little deeper like autobiography, maybe?

'''"news anchor Skip Tromblay"''' 
The French word ''trembles'' means "to tremble or shake" and is often used in describing someone's voice. The imperfect form is ''tremblais''. Quivering with excitement?

==Page 15==
'''"almost featured on 'Good Morning America'"''' 
15 minutes of almost fame.

'''"Day-Glo orange [...] some acid green"''' 
"Day-Glo" colors are associated with the Psychedelic Sixties, as they would glow when illuminated with a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_light black light], and "black-light" effects where ubiquitous during that period. "Acid green" makes an appearance in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_11 ''V''] and [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_181-189 ''Gravity's Rainbow''], while the combination of lime green and magenta appears in almost every Pynchon work.

'''"the million crystal trajectories, smooth as fountain-drops"''' 
Cf. In [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Crystal_Palace ''Gravity's Rainbow'']: "He's afraid of the way the glass will fall soon it will be a spectacle: the fall of a crystal palace." (p.3)

'''"useful distinction between...defenestrative [and transfenestrative] personality"''' 
Cool Pynchonian satire of California Psychobabble. "Defenestration" is throwing something or someone out an open window; "Transfenestration" is throwing someone ''through'' a closed window, breaking the glass, natch. According to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestration Wikipedia], the term was coined around the time of an incident in Prague Castle in the year of 1618, i.e., the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestrations_of_Prague Defenestrations of Prague].

==Page 16==
'''"named himself after what again, some robot?"'''

Zoyd's comment in response to Prairie calling her boyfriend "the Big I." "I, Robot" is the title of a 1939 short story by Eando Binder and a 1951 short story collection by Isaac Asimov. The Asimov stories are [very loosely] the basis for the Will Smith movie of the same name. This also explains Zoyd calling Isaiah "R2D2".

'''Isaiah Two Four''' 
Zoyd is right. This verse is about turning away from war toward peace: "And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

This verse is also the basis for the well known civil rights song "Ain't Gonna Study War No More" (aka, "Down by the Riverside").

'''"Love is strange"''' 
Refers to Mickey and Sylvia's ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Baker Mickey Baker] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Vanderpool's Sylvia Vanderpool]) 1957 Top-40 hit song [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Is_Strange "Love is Strange"]. Clearly on Pynchon's Top-40, as well; he used it as the lead for his [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_cholera.html ''New York Times Book Review'' piece] on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_in_the_Time_of_Cholera ''Love In the Time of Cholera'']:

:Love, as Mickey and Sylvia, in their 1956 [sic it reached #11 on the Billboard charts in March 1957] hit single, remind us, love is strange. As we grow older it gets stranger, until at some point mortality has come well within the frame of our attention, and there we are, suddenly caught between terminal dates while still talking a game of eternity. It's about then that we may begin to regard love songs, romance novels, soap operas and any live teen-age pronouncements at all on the subject of love with an increasingly impatient, not to mention intolerant, ear.

The tune was allegedly written by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Diddley Bo Diddley] although it was presented to Mickey and Sylvia as being composed by Bo's wife Ethel Smith. Apparently, Bo didn't want the credit because he was pissed off at his music publishers because they didn't pay him enough. Mickey Baker is considered by some to be the first great rock 'n' roll guitarist and, prior to the duo, he was in a rhythm and blues band with saxophonist [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Curtis King Curtis] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Taylor_%28jazz%29 Sam "The Man" Taylor]. After the success of "Love is Strange," Mickey moved to Paris where he remained for twenty-five years, touring, very rarely, as a blues guitarist.

Listen on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCvcZhX7oxk YouTube].

==Page 17==
'''"Joey Chitwood-type thrill show"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joie_Chitwood Joey Chitwood] (1912-1988), a legendary "Auto Daredevil," started touring with his death-defying troupe in the 1940s, and continued for decades. He was an inspiration for fellow daredevil [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evel_Knievel Evel Knievel] (1938-2007).

'''"his long Mohawk colored a vibrant acid green, except at the tips, where some magenta shade was airbrushed on. Now these happened to be Zoyd's two all-time favorite colors..."''' 
Also two of Pynchon's, the dazzling combination 'lime green and magenta' appearing, like a Bodine character, in almost every novel.

==Page 18==
'''"the Uzi machine gun, 'badass of the desert.'"'''[[Image:Uzi.jpg|thumb|Uzi Submachine Gun|right]] 
Pynchon seems moderately hung up on rear ends in this book (and elsewhere). The phrase "badass" recurs constantly (as it did in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''] too, where it achieved Naval Significance as the USS John E. Badass). In addition there's Trasero County (trasero = Spanish for "rump,") Las Nalgas (Spanish for "buttocks,") and Culito Canyon (culito = Spanish for "little ass.") There's also an echo of Da Conho, the cook in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''V.''], whose fantasy involved shooting Muslims in Israel with a .30 caliber machine gun that went "yibble, yibble, yibble." ("Da Conho's machine gun was the only one in the world that went "yibble, yibble," Pynchon pointed out.)

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2015-09-16T14:58:36Z

Hotrats: /* Page 15 */

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==Page 14==
'''"logger types, fallers, choker setters..."''' 
Faller (aka "cutters") are the elites of logging. Their work is very dangerous as they cut down the trees that are then processed by others. The faller often works shorter hours, and usually works alone. A choker setter fastens chokers devices constructed from five-to eight-foot lengths of 3/8ths diameter steel cable with a sliding bell attached around logs so they can be moved by the yarder, cat, or skidder. It's usually the initial job that a logger will obtain on a logging crew. [http://www.ccrh.org/oral/women&timber/glossary.htm]

[[image:clara-bow.jpg|thumb|100px|right|Clara Bow]]'''Pia Zadora in ''The Clara Bow Story''''' 
The first of many fictitious movies. It's easy to tell, because Pynchon always provides a bracketed date [1980] when he references a real movie, but not a fictitious one. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pia_Zadora Pia Zadora], whose film career (eg. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Santa_Claus_Conquers_the_Martians ''Santa Claus Conquers the Martians'']) was going nowhere until she married Israeli multimillionaire Meshulam Riklis in 1977, had some success in film and music, but no longer. Not sure of the connection with the famous silent-film actress [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clara_Bow Clara Bow].

Throughout ''Vineland'' Pynchon tosses off "Actor ''X'' in Movie Biography ''Y''" jokes. Each is a horrendous miscasting. In this case the truly charismatic Clara Bow is played by the money-inflated Pia Zadora.

In Orwell's 1984, the Party continuously rewrites history by falsifying records, altering photographs, and vaporizing witnesses. In Pynchon's 1984, Hollywood continuously rewrites history by producing made-for-TV movies.

'''"Zoy-oyd..."''' 
Prairie is a wonderfully drawn 14-year-old teenager.

'''"ancient surfer baggies [...] and a dilapidated Hussong's T-shirt..."''' 
Baggies swim trunks that were about knee-length and, yes, baggy were a radical departure from the short and tight men's swimware prevalent in the 60s. They were part of the surfer uniform and were memorialized in song by the Beach Boys and other "surf" groups (The Fantastic Baggies, for one!). So Zoyd's could be over 20 years old.
[[Image:HussongShirt.jpg|thumb|Image From A Hussong's T-shirt|right]]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hussong's Hussong's], established in 1890 and located in Ensenada in Baja, Mexico, is the oldest cantina in the Californias, and was and is a popular surfers hangout serving primarily beer, piña colladas and peanuts. It’s also the place where the Margarita was invented—back in October, 1941 by bartender Don Carlos Orozco. Zoyd is indeed a California Boy. And it's somewhat likely that Pynchon swung by Hussong's during one of his Mexico visits.

'''"the Tube"''' 
Consistently capitalized throughout the book.

'''"a chair-high bag of Chee-tos and a sixpack of grapefruit soda from the health-food store."''' 
This combination of junk food and health food defines the North Coast redneck hippie perfectly. But Pynchon's insistent hammering on Zoyd's junk-food habit may go a little deeper like autobiography, maybe?

'''"news anchor Skip Tromblay"''' 
The French word ''trembles'' means "to tremble or shake" and is often used in describing someone's voice. The imperfect form is ''tremblais''. Quivering with excitement?

==Page 15==
'''"almost featured on 'Good Morning America'"''' 
15 minutes of almost fame.

'''"Day-Glo orange [...] some acid green"''' 
"Day-Glo" colors are associated with the Psychedelic Sixties, as they would glow when illuminated with a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_light black light], and "black-light" effects where ubiquitous during that period. "Acid green" makes an appearance in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_11 ''V''] and [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_181-189 ''Gravity's Rainbow''], while the combination of lime green and magenta appears in almost every Pynchon work.

'''"the million crystal trajectories, smooth as fountain-drops"''' 
Cf. In [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Crystal_Palace ''Gravity's Rainbow'']: "He's afraid of the way the glass will fall soon it will be a spectacle: the fall of a crystal palace." (p.3)

'''"useful distinction between...defenestrative [and transfenestrative] personality"''' 
Cool Pynchonian satire of California Psychobabble. "Defenestration" is throwing something or someone out an open window; "Transfenestration" is throwing someone ''through'' a closed window, breaking the glass, natch. According to [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestration Wikipedia], the term was coined around the time of an incident in Prague Castle in the year of 1618, i.e., the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestrations_of_Prague Defenestrations of Prague].

==Page 16==
'''"named himself after what again, some robot?"'''

Zoyd's comment in response to Prairie calling her boyfriend "the Big I." "I, Robot" is the title of a 1939 short story by Eando Binder and a 1951 short story collection by Isaac Asimov. The Asimov stories are [very loosely] the basis for the Will Smith movie of the same name. This also explains Zoyd calling Isaiah "R2D2".

'''Isaiah Two Four''' 
Zoyd is right. This verse is about turning away from war toward peace: "And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more."

This verse is also the basis for the well known civil rights song "Ain't Gonna Study War No More" (aka, "Down by the Riverside").

'''"Love is strange"''' 
Refers to Mickey and Sylvia's ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mickey_Baker Mickey Baker] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Vanderpool's Sylvia Vanderpool]) 1957 Top-40 hit song [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_Is_Strange "Love is Strange"]. Clearly on Pynchon's Top-40, as well; he used it as the lead for his [http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_cholera.html ''New York Times Book Review'' piece] on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_in_the_Time_of_Cholera ''Love In the Time of Cholera'']:

:Love, as Mickey and Sylvia, in their 1956 [sic it reached #11 on the Billboard charts in March 1957] hit single, remind us, love is strange. As we grow older it gets stranger, until at some point mortality has come well within the frame of our attention, and there we are, suddenly caught between terminal dates while still talking a game of eternity. It's about then that we may begin to regard love songs, romance novels, soap operas and any live teen-age pronouncements at all on the subject of love with an increasingly impatient, not to mention intolerant, ear.

The tune was allegedly written by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo_Diddley Bo Diddley] although it was presented to Mickey and Sylvia as being composed by Bo's wife Ethel Smith. Apparently, Bo didn't want the credit because he was pissed off at his music publishers because they didn't pay him enough. Mickey Baker is considered by some to be the first great rock 'n' roll guitarist and, prior to the duo, he was in a rhythm and blues band with saxophonist [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Curtis King Curtis] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Taylor_%28jazz%29 Sam "The Man" Taylor]. After the success of "Love is Strange," Mickey moved to Paris where he remained for twenty-five years, touring, very rarely, as a blues guitarist.

Listen on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pCvcZhX7oxk YouTube].

==Page 17==
'''"Joey Chitwood-type thrill show"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joie_Chitwood Joey Chitwood] (1912-1988), a legendary "Auto Daredevil," started touring with his death-defying troupe in the 1940s, and continued for decades. He was an inspiration for fellow daredevil [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evel_Knievel Evel Knievel] (1938-2007).

==Page 18==
'''"the Uzi machine gun, 'badass of the desert.'"'''[[Image:Uzi.jpg|thumb|Uzi Submachine Gun|right]] 
Pynchon seems moderately hung up on rear ends in this book (and elsewhere). The phrase "badass" recurs constantly (as it did in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''] too, where it achieved Naval Significance as the USS John E. Badass). In addition there's Trasero County (trasero = Spanish for "rump,") Las Nalgas (Spanish for "buttocks,") and Culito Canyon (culito = Spanish for "little ass.") There's also an echo of Da Conho, the cook in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''V.''], whose fantasy involved shooting Muslims in Israel with a .30 caliber machine gun that went "yibble, yibble, yibble." ("Da Conho's machine gun was the only one in the world that went "yibble, yibble," Pynchon pointed out.)

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 1

2015-09-16T14:41:55Z

Hotrats: Van Morrison expanded

{{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) though this is unlikely becaquse Morrison is very different to Meter and in any case, is not a Dutch honorific like van Gogh but a contraction of his real (less romantic) name, Ivan.

'''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}}