Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

Chapter 12

2011-06-25T06:23:29Z

Lorenz: /* Page 254 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 218==
'''"up over the passes and out long desert arterials, out past the seed and feed houses and country music bars and Mexican joints with Happy Hours featuring 99 cent margaritas out of a hose, under the smog, the dribbling rain, the toxic lens of sky..."''' 
Mr. Pynchon, meet Mr. Chandler.

'''"At first Weed went around feeling like a political defector."''' 
Pun intended.

'''"chartreuse"''' 
An apple-green colour.

==Page 219==
'''"What an evening"''' 
Thanatoid Roast '84 is the "tenth annual get-together" -- which means there have been thanatoids since '75. So what happened in 1974-1975? Patty Hearst kidnapped by SLA. Nixon is impeached over Watergate, and resigns. Motion picture ratings system created. US Bicentenial celebration. Vietnam War ends; last 1,000 Americans evacuated from South Vietnam.

They were around before 1975, but you're on to something. See page 320.

==Page 220==
'''"CAMP"''' [[Image:CAMPlogo.gif|thumb|CAMP Logo|right]] 
[http://www.ag.ca.gov/bne/camp.htm Camp], the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, is a multiagency law-enforcement taskforce set up by California to eradicate illegal marijuana cultivation and trafficking in the state. Although it is state-created, it includes representatives from state, federal, and local law enforcement agencies.

'''"Willis Chunko"''' 
Nice name.

==Page 221==
'''"Pale blue unmarked little planes appeared, on days of VFR unlimited nearly invisible against the sky, flown by a private vigilante squadron of student antidrug activists..."''' 
Cf. [[Chapter_1#Page 3|p.3]] ("squadron of blue jays stomping around on the roof...").

'''"Kommandant Karl Bopp"''' 
Another great name.

'''"pacified territory"''' 
Growers discuss CAMP progress in Vietnam-like terms.

==Page 222==
'''"All right, you parrots, listen up!"''' 
Parrot sale and shared dreams: Magic realism, gorgeous and surreal; tropical colors and flashy imagery.

==Page 223==
'''"can't shit, can't get a hardon"''' 
The Thanatoid Roast rendered from Van Meter's POV; his paranoia is expressed in terms familiar from [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

This passage doesn't concern the atmosphere of the Thanatoid Roast; it describes Van Meter's frustration in failing to lucidly dream his way into the same alternate reality that the children (claim to) perceive. Constipation and impotence are maladies of old age. Van Meter has lost his link to the dreams of the "younger generation" that have been shaped by the parrot media background. Perhaps that's why he's been reduced to playing Thanatoid gigs.

==Page 225==
'''"old-time Combo-Ork arrangements"''' 
There's that lingo again.

'''"rallentando"''' 
A typically obscure Pynchon word, this musical term means exactly the same as ritardando: played with decreasing pace. Perfect for the Thanatoid gig.

==Page 226==
'''"Larry Elasmo"''' 
Cool name. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasticman Plasticman]? Elasmos is Greek for beaten metal (hence elastic) plate. An [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elasmobranchii elasmobranch] is a fish, such as a shark, with a cartilage (not bone) skeleton and [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/elasmobranch tooth-like scales].

But what the fuck is he doing at the Thanatoid Roast? Pynchon is pushing the outside of the coincidence envelope.

Elasmo sequence. Mr. Pynchon, meet Mr. Kafka. This all seems boosted right out of The Trial. Here's Weed, another rebellious American child (like Frenesi), submitting to, or fascinated with, authority. "Because the Doctor says so..." turn your body over to coaches, boys with hardons. Go to the Draft Board Center and sit on the group W bench. Even rational, mathematical, radical Weed does what the dentist tells him to, even if it is manifestly senseless.

Among other questions worth asking: Who authorized Elasmo to issue these compulsory forms that require people to come to his office? And by what mysterious process does Weed's merely waiting around cause him to become confused and dispirited? Maybe the idea is simply to take Weed out of the picture at intervals, so Vond and Frenesi can talk and fuck. There's some hint (from Vond if not from Pynchon) that Weed is collaborating with Vond. If so, we'd expect at least a short scene showing that collaboration. The Elasmo sequence stands in the right position, and serves the same function -- but there's no hint whatsoever of Vond. Pretty weird.

'''"Dr Elasmo's video image had swept, had pixeldanced in"''' 
Image/raster TV techotalk. Pixels = the tiny dots that make up the Tube image.

Another possible explanation of the whole Dr. Larry's World of Discomfort sequence is implied by the passage "Somehow, in Weed's deathstunned memory, Dr. Elasmo's video image had swept, had pixeldanced in, to cover, mercifully, for something else..." Since his commercials were so ubiquitous on TV at the time, is it possible that Weed was doing something else, meeting someone in a bureaucratic building in the city-- meetings that left him feeling stunned, guilty, and sick at heart-- and he has recast and shot these memories as meetings with the faux-celebrity of Dr. Larry Elasmo?

Plasticman indeed.

==Page 227==
'''"Dr. Larry Elasmo, or a person wearing, like a coverall and veil, his ubiquitous screen image grainy, flickering at the edges..."''' 
So not only is the real Elasmo tracking Weed, his TV image is doing it too!

==Page 228==
'''"Ilse, the hygienist..."''' 
Naturally, the dental hygienist in Larry's World of Discomfort is none other than Ilse, the high-heeled Nazi heroine of sixties S&M porno flicks, e.g., Ilse, She-Wolf of the SS.

==Page 230==
'''"...adjusted the pulsing vacuum to meet his own quickening rhythm..."''' 
The scene of Rex adjusting Bruno's carburetors while masturbating in the intakes clearly harks back to certain intimate moments involving Rachel and her MG's gearshift lever in V.

'''"Trash the Xanthocroid"''' 
(See note, [[Chapter 10#Page 197|p. 197]].)

==Page 231==

'''Elliot X''' 

Extremely close to being an anagram for Malcolm X's real last name, Little. Just switch a t for an o?
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_x WIKI]

Also, some believe the name "Elliot" is derived from the French "Elias" which comes from "Elijah" - which would also factor in a reference to Elijah Muhammad [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah_Muhammad WIKI]

==Page 232==

'''"land of the May Events"''' 

Rex is heading to France. May Events refers to the revolts in France in May of 1968. Possibly Rex feels these events going on are more pure in protest/outcome than what is going on with Weed, Frenesi, PR3, etc. especially now that he's feeling high on sacrifice, what with giving up Bruno and all. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_events WIKI]

See [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1#Epigraph epigraph] of ''Inherent Vice''.

'''"Neither one could know how few and fortunate would be any who'd be able to meet in years later than these and smile, relax beneath some single low oak out on an impossible hillside, with sunlight, and the voice of children... drink some chilly gold-green California Chenin Blanc, and laugh, and pour more wine"''' 

Flashsideways (or some-even-stranger-ways) to an imaginary, 4th-dimensional picnic in which Rex, Weed, and Prairie "negotiate an agreeable version of history." This is an important little scene, since it's where the details of the murder are made explicit at last. Or are they? Note the "nearly" in "he nearly blew me away," which seems to suggest that maybe Weed is merely wounded? (It's just Pynchonian smoke; Weed really is killed.) This scene appears to be Rex's fantasy -- except how does he know about Prairie?

I dont think this is necessarily Rex's vision, but Pynchon's foreshadowing (and an alternate version) of the family reunion, kindof a "what if" Weed and Rex had made it, what would they have said, looking back? Obviously, Rex nor Weed will make it to this dreamy "Wineland" (traditional translation of Vineland: see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinland Vinland]). See page 246 where it specifically refers back to this scene.

It is also ''possible'' that this is actually a dream sequence from Prairie's mind after taking in all of the stories and 24fps film (much like she and DL's convo break up the narrative). See pg. 325.

==Page 233==

'''"Weed had found himself a classical pigeon"''' 
The "flashsideways" ends with Pynchon switching from present tense to (mostly) past tense.

==Page 234==

'''The Invaders''' 

Science fiction TV show about alien invasion that aired on ABC for two seasons in 1967-1968. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invaders WIKI] The "aliens infiltrating human institutions", paranoia, etc. seems apt here.

'''chocolate-covered banana''' 

Howie enjoys one here, but also a favorite of Bigfoot Bjornson in ''Inherent Vice''.

==Page 235==

'''Amerikan''' 

From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satiric_misspelling#.E2.80.9CK.E2.80.9D_replacing_.E2.80.9CC.E2.80.9D Wiki]: In the 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, leftists, particularly the Yippies, sometimes used Amerika rather than "America" in referring to the United States. It is still used as a political statement today. It is likely that this was originally an allusion to the German spelling of America, and intended to be suggestive of Nazism, a hypothesis that the Oxford English Dictionary supports.

Note that Franz Kafka's unfinished, first novel, was spelled this way, titled by Max Brod, published posthumously. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerika_(novel) ''Amerika'']

==Page 236==
'''"...he reached for the Tube, popped it on, fastened himself to the screen and began to feed."''' 
A great William Burroughs-style science-fictional, Tube/addictive image.

'''"It's takin his soul, man"''' 
Certain primitive (and not so primitive) tribes believe that when someone takes your photograph it steals your soul. Or maybe Howie means the Tube.
But of course Brock has said that Weed's soul is exactly what he wants.

'''"Culito Canyon"''' 
Spanish for "Little Ass Canyon."

==Page 237==
'''"...might make the Guinness Book someday..."''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_Book Guinness Book of Records], published regularly by the Irish brewery/distillery company, chronicles current achievements in urban sports like phone booth stuffing.

==Page 238==
'''"Famous worms of song"''' 
A play on "The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, the worms play [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinochle pinochle] on your snout," sung to Mozart/Haydn/whoever's requiem. A famous childhood song, right up there with "Great green gobs of greasy grimy monkeymeat" (It's Gopher guts...see the alliteration.) "Hitler he had just one big ball" and the tragic ballad "Found a Peanut." This is kind of a heavy Pynchon hit on Frenesi's knowledge of Weed's impending doom.

==Page 239==
'''Note the asterisk at the top of the page. How come? Pynchon hasn't needed no steenking asterisks before! Can those worms have thrown him so far off balance that he can't carry on without typographic help? (Actually, there is one earlier asterisk occurrence, at the bottom of [[Chapter 1#Page 8|page 8]]. Go figure.)

'''"ND-1 filters"''' 
ND = Neutral Density; the suffix digit tells how many f stops it reduces incoming light (or outgoing baby-blue intensity) without changing color values.

'''"Nixonian reaction...continued to...compromise...what may only in some fading memories ever have been a people's miracle, an army of loving friends..."''' 
Pynchon seems bitter over the ease with which the government (and its media, and its money) destroyed the ideal/idyll.

==Page 240==
'''"'therapy sessions,' Brock called them..."''' 
Brock seems connected with Elasmo. Does this mean that Weed has really turned? Or that Weed's sessions with the tooth-yanker are just Vond's "reality adjustments," in which Weed is somehow osmosified to believe in Brock's version of reality (in which only power counts, and resistance is futile)?

As discussed on [[Chapter_12#Page_226|page 226]], Elasmo is the Freudian-style dream transformation of Brock Vond in Thanatoid Weed's "deathstunned memory". Pynchon, so far, hasn't described how Weed was "turned".

'''"Smith"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Wesson Smith and Wesson], the largest manufacturer of handguns in the United States.

==Page 241==
'''"24-frame-per-second truth"''' 
Hi, [[Chapter 8#Page 114|Jean-Luc Godard]]!

==Page 242==
'''"frogwork"''' 
Frogs are the knots in which ornate cords (like the ones on doormen's uniform coats) are tied. Similar to Buddhist "priest cords" sometimes used as hangings. Here, frogwork is an evocative metaphor for the intricate shadow cast by the tangle of overhead cables and trolley wires and a very apt one, you'll agree, if you've ever seen the rat's nest of wiring suspended above the street in San Francisco or San Diego.

==Page 244==
'''"the Arri and...a wind-up Bolex"''' 
Two small, light, quiet, highly portable 16mm movie cameras. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arriflex Arriflex's] electric motor is powered by a battery pack; the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolex Bolex] is (like Pynchon says) spring-driven.

'''"Howie'd kill them again"''' 
Surely should be "Howie'd kick them again".

No. Howie would kick-on the lights, Weed would chicken-out, Howie would kill the lights, then presumably Frenesi would work on Weed some more, then the cycle would repeat.

==Page 245==
'''"a battered old Auricon"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP-16 Auricon] is another 16mm camera, also battery (or AC) powered, with the handy capability to record live sound right on the film.

==Page 246==
'''"the shirt cloth still burning around the blackly erupted exit, pale flames guttering out..."''' 
Sounds great, but while we're no forensic experts we'd guess that burns would be characteristic of the entry hole of a gunshot wound, not the exit.

'''He would not after all be lucky enough to sit under that oak under that dreamed hillside someday with a miraculously saved Weed Atman, in some 1980s world of the future''' 

Here Rex's actions have changed his "possible" future (see page 232). Now neither Rex nor Weed will be a part of the exodus to Vineland (or Wineland). Also see page 325.

==Page 247==
'''"a Mole-Richardson Series 700 generator ... legendary Eclairs ... Miller heads, Fastaxes ... Norwood Binary light meters"''' 
All deluxe loot from the CotS Film Arts Dept. The "legendary" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclair_%28camera%29 Eclairs] (there you go again, Mr. Pynchon!) are innovative French 16mm cameras, quieter (and producing a steadier image) than the Arri, Bolex or Auricon cameras mentioned above. The Miller fluid head goes on top of a camera tripod and allows very smooth pans.

'''"Blue Cheer concert"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Cheer Blue Cheer] was a popular "acid-rock" band of the time, named after one of underground chemist Owsley Stanley's most popular (and potent) releases of LSD tablets. The tabs got their name because, in the charming flower-power style of the time, Owsley would dye each new release a different color and the blue tinge of this batch reminded users of a well-known laundry detergent.

'''"7242"''' 
16mm Ektachrome EF reversal film, a medium fast (125 ASA) workhorse stock.

==Page 248==
'''"...a handful of persons [were] unaccounted for. In those days it was unthinkable that any North American agency would kill its own civilians and then lie about it.... Vond referred to it humorously as 'rapture.'"''' 
Rapture is a Biblical reference to the Day of Judgment, when the dead and the living will be taken to Heaven. Vond uses the term again, later, to describe winching Prairie up "into the sky" and abducting her ([[Chapter 15#Page 376|p. 376]]). Pynchon may have picked up the term from ''Job'', [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_heinlein Robert Heinlein's] last great fantasy novel.

[[Image:RaptureSticker.png|thumb|Evangelical Bumper Sticker|right]]In the doctrine of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapture Rapture] ''only the Christian believers'' will be abducted by God. For evangelicals, Rapture of the Saved occurs before the time of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribulation Tribulation]. Hence the bumper sticker, "In Case of Rapture This Car Will Be Unmanned". People more like Pynchon's audience used "Beam Me Up, Scotty". Vond believes that, like Frenesi, children of the 1960's secretly long for discipline (cf. [[Chapter_13#Page_269|page 269]]) so his rapture analogy is apt.

'''"Fawning, gazing upward at the zipper of his fly, media toadies..."''' 
Here we see the "official" media, directed by the government, rewriting the Sixties on the spot. The only reporter to challenge Vond is dragged away.

'''"field-gray trucks"''' 
Feldgrau, that popular old Wehrmacht color!

==Page 249==
'''"tenebrous cool light"''' 
tenebrous = dark, gloomy.

'''"Federal Emergency Evacuation Route (FEER)"''' 
What a quintessentially Pynchonian idea, and what a powerful image, and what a great acronym!

==Page 250==
'''"ruins from Camelot"''' 
Little left from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kennedy Kennedy] presidency.

'''"the flagship of the 24fps motor pool, a '57 Chevy Nomad"''' 
Cool wheels, but not mentioned in the semi-extensive description of the 24fps vehicle collection on p. 194.

==Page 251==
'''"Virgil Ploce"''' 
Great name. And count on Pynchon to choose an anti-communist with an exploding cigar! Rumors about this supposedly-CIA-backed anti-Castro plot emerged after the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion Bay of Pigs invasion]. It's never been established whether the gambit was actually put into practice.

==Page 252==
'''"primer cord"''' 
Pynchon makes a common error in this reference; he may only have heard it said, never seen it in writing. This stuff is actually called "Primacord" (a copyrighted name of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensign-Bickford_Company Ensign-Bickford Company]). It's useful stuff, serving not only as a primer, but as a conveniently cord-shaped explosive substance.

'''"the sudden light from behind, the unbearable sight in the mirror"''' 
An atomic explosion.

'''"the hour of the rat"''' 
In Chinese astrology, the [http://library.thinkquest.org/C0113521/lcon.htm hour of the rat] is the two-hour period from 11pm - 1am. The same concept was used in ancient [http://www.yoshinoantiques.com/time.html Japanese timekeeping].

'''"Be groovy or B movie"''' 
Takeoff on [http://ask.yahoo.com/20061113.html "Be there or be square"].

==Page 253==
'''"...becoming its harsh woven shadow..."''' 
Frenesi = light; DL = shadow; together = film. Also, of course, ones and zeros.

==Page 254==
[[Image:ZPoster.jpg|thumb|Poster for ''Z''|right]]
'''"Hasta la proxima, querida mia"''' 
Spanish: "Until next time, my dear." The letter "Z" is, of course, the trademark of Zorro. This steamy scene seems virtually pointless; maybe Pynchon got horny while he was writing. "Perhaps...not unscented" indeed! ([[Chapter 8#Page 118|See also p. 118]], with the smell of DL's "pussy excitation.")

The letter "Z" also stands for Ζει, he lives, which was scrawled on Greek walls in the 1960's to show that the spirit of resistance still lived. This was popularized worldwide in 1969 by the political film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(film) ''Z''].

It pays to remember that one of the main motifs in this book is the unreality of television -gratuitous sex scenes are very much a part of that. The section is intended to be satirical.

==Page 255==
'''"the subroutine Yukai na...a low-order limbic pleasure cycle that would loop over and over"''' 
Interesting use of computer programming lingo in the martial arts world.

More cyberpunk shtick.

'''"the rodent hour"''' 
Given the refs to Daffy and Bugs in the previous sentence, this might refer to the Mickey Mouse Club show on the Tube, but was that one hour or one half hour??

No, go back to [[Chapter_12#Page_252|Page 252]] "They arrived ... well before dawn, the hour of the rat ...". DL is indeed sneaking into the prison camp like a rat stealing some cheese.

==Page 258==
'''"''A llover''"''' 
What a great meal! ''A llover'' is Spanish for, "It's about to rain," but it also refers to the fact that it's "all over" for the outdoor desayuno. Pynchon puns again.

==Page 259==
'''"powder to the people"''' 
Ouch! Punning on the slogan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_to_the_people_%28slogan%29 "Power to the People"] which was a rallying cry of the Black Panthers, as well as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_to_the_People_%28song%29 a song by John Lennon].

'''"Feel like we were running around like little kids with toy weapons, like the camera really was some kind of gun, gave us that kind of power. Shit. How could we lose track like that, about what was real?"''' 
Frenesi has totally bought Vond's line about the powerlessness of film vs. a gun. (And that's how they got her. And us.)

:And yet: 
:"You don't die for no motherfuckin' shadows" page 202 
:"...sold off my only real fortune - my precious anger - for a lot of got-damn shadows" page 291

'''"who'd we save"''' 
Yet another preterite reference, and one that harks back to Hector's speech on [[Chapter 3#Page 28|p. 28]].
[[Image:PurpleOwsleyBear.jpg|thumb|A Purple ''Grateful Dead'' Bear|right]]
'''"Purple Owsley"''' 
Another run of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owsley_Stanley Owsley's] high-grade color-coded LSD. Cf. [[Chapter 12#Page 247|p. 247]]

The same Owsley "Bear" Stanley also worked as soundman for the band [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grateful_dead ''Grateful Dead''], and was one of the inspirations for their dancing bear logo.

==Page 260==
'''"You know what happens when my pussy's runnin' the show."''' 
If this is Frenesi's only motivation for the series of betrayals (including her betrayal of herself) that lie at the heart of ''Vineland'', it's a thin reed on which to build a book. Unless we buy into Sister Rochelle's Eden parable in which Vond represents the snaky seductiveness of authority, and Frenesi stands for a postwar America that's eager to surrender its freedom. Indeed, Frenesi's enjoyment of bondage and discipline games, which free her of responsibility, makes a strong connection with all the S&M sequences in the book (see next note).

These are Frenesi's rationalizations to DL, not Pynchon's explanations for her behavior. Note: "... getting things wrong on purpose, and more and more wrong as it went falling to pieces" and "blaming external drug molecules for each of her failures ...". There is some truth to her excuses, but, as Pynchon indicates, not the whole truth.

'''"behind the Thorazine curtain"''' 
Pynchon on a sadism kick. He does seem to have a weakness for this stuff, as many sequences in Gravity's Rainbow will attest.

'''"5 mg Stelazine plus 50 of Thorazine"''' 
Thorazine and Stelazine are antihallucinatory specifics, usually used to treat schizophrenics.

==Page 261==
'''"1,000-watt Mickey-Mole spot"''' 
An open face (lensless) focusing studio light from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole-Richardson Mole-Richardson company]. It rhymes, too.

==Page 263==
'''"out in the zodiac..."''' 
Vond is a Scorpio. What else?

'''"idiolalia"''' 
Pynchon loves these esoteric terms. It means a private language. Here starts the paranoia about 24fps'rs disappearing which echoes people disappearing from the computer ([[Chapter 6#Page 85|p. 85]]), and the Kahuna airplane ([[Chapter 5#Page 65|p. 65]]).

It also echoes the disappearing people in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four Nineteen Eighty-Four] and Philip K. Dick's novel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBIK UBIK]. Cf. [[Chapter_8#Page_111|page 111]].

==Page 264==
'''"Reagan's got it for when he invades Nicaragua,"''' 
DL's prediction of Reagan's invasion of Nicaragua never came true; the closest Reagan ever came was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Contra Iran-Contra]. Cf. [[Chapter_15#Page_353|page 353]]

==Page 265==
'''"Why would he come after us?"''' 
Good question.

'''"The whole Reagan program..."''' 
Yeah! Go, Pynchon, go!

==Page 266==
'''Vond is "after Frenesi...to use her for some task."''' 
OK, what task?

Perhaps to get Prairie, the future. Cf. page 50. Remember that this part of the story is taking place in the Reagan Era, not the Nixon Era. Pynchon's take on the Reagan Era was that the nightmare was beginning all over again.

'''"So the big bad Ninjamobile swept along on the great Ventura [Freeway]...above the heads of TV watchers, lovers under the overpasses, movies at malls letting out, bright gas-station oases in pure fluorescent spill...down the corridors of the surface streets, in nocturnal smog, the adobe air, the smell of distant fireworks, the spilled, the broken world."''' 
What a great paragraph! Yes, the cat can write -- rhyming verse and all: "flirters, deserters, wimps and pimps"

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 15

2011-03-16T10:40:46Z

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{{Vineland PbP Text}}

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'''"Dwayna"''' 
Another cool name.

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

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

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

==Page 333==
'''"Juvenile Hall badasses"''' 
More badasses.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 341==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 350==
'''"the pink slip to his heart"''' 
A pink slip is a title of ownership for a car. Before the days of automobile titles, the portion of a California car registration that conveyed ownership was colored pink. Hence the brag in the Beach Boys' "Little Deuce Coupe" about "I got the pink slip, daddy!" (meaning, "I'm holding the paperwork required to stake the LDC on a streetlight drag race, so whatchu waitin' for, dude?")

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 15

2011-03-16T10:40:15Z

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{{Vineland PbP Text}}

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'''"Dwayna"''' 
Another cool name.

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

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

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

==Page 333==
'''"Juvenile Hall badasses"''' 
More badasses.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 341==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 350==
'''"the pink slip to his heart"''' 
A pink slip is a title of ownership for a car. Before the days of automobile titles, the portion of a California car registration that conveyed ownership was colored pink. Hence the brag in the Beach Boys' "Little Deuce Coupe" about "I got the pink slip, daddy!" (meaning, "I'm holding the paperwork required to stake the LDC on a streetlight drag race, so whatchu waitin' for, dude?")

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 381==
'''"a fractal halo of complications"''' 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 15

2011-03-16T09:42:42Z

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'''"Dwayna"''' 
Another cool name.

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

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

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

==Page 333==
'''"Juvenile Hall badasses"''' 
More badasses.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 341==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 350==
'''"the pink slip to his heart"''' 
A pink slip is a title of ownership for a car. Before the days of automobile titles, the portion of a California car registration that conveyed ownership was colored pink. Hence the brag in the Beach Boys' "Little Deuce Coupe" about "I got the pink slip, daddy!" (meaning, "I'm holding the paperwork required to stake the LDC on a streetlight drag race, so whatchu waitin' for, dude?")

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 381==
'''"a fractal halo of complications"''' 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 15

2011-03-16T06:09:36Z

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{{Vineland PbP Text}}

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'''"Dwayna"''' 
Another cool name.

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

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

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

==Page 333==
'''"Juvenile Hall badasses"''' 
More badasses.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 341==

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 350==
'''"the pink slip to his heart"''' 
A pink slip is a title of ownership for a car. Before the days of automobile titles, the portion of a California car registration that conveyed ownership was colored pink. Hence the brag in the Beach Boys' "Little Deuce Coupe" about "I got the pink slip, daddy!" (meaning, "I'm holding the paperwork required to stake the LDC on a streetlight drag race, so whatchu waitin' for, dude?")

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 381==
'''"a fractal halo of complications"''' 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 14

2011-03-15T03:26:26Z

Lorenz: /* Page 313 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 294==
'''"But when he found out about Prairie...something else, something from his nightmares of forced procreation, must have taken over, because later, in what could only be crippled judgment, Brock was to turn and go after the baby and, noticing Zoyd in the way, arrange for his removal too."''' 
This explains Vond's attack on Zoyd in [[Chapter 4]] -- but note how "crippled judgment" buys off Pynchon's lack of clear motivation for this series of events.

Brock's nightmares are discussed on [[Chapter_13#Page_274|page 274]]. In Pynchon's symbolic system Vond is placed in opposition to life.

'''A great joke about the huge brick of weed that Zuniga plants at Zoyd's pad. "Let me guess," says Zoyd, thinking of Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick's monolith, "2001: A Space Odyssey [1968]." "Try 20,000 Years In Sing Sing [1933]," replies Zuniga.''' 
This joke is especially funny because both titles include numbers, and because both guys include scholarly references to the years the films were made. (Pynchon, of course, has been doing this throughout, but this is the first time he does it in dialogue).

A monolith of pot also appears in ''Inherent Vice''. See [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_2#Page_33 pg. 33].

==Page 297==
'''"Following the wisdom of the time"''' 
Pynchon refers, with vague disapproval, to the touchie-feelie California notion that men should "get in touch with their feelings" and, presumably, cry their little hearts out. However, Zoyd, who has gotten used to crying, is finding out that, in fact, big boys don't cry.

'''"Museum of Drug Abuse"''' 
Sure, Pynchon.

==Page 298==
'''"gnathic index"''' 
In craniology, the ratio of the distance from basion to prosthion to the distance from basion to nasion, expressed as a percent of the latter. Aren't you glad you asked?

'''"I know how to take care of Frenesi, asshole..."''' 
Vond is unbearably cruel and sadistic in this interview with Zoyd. Unlike the hero of "Leader of the Pack," the lyrics to which Pynchon uses for a joke on p. 270, Vond is both bad and evil. What an asshole! And he really hates hippies presumably for being childish. But who's really being childish here?

==Page 299==
'''"who feared nothing unless it was taking apart a transmission"''' 
Vond's Scorpiopic self-destructiveness is compared to that of the "beer outlaws" of Zoyd's youth ([[Chapter 4#Page 37|see page 37]]). This observation is quite accurate: Only advanced automotive nerds can take transmissions apart (and get them back together again).

'''"those rectal spasms of fear"''' 
Zoyd once again experiences this not-so-leit-but-definitely-motif in ''Vineland''. (See also pages [[Chapter 1#Page 10|10]], [[Chapter 4#Page 45|45]], [[Chapter 8#Page 116|116]], [[Chapter 11#Page 207|207]].)

==Page 300==
'''"Not the Earth Brock was acquainted with"''' 
A great line!

'''"...squealing, screaming guitar solos that defied any number of rules, that also lifted the blood and reassured the soul..."''' 
Could be [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimi_hendrix Jimi Hendrix]. Or a description of ''Vineland''. But mainly it gives Zoyd an idea that the "real" world still exists, and so will he.

==Page 301==
'''"she calls up one night..."''' 
Vond seems interested in making sure that Frenesi won't be able to find Zoyd and Prairie. Of course this is contradicted by the "public act of craziness" that Vond has insisted Zoyd perform.

On pg. 304 it's Hector, not Vond, who describes the mental disability scam. He says they can keep track of him so long as he picks up his checks, just like one of Hector's Paid Informants. No nationwide publicity is required.

'''"I have her power of attorney, she gave me that even before she gave me her body..."''' 
That is, Frenesi surrendered her identity to Vond first; bondage before intercourse. There's a distant echo here of Mississippi bluesman [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Johnson_%28musician%29 Robert Johnson's] "Traveling Riverside Blues": "She got a mortgage on my body, now, and a lien on my soul."

==Page 302==
'''"the count at 5:30 AM"''' 
Body count, that is a basic security measure in prisons.

==Page 303==
'''"EPT"''' 
Very likely El Paso, Texas. Pynchon has a scene in [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_644-677 Against the Day] set in El Paso, and even refers to the city by the same initials.

'''"Agustin Lara tunes"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin_Lara Augustin Lara] was born in Mexico City in 1896. He began composing songs in 1929, influenced by the popular dances and jazz forms of the 1930s and 40s. He composed well over 400 songs, many of them written for Mexican films. His best known song is probably "Granada." Lara died in 1970.

'''"conjunto"''' 
Spanish for "small band," or "combo."

'''"los vatos de Chiques"''' 
"Chicano dudes."

'''"palabra"''' 

Equivalent in Spanish to "word".

Another instance of Pynchon using this slang is in ''Inherent Vice'' when Bigfoot Bjornson says it to Doc, while also then saying, "semi-palabra" and hooking three fingers like a fang. [will update with pagination]

==Page 306==
[[Image:truckin.jpg|thumb|An R. Crumb Drawing|right]]
'''R. Crumb''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Crumb R. Crumb] is an American illustrator, author of subversive comics. He founded the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_comix Underground Comix] movement, which wanted to distinguish itself from mainstream comics by including subversive, sexually taboo, and counter-cultural material. Crumb is the subject of a fascinating documentary called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crumb_(film) Crumb] (1994).

==Page 307==
'''"Prairie kept waking up every couple hours, all the way back to her old baby ways."''' 
This is true baby stuff. Is Pynchon a daddy? Consider also all the baby details, and Prairie's teenagerhood. This is hard stuff to get from a book, but with Pynchon's genius for bringing research alive you never know.

'''"Mucho Maas"''' 
A pun, of course, on "mucho mas" ("much more", in Spanish). Also (and also "of course") ex-husband of Oedipa Maas, and one of the main characters in [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''The Crying of Lot 49''], in which Mucho is a DJ disgusted by his former incarnation as a used car salesman for a group called N.A.D.A., and becomes dependent on LSD.

==Page 308==
'''"Paranoids concert at the Fillmore"''' 
[http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''The Crying of Lot 49''] A band featured in The Crying of Lot 49. Showing that his writing and his novels all take place in the same fictional universe.

'''"absquatulation"''' 
Absquatulate is a coined word, apparently meaning to make off, or decamp. It also makes an appearance in Pynchon's 2006 novel [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Against the Day'']. The OED states it to have originated in the mid-19th Century and to have never had a serious application.

==Page 309==
'''"guest stash"''' 
A special supply of smoke for visitors was not uncommon in the houses of serious weedheads at this time. However, since Zoyd can't find the guest stash at Mucho's house he has to roll his own. Bummer!

'''Lawrence of Arabia [song]''' 

May not be intended at all, but I couldnt read this scene - Zoyd singing Prairie to sleep with this tune (before smoking his newly rolled J) - without thinking about the Skip Spence tune, "Lawrence of Euphoria," from his 1969 record, ''Oar''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oar_(Skip_Spence_album) WIKI]

'''Charles Manson''' 
Although Manson is most famous for the horrible murders committed by his followers, he was, at one time, an aspiring musician. He even hung out with the Beach Boys' Dennis Wilson for a time and a recording of his music was released after his trial.

'''Tiny Tim''' 
An eccentric folk singer who played the ukulele and sang in a strangely beautiful falsetto voice. He's most famous for his version of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips." He also shows up in ''Inherent Vice''.

==Page 310==
'''"unforeseen passion"''' 
A good description of Mucho's love for cocaine.

'''"Dr. Hugo Splanchnick"''' 
The entire Splanchnick sequence is immensely funny, including Pynchon's use of "snoot croaker" to describe the doc's specialty.

==Page 311==
[[Image:VWbus.jpg|thumb|Painted VW Bus|right]]
'''"stop-me-search-me VW bus"''' 
The epitome of Sixties California hippie culture, which (wonderful to say) continues to survive, everywhere, to this very day.

'''"'Aw' said the dopers, the speech balloon emerging from their tailpipe"''' 

All of a sudden, we're in 'toontown.

==Page 312==

'''Harry J. Anslinger''' 

Harry Jacob Anslinger [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Anslinger WIKI]

'''"...me entiendes como te digo?"''' 
Spanish for "Unnerstan' what I'm sayin'?"

==Page 313==

'''"I guess it's over..."''' 
It seems likely that this is Pynchon delivering the "nut paragraph," as journalists call the central idea in a story. This dialogue seems heartfelt -- especially the stuff about the tube ("keep us distracted, it's what the Tube is for,") and rock 'n' roll ("just another way to claim our attention,") and "Soon they're gonna be coming after everything, not just drugs but beer, cigarettes, sugar, salt, fat, you name it, anything that could remotely please any of your senses...," and "It was the way people used to talk." (314) Yes, it was.

'''"Just please go careful, Zoyd"''' 
Mucho has made much the same settlement with the establishment that Hub Gates has: joined the approved union, settled down, stopped making a fuss.

==Page 314==
'''"''The Best of Sam Cooke'' ... the sermon"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Cooke Sam Cooke] was a singer-songwriter who was a pioneer of Soul music and was shot to death in Los Angeles in 1964. By "the sermon" Pynchon may mean Cooke's song [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Change_Is_Gonna_Come_(song) ''A Change is Gonna Come''] which was released just after his death. Listen on YouTube [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQU4torUz-Q here].

'''"Enjoy it while you can, while you're light enough for that glass to hold you."''' 
Prairie on top of the Hip Trip pinball machine is a marvelous image capturing the fragility of the moment, the certainty of loss, age, death.

'''"Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge represents a transition, in the metaphysics of the region"''' [[Image:GoldenGateBridge.jpg|thumb|Golden Gate Bridge|right]] 
Great intro to Zoyd in Vineland.

==Page 315==

'''"the way a firearm is... finality...out to sea"''' 
Suicide?

'''"one guitar and one harmonica, playing the blues"''' 

This is a great metaphorical bit, with this exodus of hippies, signaling the end of a generation: the journey begins with them playing rock'n'roll and then reversing the process through history, until finally, back where it all began, a single person, playing the blues.

==Page 316==

'''Harbor of Refuge'''

The historical [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Harbor_of_Refuge Harbor of Refuge] is in Delaware. Here Pynchon seems to be creating the same idea for the west coast, however, a much less developed area over the years. Notice the mention of the Corps of Engineers marina on the following page.

See [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_26:_257-265#Page_258 ''Mason & Dixon'', pg. 258]

==Page 317==

'''Eureka-Crescent City-Vineland megalopolis''' 

Since traveling north on Highway 101, and not hitting Vineland until after Eureka, one could surmise that Vineland is located somewhere between Eureka and Crescent City, probably somewhere around [http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=415 Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park]. The actual topography, with mention to Vineland Bay, suggests the Arcata area, possibly transplanted a bit further north, or even possibly a flip on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware_Bay Delaware Bay]? [see page 316, and Harbor of Refuge].

The city of Arcata (see a satellite view [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=arcata,+California&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=34.724817,56.513672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Arcata,+Humboldt,+California&ll=40.767542,-124.109116&spn=0.2595,0.441513&t=h&z=11 here]) approximately (but not perfectly) matches Pynchon's description of the city of Vineland. It even has the Art Deco bridges Pynchon describes. Arcata, of course, is in Humboldt County. However, the name Vineland and Pynchon's references to grape-growing suggest Mendocino County to the south, since Humboldt and Del Norte were too far northwest to be used for wine grapes in the 1980's and earlier. See also
[[Chapter_1#Page_8|page 8]]. Ultimately, there's no reason for Pynchon to geographically match the real world. In his words from the ''Against the Day'' jacket flap, "Maybe it's not the world, but with a minor adjustment or two it's what the world might be."

For more on Arcata and marijuana, see [http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63L20820100422 this] Reuters article.

==Page 320==
'''"spool tenders, zooglers, water bucks and bull punchers"''' 
Logging jobs.

==Page 321==
'''"Many would be the former tripping partners and old flames who came over the years to deal with each other this way across desktops or through computer terminals, as if chosen in secret and sorted into opposing teams...."''' 
Some folks get on Welfare, and others administer it. Another incarnation of the binary/preterite metaphor.

==Page 322==

'''Vineland the Good''' 

The Vikings were the first to find and settle North America. They called it, "Vineland the Good". Following is an excerpt from ''Studies on the Vineland Voyages'' by Gustav Storm:

"[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leif_Ericson Leiv Eriksson] on his home-voyage from Norway to Greenland >>discovered Vineland
the Good<<, an event which, in conjunction with his saving off the coast of
Greenland a shipwrecked crew, got him the surname of >>the Lucky<<).
In Icelandic manuscripts from the 14th and 15th centuries... derived partly
from Latin sources... the noted traveller Nicholas, abbot of Thingeyre... con-
taining special information... where mention is made of the countries west and
south-west of Iceland, a passage on the discovery of Vineland, which accordingly
can be taken as of very ancient date, and at any rate may come from Nicholas...
>>South of Greenland lies Helluland, next Markland, and from thence it is not far
to Vineland the Good, which some think joins Africa." [http://books.google.com/books?id=1d0TAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=%22vineland+the+good%22&source=bl&ots=-X0xA_mGLb&sig=KPaspqNHrkHzr2lEwM0q39fbI6E&hl=en&ei=ey2xSvapEMi0tweLnJjmDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CBgQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=%22vineland%20the%20good%22&f=false GOOGLE BOOKS LINK]

Also, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinland Vinland].

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 14

2011-03-15T03:01:30Z

Lorenz: /* Page 308 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 294==
'''"But when he found out about Prairie...something else, something from his nightmares of forced procreation, must have taken over, because later, in what could only be crippled judgment, Brock was to turn and go after the baby and, noticing Zoyd in the way, arrange for his removal too."''' 
This explains Vond's attack on Zoyd in [[Chapter 4]] -- but note how "crippled judgment" buys off Pynchon's lack of clear motivation for this series of events.

Brock's nightmares are discussed on [[Chapter_13#Page_274|page 274]]. In Pynchon's symbolic system Vond is placed in opposition to life.

'''A great joke about the huge brick of weed that Zuniga plants at Zoyd's pad. "Let me guess," says Zoyd, thinking of Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick's monolith, "2001: A Space Odyssey [1968]." "Try 20,000 Years In Sing Sing [1933]," replies Zuniga.''' 
This joke is especially funny because both titles include numbers, and because both guys include scholarly references to the years the films were made. (Pynchon, of course, has been doing this throughout, but this is the first time he does it in dialogue).

A monolith of pot also appears in ''Inherent Vice''. See [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_2#Page_33 pg. 33].

==Page 297==
'''"Following the wisdom of the time"''' 
Pynchon refers, with vague disapproval, to the touchie-feelie California notion that men should "get in touch with their feelings" and, presumably, cry their little hearts out. However, Zoyd, who has gotten used to crying, is finding out that, in fact, big boys don't cry.

'''"Museum of Drug Abuse"''' 
Sure, Pynchon.

==Page 298==
'''"gnathic index"''' 
In craniology, the ratio of the distance from basion to prosthion to the distance from basion to nasion, expressed as a percent of the latter. Aren't you glad you asked?

'''"I know how to take care of Frenesi, asshole..."''' 
Vond is unbearably cruel and sadistic in this interview with Zoyd. Unlike the hero of "Leader of the Pack," the lyrics to which Pynchon uses for a joke on p. 270, Vond is both bad and evil. What an asshole! And he really hates hippies presumably for being childish. But who's really being childish here?

==Page 299==
'''"who feared nothing unless it was taking apart a transmission"''' 
Vond's Scorpiopic self-destructiveness is compared to that of the "beer outlaws" of Zoyd's youth ([[Chapter 4#Page 37|see page 37]]). This observation is quite accurate: Only advanced automotive nerds can take transmissions apart (and get them back together again).

'''"those rectal spasms of fear"''' 
Zoyd once again experiences this not-so-leit-but-definitely-motif in ''Vineland''. (See also pages [[Chapter 1#Page 10|10]], [[Chapter 4#Page 45|45]], [[Chapter 8#Page 116|116]], [[Chapter 11#Page 207|207]].)

==Page 300==
'''"Not the Earth Brock was acquainted with"''' 
A great line!

'''"...squealing, screaming guitar solos that defied any number of rules, that also lifted the blood and reassured the soul..."''' 
Could be [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimi_hendrix Jimi Hendrix]. Or a description of ''Vineland''. But mainly it gives Zoyd an idea that the "real" world still exists, and so will he.

==Page 301==
'''"she calls up one night..."''' 
Vond seems interested in making sure that Frenesi won't be able to find Zoyd and Prairie. Of course this is contradicted by the "public act of craziness" that Vond has insisted Zoyd perform.

On pg. 304 it's Hector, not Vond, who describes the mental disability scam. He says they can keep track of him so long as he picks up his checks, just like one of Hector's Paid Informants. No nationwide publicity is required.

'''"I have her power of attorney, she gave me that even before she gave me her body..."''' 
That is, Frenesi surrendered her identity to Vond first; bondage before intercourse. There's a distant echo here of Mississippi bluesman [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Johnson_%28musician%29 Robert Johnson's] "Traveling Riverside Blues": "She got a mortgage on my body, now, and a lien on my soul."

==Page 302==
'''"the count at 5:30 AM"''' 
Body count, that is a basic security measure in prisons.

==Page 303==
'''"EPT"''' 
Very likely El Paso, Texas. Pynchon has a scene in [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_644-677 Against the Day] set in El Paso, and even refers to the city by the same initials.

'''"Agustin Lara tunes"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augustin_Lara Augustin Lara] was born in Mexico City in 1896. He began composing songs in 1929, influenced by the popular dances and jazz forms of the 1930s and 40s. He composed well over 400 songs, many of them written for Mexican films. His best known song is probably "Granada." Lara died in 1970.

'''"conjunto"''' 
Spanish for "small band," or "combo."

'''"los vatos de Chiques"''' 
"Chicano dudes."

'''"palabra"''' 

Equivalent in Spanish to "word".

Another instance of Pynchon using this slang is in ''Inherent Vice'' when Bigfoot Bjornson says it to Doc, while also then saying, "semi-palabra" and hooking three fingers like a fang. [will update with pagination]

==Page 306==
[[Image:truckin.jpg|thumb|An R. Crumb Drawing|right]]
'''R. Crumb''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R._Crumb R. Crumb] is an American illustrator, author of subversive comics. He founded the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_comix Underground Comix] movement, which wanted to distinguish itself from mainstream comics by including subversive, sexually taboo, and counter-cultural material. Crumb is the subject of a fascinating documentary called [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crumb_(film) Crumb] (1994).

==Page 307==
'''"Prairie kept waking up every couple hours, all the way back to her old baby ways."''' 
This is true baby stuff. Is Pynchon a daddy? Consider also all the baby details, and Prairie's teenagerhood. This is hard stuff to get from a book, but with Pynchon's genius for bringing research alive you never know.

'''"Mucho Maas"''' 
A pun, of course, on "mucho mas" ("much more", in Spanish). Also (and also "of course") ex-husband of Oedipa Maas, and one of the main characters in [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''The Crying of Lot 49''], in which Mucho is a DJ disgusted by his former incarnation as a used car salesman for a group called N.A.D.A., and becomes dependent on LSD.

==Page 308==
'''"Paranoids concert at the Fillmore"''' 
[http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''The Crying of Lot 49''] A band featured in The Crying of Lot 49. Showing that his writing and his novels all take place in the same fictional universe.

'''"absquatulation"''' 
Absquatulate is a coined word, apparently meaning to make off, or decamp. It also makes an appearance in Pynchon's 2006 novel [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Against the Day'']. The OED states it to have originated in the mid-19th Century and to have never had a serious application.

==Page 309==
'''"guest stash"''' 
A special supply of smoke for visitors was not uncommon in the houses of serious weedheads at this time. However, since Zoyd can't find the guest stash at Mucho's house he has to roll his own. Bummer!

'''Lawrence of Arabia [song]''' 

May not be intended at all, but I couldnt read this scene - Zoyd singing Prairie to sleep with this tune (before smoking his newly rolled J) - without thinking about the Skip Spence tune, "Lawrence of Euphoria," from his 1969 record, ''Oar''. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oar_(Skip_Spence_album) WIKI]

'''Charles Manson''' 
Although Manson is most famous for the horrible murders committed by his followers, he was, at one time, an aspiring musician. He even hung out with the Beach Boys' Dennis Wilson for a time and a recording of his music was released after his trial.

'''Tiny Tim''' 
An eccentric folk singer who played the ukulele and sang in a strangely beautiful falsetto voice. He's most famous for his version of "Tiptoe Through the Tulips." He also shows up in ''Inherent Vice''.

==Page 310==
'''"unforeseen passion"''' 
A good description of Mucho's love for cocaine.

'''"Dr. Hugo Splanchnick"''' 
The entire Splanchnick sequence is immensely funny, including Pynchon's use of "snoot croaker" to describe the doc's specialty.

==Page 311==
[[Image:VWbus.jpg|thumb|Painted VW Bus|right]]
'''"stop-me-search-me VW bus"''' 
The epitome of Sixties California hippie culture, which (wonderful to say) continues to survive, everywhere, to this very day.

'''"'Aw' said the dopers, the speech balloon emerging from their tailpipe"''' 

All of a sudden, we're in 'toontown.

==Page 312==

'''Harry J. Anslinger''' 

Harry Jacob Anslinger [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Anslinger WIKI]

'''"...me entiendes como te digo?"''' 
Spanish for "Unnerstan' what I'm sayin'?"

==Page 313==

'''"I guess it's over..."''' 
It seems likely that this is Pynchon delivering the "nut paragraph," as journalists call the central idea in a story. This dialogue seems heartfelt -- especially the stuff about the tube ("keep us distracted, it's what the Tube is for,") and rock 'n' roll ("just another way to claim our attention,") and "Soon they're gonna be coming after everything, not just drugs but beer, cigarettes, sugar, salt, fat, you name it, anything that could remotely please any of your senses...," and "It was the way people used to talk." Yes, it was.

'''"Just please go careful, Zoyd"''' 
Mucho has made much the same settlement with the establishment that Hub Gates has: joined the approved union, settled down, stopped making a fuss.

==Page 314==
'''"''The Best of Sam Cooke'' ... the sermon"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Cooke Sam Cooke] was a singer-songwriter who was a pioneer of Soul music and was shot to death in Los Angeles in 1964. By "the sermon" Pynchon may mean Cooke's song [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Change_Is_Gonna_Come_(song) ''A Change is Gonna Come''] which was released just after his death. Listen on YouTube [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQU4torUz-Q here].

'''"Enjoy it while you can, while you're light enough for that glass to hold you."''' 
Prairie on top of the Hip Trip pinball machine is a marvelous image capturing the fragility of the moment, the certainty of loss, age, death.

'''"Crossing the Golden Gate Bridge represents a transition, in the metaphysics of the region"''' [[Image:GoldenGateBridge.jpg|thumb|Golden Gate Bridge|right]] 
Great intro to Zoyd in Vineland.

==Page 315==

'''"the way a firearm is... finality...out to sea"''' 
Suicide?

'''"one guitar and one harmonica, playing the blues"''' 

This is a great metaphorical bit, with this exodus of hippies, signaling the end of a generation: the journey begins with them playing rock'n'roll and then reversing the process through history, until finally, back where it all began, a single person, playing the blues.

==Page 316==

'''Harbor of Refuge'''

The historical [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Harbor_of_Refuge Harbor of Refuge] is in Delaware. Here Pynchon seems to be creating the same idea for the west coast, however, a much less developed area over the years. Notice the mention of the Corps of Engineers marina on the following page.

See [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_26:_257-265#Page_258 ''Mason & Dixon'', pg. 258]

==Page 317==

'''Eureka-Crescent City-Vineland megalopolis''' 

Since traveling north on Highway 101, and not hitting Vineland until after Eureka, one could surmise that Vineland is located somewhere between Eureka and Crescent City, probably somewhere around [http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=415 Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park]. The actual topography, with mention to Vineland Bay, suggests the Arcata area, possibly transplanted a bit further north, or even possibly a flip on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delaware_Bay Delaware Bay]? [see page 316, and Harbor of Refuge].

The city of Arcata (see a satellite view [http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=arcata,+California&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=34.724817,56.513672&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Arcata,+Humboldt,+California&ll=40.767542,-124.109116&spn=0.2595,0.441513&t=h&z=11 here]) approximately (but not perfectly) matches Pynchon's description of the city of Vineland. It even has the Art Deco bridges Pynchon describes. Arcata, of course, is in Humboldt County. However, the name Vineland and Pynchon's references to grape-growing suggest Mendocino County to the south, since Humboldt and Del Norte were too far northwest to be used for wine grapes in the 1980's and earlier. See also
[[Chapter_1#Page_8|page 8]]. Ultimately, there's no reason for Pynchon to geographically match the real world. In his words from the ''Against the Day'' jacket flap, "Maybe it's not the world, but with a minor adjustment or two it's what the world might be."

For more on Arcata and marijuana, see [http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63L20820100422 this] Reuters article.

==Page 320==
'''"spool tenders, zooglers, water bucks and bull punchers"''' 
Logging jobs.

==Page 321==
'''"Many would be the former tripping partners and old flames who came over the years to deal with each other this way across desktops or through computer terminals, as if chosen in secret and sorted into opposing teams...."''' 
Some folks get on Welfare, and others administer it. Another incarnation of the binary/preterite metaphor.

==Page 322==

'''Vineland the Good''' 

The Vikings were the first to find and settle North America. They called it, "Vineland the Good". Following is an excerpt from ''Studies on the Vineland Voyages'' by Gustav Storm:

"[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leif_Ericson Leiv Eriksson] on his home-voyage from Norway to Greenland >>discovered Vineland
the Good<<, an event which, in conjunction with his saving off the coast of
Greenland a shipwrecked crew, got him the surname of >>the Lucky<<).
In Icelandic manuscripts from the 14th and 15th centuries... derived partly
from Latin sources... the noted traveller Nicholas, abbot of Thingeyre... con-
taining special information... where mention is made of the countries west and
south-west of Iceland, a passage on the discovery of Vineland, which accordingly
can be taken as of very ancient date, and at any rate may come from Nicholas...
>>South of Greenland lies Helluland, next Markland, and from thence it is not far
to Vineland the Good, which some think joins Africa." [http://books.google.com/books?id=1d0TAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA11&lpg=PA11&dq=%22vineland+the+good%22&source=bl&ots=-X0xA_mGLb&sig=KPaspqNHrkHzr2lEwM0q39fbI6E&hl=en&ei=ey2xSvapEMi0tweLnJjmDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=7&ved=0CBgQ6AEwBg#v=onepage&q=%22vineland%20the%20good%22&f=false GOOGLE BOOKS LINK]

Also, see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinland Vinland].

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 13

2011-03-06T05:57:26Z

Lorenz: /* Page 291 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 268==
'''"When had Brock ever possessed her?"''' 
See comments on [[Chapter_13#Page_274|page 274]].

'''"...his partner Roscoe..."''' 
Roscoe = slang for pistol.

Also, a racetrack tout friend of the detectives on the TV detective show [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/77_Sunset_Strip ''77 Sunset Strip''].

'''"solon"''' 
U.S. term for a legislator or congressman. Solon was one of the seven sages of Athens, and is best know for inventing a class system based on wealth instead of lineage.

See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon Wikipedia] article.

==Page 269==
'''"children longing for discipline"''' 
Vond's genius lies in seeing this desire in the kids of the Sixties. Is this Pynchon's view? It certainly seems true of Frenesi.

==Page 270==
'''"Internals"''' 
Roscoe is referring to Internal Affairs, the police department division that investigates crimes by policemen. So Roscoe, a "bad cop", was fired from the police and subsequently hired by Brock Vond.

'''"Jeez I know I'm bad but--"''' 
Reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangri-Las Shangri-Las'] 60s rock 'n' roll song "Give Him A Great Big Kiss." The full line goes, "He's good bad, but he's not evil." [[Give Him A Great Big Kiss - Shangri-Las|Lyrics...]]; [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuNlEGbAKf0 Video of performance...]

'''"some of 'ems in it for real...They'll get remanded someplace else ... in the mainstream, that's where we fish"''' 
So Brock Vond is a fisher of men. Consistent with his Rapture analogy (cf. [[Chapter_12#Page_248|page 248]]), he is only interested in those he can convert; he throws the others back.

'''"I'm counting on that other 90%..."''' 
This certainly sounds like Pynchon, the disillusioned hippie. Pynchon likes to put his own political ideas in the mouths of his villains. Consider Scarsdale Vibe's comments on class struggle in ''Against the Day''.

==Page 271==
'''"less voluble Tonto"''' 
Brock and Roscoe as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Ranger Lone Ranger] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonto Tonto]. ''The Lone Ranger'' was a television series starring Clayton Moore (though with John Hart as the Lone Ranger from 1952-1954) and Jay Silverheels as Tonto, which ran from 1949 to 1957.

'''"Feel like we've been in a Movie of the Week!"''' 
L-like The Brock Vond Story, starring [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Redford Robert Redford]?

==Page 272==
'''"supernatural luck...aura...pure white light...immune to gunfire"''' 
This is Brock's aura of invincibility, that paralyzes his opponents by convincing them that all resistance is futile. Of course, Pynchon is making a broader point about the State. The aura returns on page 376.

[[Image:Lombroso.jpg|thumb|Revolutionaries and Political Criminals (Lombroso)|right]]
'''"Cesare Lombroso"''' 
Detailed exposition of the Italian criminologist's theories show Brock's (or, more precisely, Pynchon's) fascination with them. "...crude in method and long superseded, although it seemed reasonable to Brock." Or any other fascist with a bent toward genocide. Most of this stuff probably comes from the 1911 translation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Lombroso Cesare Lombroso's] ''Criminal Man'', or the 1911 biography by H.G. Kurella.

==Page 274==
'''"a set of big S's"''' 
Double lightning S's were the symbol of the Nazi SS, as any reader of ''Gravity's Rainbow'' knows. In light of the "scene" just ending, Vond's S's could also stand for "Super Sadist". The segment begins on page 268 with Brock Vond reminiscing that he had only possessed Frenesi for a minute and a half. This is a curious statement, given the amount of sex they have had together. It makes more sense after the fetishistic BDSM scene, since it appears that Vond views "possession" to be domination, rather than copulation. It jibes with a symbolism in which Vond has been placed in opposition to life.

'''"the Madwoman in the Attic"''' 
Brock's female side. This is the name of a major concept in post-Freudian feminist psychology, as well as the title of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Madwoman_in_the_Attic the Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar book] of feminist criticism concerning 19th Century novels. Published in 1979, their book examines Victorian literature from a feminist perspective. They drew their title from Charlotte Brontë's ''Jane Eyre'', in which Rochester's mad wife Bertha stays locked in the attic. Vond's dream foreshadows other criminal/erotic dream-women (such as Frenesi) coming in "from steep overhead angles" ([[Chapter 13#Page 276|p. 276]]). They sound like harpies or vampires, coming to rape Vond. As we shall see, Vond later approaches Prairie from the same direction.
[[Image:Arbogast.jpg|thumb|Arbogast's Death in ''Psycho''|right]]
'''"In dreams he could not control..."''' 
Brock's dream is a scene from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho_(1960_film) ''Psycho'']. Brock plays the hapless detective Arbogast and Brock's anima plays Arbogast's killer, Norman Bates. In some interpretations of ''Psycho'', Norman Bates' murders are symbolic rapes arising from an Oedipal fear of sex. This connects him with Brock Vond, who prefers domination to sex.

==Page 277==
'''"like a skier on an unfamiliar black-diamond slope"''' 
The black diamond symbol marks an "expert" (i.e., very difficult) skiing slope. Hearing of Frenesi's escape from PREP, Brock freaks out, feeling himself to be in a dangerous situation beyond his abilities.

Although he certainly was upset by Frenesi's escape, the line refers to the "descent" of his career. His project at College of the Surf was a public relations disaster and he was removed from the case. He goes from public hero to public villain. Where previously he "projected a charm that appeared to transcend politics..." (page 275), now he is considered a child molester. Times are changing (cf. page 279), and Brock's aura of rationality and invincibility, just as the Nixon Administration's after the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_Massacre Kent State Massacre], is fading in the public eye.

==Page 278==
'''"...hoping to find a girl to project Frenesi's ghost onto."''' 
Vond is about to repeat the mistake make by actor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stewart_%28actor%29 Jimmy Stewart] in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo_%28film%29 ''Vertigo''] [1958].

==Page 282==
'''"Frenesi had been making it as easy for him as she could..."''' 
She really does love Vond, it seems. Or his uniform, his sadistic charms, his authority.

He's a prosecuting attorney, so he doesn't wear a uniform. The other two reasons are on the mark.
Also, he's her escape ticket from mundane life to a world that is secret, exclusive and exciting.

'''"sky-blue Rayleigh scattering"''' 
Typical Pynchon science shot. The frequency-differential scattering of light waves, as described by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Rayleigh Lord Rayleigh] (1842-1919), is indeed what makes the sky appear blue.

==Page 283==
'''"A&R"''' 
Artists and Repertoire. In record companies, the "Head of A&R" (originally "A&R man") decides which artists to sign, and what they'll record. A powerful position.

'''"Department...head!"''' 
A very old joke indeed. As noted previously, "head" is sixties doper slang for a user of (usually soft) drugs.

==Page 284==
'''"the eye-catching production values of LSD"''' 
Nice line, but to set it up Pynchon has to run these Mellow acid-head variations. It's a pretty idealized trip. Pynchon does Dr. Tim.

==Page 285==
'''"Leonard the midwife."''' 
Leonard? And in a Nehru shirt, no less! See also [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''The Crying of Lot 49''], paperback edition, [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_5 p. 128]: "Change your name to Miles, Dean, Serge, and/or Leonard, baby..."

'''The look from infant Prairie to papa Zoyd that would, more than once in years to come, "help him through those times when the Klingons are closing, and the helm won't answer, and the warp engine's out of control."''' 
Very nice use of the Star Trek metaphor to lock in the time frame during which Zoyd needed help, and also a powerful image to describe times of distress. See also the adventures of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutter_John Cutter John], the wheelchair-bound character in the "Bloom County" comic strip, who's famed for ''Star Trek'' fantasies enjoyed with Opus, Bill the Cat and other animal stars of that strip.

==Page 286==
'''"...Frenesi was depressed"''' 
Frenesi's deep sadness upon having her baby is so common it even has a name: "post-partum depression."

'''"Lobster Trick Movie"''' 
Well, this might be [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_hall ''Annie Hall''], but basically we're totally lost. Can it be some obscure Navy reference? A helmsman putting in his "trick" at the wheel? Or is this some kinda SoCal TV thing?

A [http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20000724 "lobster trick"] is journalistic slang for the midnight-to-sunrise shift at a newspaper. The word "trick" indeed comes from your maritime citation. The word "lobster" meant someone stupid as a lobster. You'd be stupid to work those hours! ''Annie Hall'' is impossible, since it was released in 1977 and couldn't have been on TV when Prairie was a baby.

==Page 287==
[[Image:ChryslerEagle.jpg|thumb|Eagle on the Chrysler Building, NYC|right]]
'''"the sleek raptors that decorate fascist architecture"''' 
Like the eagles of the 3rd Reich, and the USA.

'''"She understood, from all the silver and light she'd known and been, brought back to the world like silver recalled grain by grain from the Invisible to form images of what then went on to grow old, go away, get broken or contaminated."''' 
A remarkable extended metaphor about film (in which blacks are created by grains of silver appearing "from the Invisible" during development) as a sort of liberation from time.

Time trapped in a photograph is an important metaphor in ''Against the Day'', as in ''Vineland''. Cf. [[Chapter_8#Page_115|page 115]]

'''"Hubbell...cracking apart the first white-flame carbons of the evening into sky-drilling beams of pure arc light."''' 
Nice writing, and sets up the soon-to-come "photon projectors" nicely. To light a carbon-arc spotlight you turn on the power and then bring two carbon rods together. A bright, sizzling spark is lit, and as you move the carbons a few millimeters apart that spark stretches into a dazzling arc suitable for drilling up into the sky.

'''"photon projectors"''' 
arc lights.

==Page 288==
'''Hubbell's tale''' 
Sad, accurate, believable story pinned down by Pynchon's usual cascade of obscure, effective historic details and dialogue. Once again, Pynchon draws on his Navy experience to give Electrician’s Mate Third Class Hubbel Gates a verisimilitudinous background.

==Page 289==
'''"...drop a Brute 450 on you just as easy as a tree..."''' 
The Brute is a heavy carbon-arc studio light made by the Mole-Richardson company. Obviously, Hub is tired of hearing about the heroic but schlemiel-like main event in the life of Sasha's dad. ([[Chapter 6#Page 75|See p. 75]]).

'''"hit literally with a bolt from the sky"''' 
This colorful telling is based on a real event. On 7 October, 1945, outside Warner Bros. Studios, at least 40 strikers were casualties of this and other gambits, including being blasted with studio fire hoses.

'''"IATSE"''' 
[[Chapter 6#Page 82|See note on IA, page 82.]]

'''"Conference of Studio Unions"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conference_of_Studio_Unions CSU] was a coalition of filmmaking unions, notably the Painters' and Carpenters', formed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Sorrell Herb Sorrell] in 1941. The CSU was the spiritual successor of the SUC (Studio Unemployment Conference), the CMPAC (Conference of Motion Picture Arts and Crafts) and the UTSG (United Studio Technician’s Guild)—all of which were formed for similar reasons (to retake local control from the mob and sweetheart unions). And all of which were ruthlessly destroyed in the course of unsuccessful strikes. From Wikipedia:

:Hollywood Black Friday is the name given, in the history of organized labor in the United States, to October 5, 1945. On that date, a six month strike by the set decorators represented by the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU) boiled over into a bloody riot at the gates of Warner Brothers' studios in Burbank, California. The strikes helped the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 and led to the eventual break up of the CSU and reorganization of the then rival IATSE leadership.

'''"misoneism"''' 
hatred of what is new.

This concept was defined on page 272-273, where it was attributed to the racist criminologist Lombroso and reflected Brock Vond's thinking, but sounded suspiciously like Pynchon. By the end of this page, it's definitely Pynchon lecturing the reader.

'''"Roy Brewer"''' 
Brewer was International Representative of the IA in 1941. Although he was the successor to small-time mobster Willie Bioff, Brewer was not, apparently, mob-connected—but he carried on the tradition of collusion with the producers, insuring "international" (as opposed to local) control of the Hollywood unions.

'''"Ronald Reagan of the Screen Actors Guild"''' 
Obviously, much has been written about [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_reagan Ronald Reagan], but some readers may not be aware that before becoming Governor of California, and then President of the United States, Reagan was a high-ranking officer of SAG—which was, initially, a fairly progressive union. In the 1930s SAG stood in solidarity with the liberal, locally-based Hollywood unions that were opposed to IA and its mob management. However, the mob quickly discovered that accusing the rival unions of communist influence was an effective tactic—especially since the charge was not entirely untrue. As World War II drew to a close, and the "red scare" began, the screen actors' union began a turn towards the IA. In July, 1947, Reagan (then Vice President of SAG) negotiated a temporary truce between the studios and the CSU—known as the Peace Treaty of Beverly Hills. Unfortunately, just as things were starting to calm down, the Central Committee of the Communist Party stepped into the situation, calling for more control—which alienated even friendly progressives like Reagan. Eventually, under pressure from Reagan (who was now President) SAG officially voted to condemn the CSU actions as "communist inspired," and led all the other neutral unions into the IATSE camp. This was, apparently, the beginning of Reagan’s conviction that Communism was a conspiracy bent on destroying the American way.

==Page 290==
'''"Happy-go-lucky kids..."''' 
A sudden explosion of bebop tunes and wartime details powers this brief but effective time-machine day-trip.

'''"...Hub with a uke...[both] singing bop tunes..."''' 
In Pynchon's universe, musicians are always good guys.

==Page 291==
'''"pocket pool"''' 
Guys playing with their testicles in their pants pocket.

'''"...the Brute was first coming in. Jesus, all those amps..."'''[[Image:Brute.jpg|thumb|Brute 450|right]] 
So it turns out that Hub, Frenesi's father, "went over" too, and (like his daughter) for the love of a Brute. This [http://www.mole.com/aboutus/history/asc/1946-12-438.html Brute], however, is a big Mole-Richardson arc light, not a lawman.

'''"sold off my only real fortune -- my precious anger -- for a lot of god-damn shadows."''' 
Meaning film, of course, but remember too that in the binary scheme of life light and shadows are ones and zeros.

Recall that the Thanatoids, inert poltergeists, also dissipate their desire for revenge on the living by watching the Tube.

'''"Young Gaffer...I'd've called you my Best Girl."''' 
A play on "Best Boy," a film term referring to the gaffer's first assistant.

==Page 292==
'''"...this turn against Sasha her once-connected self would remain a puzzle she would never quite solve..."''' 
It's not that mysterious. Vond has forced a wedge (his erect penis, perhaps; see following note) between Frenesi and her mother, her leftism, her own female identity. It's a form of expulsion from Paradise, and ties in very neatly with Sister Rochelle's feminist Eden fable on [[Chapter 9#Page 166|p. 166]].

==Page 293==
'''"joystick"''' 
Vond reenters Frenesi's life, and the chapter ends with a powerful (if appropriately cheerless and depressing) simile in which Vond's erect penis is the joystick of the video game in a forbidden arcade that never shuts.

'''"falsely deathless"''' 
Game time is ''falsely'' deathless. The State lured Frenesi by promising to remove her from ordinary mortal life and history, but the State lied.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 13

2011-03-05T21:40:50Z

Lorenz: /* Page 268 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 268==
'''"When had Brock ever possessed her?"''' 
See comments on [[Chapter_13#Page_274|page 274]].

'''"...his partner Roscoe..."''' 
Roscoe = slang for pistol.

Also, a racetrack tout friend of the detectives on the TV detective show [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/77_Sunset_Strip ''77 Sunset Strip''].

'''"solon"''' 
U.S. term for a legislator or congressman. Solon was one of the seven sages of Athens, and is best know for inventing a class system based on wealth instead of lineage.

See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon Wikipedia] article.

==Page 269==
'''"children longing for discipline"''' 
Vond's genius lies in seeing this desire in the kids of the Sixties. Is this Pynchon's view? It certainly seems true of Frenesi.

==Page 270==
'''"Internals"''' 
Roscoe is referring to Internal Affairs, the police department division that investigates crimes by policemen. So Roscoe, a "bad cop", was fired from the police and subsequently hired by Brock Vond.

'''"Jeez I know I'm bad but--"''' 
Reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangri-Las Shangri-Las'] 60s rock 'n' roll song "Give Him A Great Big Kiss." The full line goes, "He's good bad, but he's not evil." [[Give Him A Great Big Kiss - Shangri-Las|Lyrics...]]; [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuNlEGbAKf0 Video of performance...]

'''"some of 'ems in it for real...They'll get remanded someplace else ... in the mainstream, that's where we fish"''' 
So Brock Vond is a fisher of men. Consistent with his Rapture analogy (cf. [[Chapter_12#Page_248|page 248]]), he is only interested in those he can convert; he throws the others back.

'''"I'm counting on that other 90%..."''' 
This certainly sounds like Pynchon, the disillusioned hippie. Pynchon likes to put his own political ideas in the mouths of his villains. Consider Scarsdale Vibe's comments on class struggle in ''Against the Day''.

==Page 271==
'''"less voluble Tonto"''' 
Brock and Roscoe as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Ranger Lone Ranger] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonto Tonto]. ''The Lone Ranger'' was a television series starring Clayton Moore (though with John Hart as the Lone Ranger from 1952-1954) and Jay Silverheels as Tonto, which ran from 1949 to 1957.

'''"Feel like we've been in a Movie of the Week!"''' 
L-like The Brock Vond Story, starring [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Redford Robert Redford]?

==Page 272==
'''"supernatural luck...aura...pure white light...immune to gunfire"''' 
This is Brock's aura of invincibility, that paralyzes his opponents by convincing them that all resistance is futile. Of course, Pynchon is making a broader point about the State. The aura returns on page 376.

[[Image:Lombroso.jpg|thumb|Revolutionaries and Political Criminals (Lombroso)|right]]
'''"Cesare Lombroso"''' 
Detailed exposition of the Italian criminologist's theories show Brock's (or, more precisely, Pynchon's) fascination with them. "...crude in method and long superseded, although it seemed reasonable to Brock." Or any other fascist with a bent toward genocide. Most of this stuff probably comes from the 1911 translation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Lombroso Cesare Lombroso's] ''Criminal Man'', or the 1911 biography by H.G. Kurella.

==Page 274==
'''"a set of big S's"''' 
Double lightning S's were the symbol of the Nazi SS, as any reader of ''Gravity's Rainbow'' knows. In light of the "scene" just ending, Vond's S's could also stand for "Super Sadist". The segment begins on page 268 with Brock Vond reminiscing that he had only possessed Frenesi for a minute and a half. This is a curious statement, given the amount of sex they have had together. It makes more sense after the fetishistic BDSM scene, since it appears that Vond views "possession" to be domination, rather than copulation. It jibes with a symbolism in which Vond has been placed in opposition to life.

'''"the Madwoman in the Attic"''' 
Brock's female side. This is the name of a major concept in post-Freudian feminist psychology, as well as the title of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Madwoman_in_the_Attic the Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar book] of feminist criticism concerning 19th Century novels. Published in 1979, their book examines Victorian literature from a feminist perspective. They drew their title from Charlotte Brontë's ''Jane Eyre'', in which Rochester's mad wife Bertha stays locked in the attic. Vond's dream foreshadows other criminal/erotic dream-women (such as Frenesi) coming in "from steep overhead angles" ([[Chapter 13#Page 276|p. 276]]). They sound like harpies or vampires, coming to rape Vond. As we shall see, Vond later approaches Prairie from the same direction.
[[Image:Arbogast.jpg|thumb|Arbogast's Death in ''Psycho''|right]]
'''"In dreams he could not control..."''' 
Brock's dream is a scene from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho_(1960_film) ''Psycho'']. Brock plays the hapless detective Arbogast and Brock's anima plays Arbogast's killer, Norman Bates. In some interpretations of ''Psycho'', Norman Bates' murders are symbolic rapes arising from an Oedipal fear of sex. This connects him with Brock Vond, who prefers domination to sex.

==Page 277==
'''"like a skier on an unfamiliar black-diamond slope"''' 
The black diamond symbol marks an "expert" (i.e., very difficult) skiing slope. Hearing of Frenesi's escape from PREP, Brock freaks out, feeling himself to be in a dangerous situation beyond his abilities.

Although he certainly was upset by Frenesi's escape, the line refers to the "descent" of his career. His project at College of the Surf was a public relations disaster and he was removed from the case. He goes from public hero to public villain. Where previously he "projected a charm that appeared to transcend politics..." (page 275), now he is considered a child molester. Times are changing (cf. page 279), and Brock's aura of rationality and invincibility, just as the Nixon Administration's after the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_Massacre Kent State Massacre], is fading in the public eye.

==Page 278==
'''"...hoping to find a girl to project Frenesi's ghost onto."''' 
Vond is about to repeat the mistake make by actor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stewart_%28actor%29 Jimmy Stewart] in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo_%28film%29 ''Vertigo''] [1958].

==Page 282==
'''"Frenesi had been making it as easy for him as she could..."''' 
She really does love Vond, it seems. Or his uniform, his sadistic charms, his authority.

He's a prosecuting attorney, so he doesn't wear a uniform. The other two reasons are on the mark.
Also, he's her escape ticket from mundane life to a world that is secret, exclusive and exciting.

'''"sky-blue Rayleigh scattering"''' 
Typical Pynchon science shot. The frequency-differential scattering of light waves, as described by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Rayleigh Lord Rayleigh] (1842-1919), is indeed what makes the sky appear blue.

==Page 283==
'''"A&R"''' 
Artists and Repertoire. In record companies, the "Head of A&R" (originally "A&R man") decides which artists to sign, and what they'll record. A powerful position.

'''"Department...head!"''' 
A very old joke indeed. As noted previously, "head" is sixties doper slang for a user of (usually soft) drugs.

==Page 284==
'''"the eye-catching production values of LSD"''' 
Nice line, but to set it up Pynchon has to run these Mellow acid-head variations. It's a pretty idealized trip. Pynchon does Dr. Tim.

==Page 285==
'''"Leonard the midwife."''' 
Leonard? And in a Nehru shirt, no less! See also [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''The Crying of Lot 49''], paperback edition, [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_5 p. 128]: "Change your name to Miles, Dean, Serge, and/or Leonard, baby..."

'''The look from infant Prairie to papa Zoyd that would, more than once in years to come, "help him through those times when the Klingons are closing, and the helm won't answer, and the warp engine's out of control."''' 
Very nice use of the Star Trek metaphor to lock in the time frame during which Zoyd needed help, and also a powerful image to describe times of distress. See also the adventures of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutter_John Cutter John], the wheelchair-bound character in the "Bloom County" comic strip, who's famed for ''Star Trek'' fantasies enjoyed with Opus, Bill the Cat and other animal stars of that strip.

==Page 286==
'''"...Frenesi was depressed"''' 
Frenesi's deep sadness upon having her baby is so common it even has a name: "post-partum depression."

'''"Lobster Trick Movie"''' 
Well, this might be [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_hall ''Annie Hall''], but basically we're totally lost. Can it be some obscure Navy reference? A helmsman putting in his "trick" at the wheel? Or is this some kinda SoCal TV thing?

A [http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20000724 "lobster trick"] is journalistic slang for the midnight-to-sunrise shift at a newspaper. The word "trick" indeed comes from your maritime citation. The word "lobster" meant someone stupid as a lobster. You'd be stupid to work those hours! ''Annie Hall'' is impossible, since it was released in 1977 and couldn't have been on TV when Prairie was a baby.

==Page 287==
[[Image:ChryslerEagle.jpg|thumb|Eagle on the Chrysler Building, NYC|right]]
'''"the sleek raptors that decorate fascist architecture"''' 
Like the eagles of the 3rd Reich, and the USA.

'''"She understood, from all the silver and light she'd known and been, brought back to the world like silver recalled grain by grain from the Invisible to form images of what then went on to grow old, go away, get broken or contaminated."''' 
A remarkable extended metaphor about film (in which blacks are created by grains of silver appearing "from the Invisible" during development) as a sort of liberation from time.

Time trapped in a photograph is an important metaphor in ''Against the Day'', as in ''Vineland''. Cf. [[Chapter_8#Page_115|page 115]]

'''"Hubbell...cracking apart the first white-flame carbons of the evening into sky-drilling beams of pure arc light."''' 
Nice writing, and sets up the soon-to-come "photon projectors" nicely. To light a carbon-arc spotlight you turn on the power and then bring two carbon rods together. A bright, sizzling spark is lit, and as you move the carbons a few millimeters apart that spark stretches into a dazzling arc suitable for drilling up into the sky.

'''"photon projectors"''' 
arc lights.

==Page 288==
'''Hubbell's tale''' 
Sad, accurate, believable story pinned down by Pynchon's usual cascade of obscure, effective historic details and dialogue. Once again, Pynchon draws on his Navy experience to give Electrician’s Mate Third Class Hubbel Gates a verisimilitudinous background.

==Page 289==
'''"...drop a Brute 450 on you just as easy as a tree..."''' 
The Brute is a heavy carbon-arc studio light made by the Mole-Richardson company. Obviously, Hub is tired of hearing about the heroic but schlemiel-like main event in the life of Sasha's dad. ([[Chapter 6#Page 75|See p. 75]]).

'''"hit literally with a bolt from the sky"''' 
This colorful telling is based on a real event. On 7 October, 1945, outside Warner Bros. Studios, at least 40 strikers were casualties of this and other gambits, including being blasted with studio fire hoses.

'''"IATSE"''' 
[[Chapter 6#Page 82|See note on IA, page 82.]]

'''"Conference of Studio Unions"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conference_of_Studio_Unions CSU] was a coalition of filmmaking unions, notably the Painters' and Carpenters', formed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Sorrell Herb Sorrell] in 1941. The CSU was the spiritual successor of the SUC (Studio Unemployment Conference), the CMPAC (Conference of Motion Picture Arts and Crafts) and the UTSG (United Studio Technician’s Guild)—all of which were formed for similar reasons (to retake local control from the mob and sweetheart unions). And all of which were ruthlessly destroyed in the course of unsuccessful strikes. From Wikipedia:

:Hollywood Black Friday is the name given, in the history of organized labor in the United States, to October 5, 1945. On that date, a six month strike by the set decorators represented by the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU) boiled over into a bloody riot at the gates of Warner Brothers' studios in Burbank, California. The strikes helped the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 and led to the eventual break up of the CSU and reorganization of the then rival IATSE leadership.

'''"misoneism"''' 
hatred of what is new.

This concept was defined on page 272-273, where it was attributed to the racist criminologist Lombroso and reflected Brock Vond's thinking, but sounded suspiciously like Pynchon. By the end of this page, it's definitely Pynchon lecturing the reader.

'''"Roy Brewer"''' 
Brewer was International Representative of the IA in 1941. Although he was the successor to small-time mobster Willie Bioff, Brewer was not, apparently, mob-connected—but he carried on the tradition of collusion with the producers, insuring "international" (as opposed to local) control of the Hollywood unions.

'''"Ronald Reagan of the Screen Actors Guild"''' 
Obviously, much has been written about [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_reagan Ronald Reagan], but some readers may not be aware that before becoming Governor of California, and then President of the United States, Reagan was a high-ranking officer of SAG—which was, initially, a fairly progressive union. In the 1930s SAG stood in solidarity with the liberal, locally-based Hollywood unions that were opposed to IA and its mob management. However, the mob quickly discovered that accusing the rival unions of communist influence was an effective tactic—especially since the charge was not entirely untrue. As World War II drew to a close, and the "red scare" began, the screen actors' union began a turn towards the IA. In July, 1947, Reagan (then Vice President of SAG) negotiated a temporary truce between the studios and the CSU—known as the Peace Treaty of Beverly Hills. Unfortunately, just as things were starting to calm down, the Central Committee of the Communist Party stepped into the situation, calling for more control—which alienated even friendly progressives like Reagan. Eventually, under pressure from Reagan (who was now President) SAG officially voted to condemn the CSU actions as "communist inspired," and led all the other neutral unions into the IATSE camp. This was, apparently, the beginning of Reagan’s conviction that Communism was a conspiracy bent on destroying the American way.

==Page 290==
'''"Happy-go-lucky kids..."''' 
A sudden explosion of bebop tunes and wartime details powers this brief but effective time-machine day-trip.

'''"...Hub with a uke...[both] singing bop tunes..."''' 
In Pynchon's universe, musicians are always good guys.

==Page 291==
'''"pocket pool"''' 
Guys playing with their testicles through via their pants pocket.

'''"...the Brute was first coming in. Jesus, all those amps..."'''[[Image:Brute.jpg|thumb|Brute 450|right]] 
So it turns out that Hub, Frenesi's father, "went over" too, and (like his daughter) for the love of a Brute. This [http://www.mole.com/aboutus/history/asc/1946-12-438.html Brute], however, is a big Mole-Richardson arc light, not a lawman.

'''"sold off my only real fortune -- my precious anger -- for a lot of god-damn shadows."''' 
Meaning film, of course, but remember too that in the binary scheme of life light and shadows are ones and zeros.

Recall that the Thanatoids, inert poltergeists, also dissipate their desire for revenge on the living by watching the Tube.

'''"Young Gaffer...I'd've called you my Best Girl."''' 
A play on "Best Boy," a film term referring to the gaffer's first assistant.

==Page 292==
'''"...this turn against Sasha her once-connected self would remain a puzzle she would never quite solve..."''' 
It's not that mysterious. Vond has forced a wedge (his erect penis, perhaps; see following note) between Frenesi and her mother, her leftism, her own female identity. It's a form of expulsion from Paradise, and ties in very neatly with Sister Rochelle's feminist Eden fable on [[Chapter 9#Page 166|p. 166]].

==Page 293==
'''"joystick"''' 
Vond reenters Frenesi's life, and the chapter ends with a powerful (if appropriately cheerless and depressing) simile in which Vond's erect penis is the joystick of the video game in a forbidden arcade that never shuts.

'''"falsely deathless"''' 
Game time is ''falsely'' deathless. The State lured Frenesi by promising to remove her from ordinary mortal life and history, but the State lied.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 13

2011-03-05T21:39:02Z

Lorenz: /* Page 268 */ added definition and link for solon

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 268==
'''"When had Brock ever possessed her?"''' 
See comments on [[Chapter_13#Page_274|page 274]].

'''"...his partner Roscoe..."''' 
Roscoe = slang for pistol.

Also, a racetrack tout friend of the detectives on the TV detective show [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/77_Sunset_Strip ''77 Sunset Strip''].

'''"solon"''' 
U.S. term for a legislator or congressman. Solon was one of the seven sages of Athens, and is best know for inventing a class system based on wealth instead of lineage.

See the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solon ''Wikipedia''] article.

==Page 269==
'''"children longing for discipline"''' 
Vond's genius lies in seeing this desire in the kids of the Sixties. Is this Pynchon's view? It certainly seems true of Frenesi.

==Page 270==
'''"Internals"''' 
Roscoe is referring to Internal Affairs, the police department division that investigates crimes by policemen. So Roscoe, a "bad cop", was fired from the police and subsequently hired by Brock Vond.

'''"Jeez I know I'm bad but--"''' 
Reference to the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shangri-Las Shangri-Las'] 60s rock 'n' roll song "Give Him A Great Big Kiss." The full line goes, "He's good bad, but he's not evil." [[Give Him A Great Big Kiss - Shangri-Las|Lyrics...]]; [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cuNlEGbAKf0 Video of performance...]

'''"some of 'ems in it for real...They'll get remanded someplace else ... in the mainstream, that's where we fish"''' 
So Brock Vond is a fisher of men. Consistent with his Rapture analogy (cf. [[Chapter_12#Page_248|page 248]]), he is only interested in those he can convert; he throws the others back.

'''"I'm counting on that other 90%..."''' 
This certainly sounds like Pynchon, the disillusioned hippie. Pynchon likes to put his own political ideas in the mouths of his villains. Consider Scarsdale Vibe's comments on class struggle in ''Against the Day''.

==Page 271==
'''"less voluble Tonto"''' 
Brock and Roscoe as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lone_Ranger Lone Ranger] and [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tonto Tonto]. ''The Lone Ranger'' was a television series starring Clayton Moore (though with John Hart as the Lone Ranger from 1952-1954) and Jay Silverheels as Tonto, which ran from 1949 to 1957.

'''"Feel like we've been in a Movie of the Week!"''' 
L-like The Brock Vond Story, starring [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Redford Robert Redford]?

==Page 272==
'''"supernatural luck...aura...pure white light...immune to gunfire"''' 
This is Brock's aura of invincibility, that paralyzes his opponents by convincing them that all resistance is futile. Of course, Pynchon is making a broader point about the State. The aura returns on page 376.

[[Image:Lombroso.jpg|thumb|Revolutionaries and Political Criminals (Lombroso)|right]]
'''"Cesare Lombroso"''' 
Detailed exposition of the Italian criminologist's theories show Brock's (or, more precisely, Pynchon's) fascination with them. "...crude in method and long superseded, although it seemed reasonable to Brock." Or any other fascist with a bent toward genocide. Most of this stuff probably comes from the 1911 translation of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cesare_Lombroso Cesare Lombroso's] ''Criminal Man'', or the 1911 biography by H.G. Kurella.

==Page 274==
'''"a set of big S's"''' 
Double lightning S's were the symbol of the Nazi SS, as any reader of ''Gravity's Rainbow'' knows. In light of the "scene" just ending, Vond's S's could also stand for "Super Sadist". The segment begins on page 268 with Brock Vond reminiscing that he had only possessed Frenesi for a minute and a half. This is a curious statement, given the amount of sex they have had together. It makes more sense after the fetishistic BDSM scene, since it appears that Vond views "possession" to be domination, rather than copulation. It jibes with a symbolism in which Vond has been placed in opposition to life.

'''"the Madwoman in the Attic"''' 
Brock's female side. This is the name of a major concept in post-Freudian feminist psychology, as well as the title of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Madwoman_in_the_Attic the Sandra Gilbert and Susan Gubar book] of feminist criticism concerning 19th Century novels. Published in 1979, their book examines Victorian literature from a feminist perspective. They drew their title from Charlotte Brontë's ''Jane Eyre'', in which Rochester's mad wife Bertha stays locked in the attic. Vond's dream foreshadows other criminal/erotic dream-women (such as Frenesi) coming in "from steep overhead angles" ([[Chapter 13#Page 276|p. 276]]). They sound like harpies or vampires, coming to rape Vond. As we shall see, Vond later approaches Prairie from the same direction.
[[Image:Arbogast.jpg|thumb|Arbogast's Death in ''Psycho''|right]]
'''"In dreams he could not control..."''' 
Brock's dream is a scene from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycho_(1960_film) ''Psycho'']. Brock plays the hapless detective Arbogast and Brock's anima plays Arbogast's killer, Norman Bates. In some interpretations of ''Psycho'', Norman Bates' murders are symbolic rapes arising from an Oedipal fear of sex. This connects him with Brock Vond, who prefers domination to sex.

==Page 277==
'''"like a skier on an unfamiliar black-diamond slope"''' 
The black diamond symbol marks an "expert" (i.e., very difficult) skiing slope. Hearing of Frenesi's escape from PREP, Brock freaks out, feeling himself to be in a dangerous situation beyond his abilities.

Although he certainly was upset by Frenesi's escape, the line refers to the "descent" of his career. His project at College of the Surf was a public relations disaster and he was removed from the case. He goes from public hero to public villain. Where previously he "projected a charm that appeared to transcend politics..." (page 275), now he is considered a child molester. Times are changing (cf. page 279), and Brock's aura of rationality and invincibility, just as the Nixon Administration's after the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kent_State_Massacre Kent State Massacre], is fading in the public eye.

==Page 278==
'''"...hoping to find a girl to project Frenesi's ghost onto."''' 
Vond is about to repeat the mistake make by actor [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stewart_%28actor%29 Jimmy Stewart] in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertigo_%28film%29 ''Vertigo''] [1958].

==Page 282==
'''"Frenesi had been making it as easy for him as she could..."''' 
She really does love Vond, it seems. Or his uniform, his sadistic charms, his authority.

He's a prosecuting attorney, so he doesn't wear a uniform. The other two reasons are on the mark.
Also, he's her escape ticket from mundane life to a world that is secret, exclusive and exciting.

'''"sky-blue Rayleigh scattering"''' 
Typical Pynchon science shot. The frequency-differential scattering of light waves, as described by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lord_Rayleigh Lord Rayleigh] (1842-1919), is indeed what makes the sky appear blue.

==Page 283==
'''"A&R"''' 
Artists and Repertoire. In record companies, the "Head of A&R" (originally "A&R man") decides which artists to sign, and what they'll record. A powerful position.

'''"Department...head!"''' 
A very old joke indeed. As noted previously, "head" is sixties doper slang for a user of (usually soft) drugs.

==Page 284==
'''"the eye-catching production values of LSD"''' 
Nice line, but to set it up Pynchon has to run these Mellow acid-head variations. It's a pretty idealized trip. Pynchon does Dr. Tim.

==Page 285==
'''"Leonard the midwife."''' 
Leonard? And in a Nehru shirt, no less! See also [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''The Crying of Lot 49''], paperback edition, [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_5 p. 128]: "Change your name to Miles, Dean, Serge, and/or Leonard, baby..."

'''The look from infant Prairie to papa Zoyd that would, more than once in years to come, "help him through those times when the Klingons are closing, and the helm won't answer, and the warp engine's out of control."''' 
Very nice use of the Star Trek metaphor to lock in the time frame during which Zoyd needed help, and also a powerful image to describe times of distress. See also the adventures of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cutter_John Cutter John], the wheelchair-bound character in the "Bloom County" comic strip, who's famed for ''Star Trek'' fantasies enjoyed with Opus, Bill the Cat and other animal stars of that strip.

==Page 286==
'''"...Frenesi was depressed"''' 
Frenesi's deep sadness upon having her baby is so common it even has a name: "post-partum depression."

'''"Lobster Trick Movie"''' 
Well, this might be [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annie_hall ''Annie Hall''], but basically we're totally lost. Can it be some obscure Navy reference? A helmsman putting in his "trick" at the wheel? Or is this some kinda SoCal TV thing?

A [http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=20000724 "lobster trick"] is journalistic slang for the midnight-to-sunrise shift at a newspaper. The word "trick" indeed comes from your maritime citation. The word "lobster" meant someone stupid as a lobster. You'd be stupid to work those hours! ''Annie Hall'' is impossible, since it was released in 1977 and couldn't have been on TV when Prairie was a baby.

==Page 287==
[[Image:ChryslerEagle.jpg|thumb|Eagle on the Chrysler Building, NYC|right]]
'''"the sleek raptors that decorate fascist architecture"''' 
Like the eagles of the 3rd Reich, and the USA.

'''"She understood, from all the silver and light she'd known and been, brought back to the world like silver recalled grain by grain from the Invisible to form images of what then went on to grow old, go away, get broken or contaminated."''' 
A remarkable extended metaphor about film (in which blacks are created by grains of silver appearing "from the Invisible" during development) as a sort of liberation from time.

Time trapped in a photograph is an important metaphor in ''Against the Day'', as in ''Vineland''. Cf. [[Chapter_8#Page_115|page 115]]

'''"Hubbell...cracking apart the first white-flame carbons of the evening into sky-drilling beams of pure arc light."''' 
Nice writing, and sets up the soon-to-come "photon projectors" nicely. To light a carbon-arc spotlight you turn on the power and then bring two carbon rods together. A bright, sizzling spark is lit, and as you move the carbons a few millimeters apart that spark stretches into a dazzling arc suitable for drilling up into the sky.

'''"photon projectors"''' 
arc lights.

==Page 288==
'''Hubbell's tale''' 
Sad, accurate, believable story pinned down by Pynchon's usual cascade of obscure, effective historic details and dialogue. Once again, Pynchon draws on his Navy experience to give Electrician’s Mate Third Class Hubbel Gates a verisimilitudinous background.

==Page 289==
'''"...drop a Brute 450 on you just as easy as a tree..."''' 
The Brute is a heavy carbon-arc studio light made by the Mole-Richardson company. Obviously, Hub is tired of hearing about the heroic but schlemiel-like main event in the life of Sasha's dad. ([[Chapter 6#Page 75|See p. 75]]).

'''"hit literally with a bolt from the sky"''' 
This colorful telling is based on a real event. On 7 October, 1945, outside Warner Bros. Studios, at least 40 strikers were casualties of this and other gambits, including being blasted with studio fire hoses.

'''"IATSE"''' 
[[Chapter 6#Page 82|See note on IA, page 82.]]

'''"Conference of Studio Unions"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conference_of_Studio_Unions CSU] was a coalition of filmmaking unions, notably the Painters' and Carpenters', formed by [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herb_Sorrell Herb Sorrell] in 1941. The CSU was the spiritual successor of the SUC (Studio Unemployment Conference), the CMPAC (Conference of Motion Picture Arts and Crafts) and the UTSG (United Studio Technician’s Guild)—all of which were formed for similar reasons (to retake local control from the mob and sweetheart unions). And all of which were ruthlessly destroyed in the course of unsuccessful strikes. From Wikipedia:

:Hollywood Black Friday is the name given, in the history of organized labor in the United States, to October 5, 1945. On that date, a six month strike by the set decorators represented by the Conference of Studio Unions (CSU) boiled over into a bloody riot at the gates of Warner Brothers' studios in Burbank, California. The strikes helped the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947 and led to the eventual break up of the CSU and reorganization of the then rival IATSE leadership.

'''"misoneism"''' 
hatred of what is new.

This concept was defined on page 272-273, where it was attributed to the racist criminologist Lombroso and reflected Brock Vond's thinking, but sounded suspiciously like Pynchon. By the end of this page, it's definitely Pynchon lecturing the reader.

'''"Roy Brewer"''' 
Brewer was International Representative of the IA in 1941. Although he was the successor to small-time mobster Willie Bioff, Brewer was not, apparently, mob-connected—but he carried on the tradition of collusion with the producers, insuring "international" (as opposed to local) control of the Hollywood unions.

'''"Ronald Reagan of the Screen Actors Guild"''' 
Obviously, much has been written about [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronald_reagan Ronald Reagan], but some readers may not be aware that before becoming Governor of California, and then President of the United States, Reagan was a high-ranking officer of SAG—which was, initially, a fairly progressive union. In the 1930s SAG stood in solidarity with the liberal, locally-based Hollywood unions that were opposed to IA and its mob management. However, the mob quickly discovered that accusing the rival unions of communist influence was an effective tactic—especially since the charge was not entirely untrue. As World War II drew to a close, and the "red scare" began, the screen actors' union began a turn towards the IA. In July, 1947, Reagan (then Vice President of SAG) negotiated a temporary truce between the studios and the CSU—known as the Peace Treaty of Beverly Hills. Unfortunately, just as things were starting to calm down, the Central Committee of the Communist Party stepped into the situation, calling for more control—which alienated even friendly progressives like Reagan. Eventually, under pressure from Reagan (who was now President) SAG officially voted to condemn the CSU actions as "communist inspired," and led all the other neutral unions into the IATSE camp. This was, apparently, the beginning of Reagan’s conviction that Communism was a conspiracy bent on destroying the American way.

==Page 290==
'''"Happy-go-lucky kids..."''' 
A sudden explosion of bebop tunes and wartime details powers this brief but effective time-machine day-trip.

'''"...Hub with a uke...[both] singing bop tunes..."''' 
In Pynchon's universe, musicians are always good guys.

==Page 291==
'''"pocket pool"''' 
Guys playing with their testicles through via their pants pocket.

'''"...the Brute was first coming in. Jesus, all those amps..."'''[[Image:Brute.jpg|thumb|Brute 450|right]] 
So it turns out that Hub, Frenesi's father, "went over" too, and (like his daughter) for the love of a Brute. This [http://www.mole.com/aboutus/history/asc/1946-12-438.html Brute], however, is a big Mole-Richardson arc light, not a lawman.

'''"sold off my only real fortune -- my precious anger -- for a lot of god-damn shadows."''' 
Meaning film, of course, but remember too that in the binary scheme of life light and shadows are ones and zeros.

Recall that the Thanatoids, inert poltergeists, also dissipate their desire for revenge on the living by watching the Tube.

'''"Young Gaffer...I'd've called you my Best Girl."''' 
A play on "Best Boy," a film term referring to the gaffer's first assistant.

==Page 292==
'''"...this turn against Sasha her once-connected self would remain a puzzle she would never quite solve..."''' 
It's not that mysterious. Vond has forced a wedge (his erect penis, perhaps; see following note) between Frenesi and her mother, her leftism, her own female identity. It's a form of expulsion from Paradise, and ties in very neatly with Sister Rochelle's feminist Eden fable on [[Chapter 9#Page 166|p. 166]].

==Page 293==
'''"joystick"''' 
Vond reenters Frenesi's life, and the chapter ends with a powerful (if appropriately cheerless and depressing) simile in which Vond's erect penis is the joystick of the video game in a forbidden arcade that never shuts.

'''"falsely deathless"''' 
Game time is ''falsely'' deathless. The State lured Frenesi by promising to remove her from ordinary mortal life and history, but the State lied.

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 12

2011-03-05T10:47:23Z

Lorenz: /* Page 259 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 218==
'''"up over the passes and out long desert arterials, out past the seed and feed houses and country music bars and Mexican joints with Happy Hours featuring 99 cent margaritas out of a hose, under the smog, the dribbling rain, the toxic lens of sky..."''' 
Mr. Pynchon, meet Mr. Chandler.

'''"At first Weed went around feeling like a political defector."''' 
Pun intended.

'''"chartreuse"''' 
An apple-green colour.

==Page 219==
'''"What an evening"''' 
Thanatoid Roast '84 is the "tenth annual get-together" -- which means there have been thanatoids since '75. So what happened in 1974-1975? Patty Hearst kidnapped by SLA. Nixon is impeached over Watergate, and resigns. Motion picture ratings system created. US Bicentenial celebration. Vietnam War ends; last 1,000 Americans evacuated from South Vietnam.

They were around before 1975, but you're on to something. See page 320.

==Page 220==
'''"CAMP"''' [[Image:CAMPlogo.gif|thumb|CAMP Logo|right]] 
[http://www.ag.ca.gov/bne/camp.htm Camp], the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, is a multiagency law-enforcement taskforce set up by California to eradicate illegal marijuana cultivation and trafficking in the state. Although it is state-created, it includes representatives from state, federal, and local law enforcement agencies.

'''"Willis Chunko"''' 
Nice name.

==Page 221==
'''"Pale blue unmarked little planes appeared, on days of VFR unlimited nearly invisible against the sky, flown by a private vigilante squadron of student antidrug activists..."''' 
Cf. [[Chapter_1#Page 3|p.3]] ("squadron of blue jays stomping around on the roof...").

'''"Kommandant Karl Bopp"''' 
Another great name.

'''"pacified territory"''' 
Growers discuss CAMP progress in Vietnam-like terms.

==Page 222==
'''"All right, you parrots, listen up!"''' 
Parrot sale and shared dreams: Magic realism, gorgeous and surreal; tropical colors and flashy imagery.

==Page 223==
'''"can't shit, can't get a hardon"''' 
The Thanatoid Roast rendered from Van Meter's POV; his paranoia is expressed in terms familiar from [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

This passage doesn't concern the atmosphere of the Thanatoid Roast; it describes Van Meter's frustration in failing to lucidly dream his way into the same alternate reality that the children (claim to) perceive. Constipation and impotence are maladies of old age. Van Meter has lost his link to the dreams of the "younger generation" that have been shaped by the parrot media background. Perhaps that's why he's been reduced to playing Thanatoid gigs.

==Page 225==
'''"old-time Combo-Ork arrangements"''' 
There's that lingo again.

'''"rallentando"''' 
A typically obscure Pynchon word, this musical term means exactly the same as ritardando: played with decreasing pace. Perfect for the Thanatoid gig.

==Page 226==
'''"Larry Elasmo"''' 
Cool name. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasticman Plasticman]? Elasmos is Greek for beaten metal (hence elastic) plate. An [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elasmobranchii elasmobranch] is a fish, such as a shark, with a cartilage (not bone) skeleton and [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/elasmobranch tooth-like scales].

But what the fuck is he doing at the Thanatoid Roast? Pynchon is pushing the outside of the coincidence envelope.

Elasmo sequence. Mr. Pynchon, meet Mr. Kafka. This all seems boosted right out of The Trial. Here's Weed, another rebellious American child (like Frenesi), submitting to, or fascinated with, authority. "Because the Doctor says so..." turn your body over to coaches, boys with hardons. Go to the Draft Board Center and sit on the group W bench. Even rational, mathematical, radical Weed does what the dentist tells him to, even if it is manifestly senseless.

Among other questions worth asking: Who authorized Elasmo to issue these compulsory forms that require people to come to his office? And by what mysterious process does Weed's merely waiting around cause him to become confused and dispirited? Maybe the idea is simply to take Weed out of the picture at intervals, so Vond and Frenesi can talk and fuck. There's some hint (from Vond if not from Pynchon) that Weed is collaborating with Vond. If so, we'd expect at least a short scene showing that collaboration. The Elasmo sequence stands in the right position, and serves the same function -- but there's no hint whatsoever of Vond. Pretty weird.

'''"Dr Elasmo's video image had swept, had pixeldanced in"''' 
Image/raster TV techotalk. Pixels = the tiny dots that make up the Tube image.

Another possible explanation of the whole Dr. Larry's World of Discomfort sequence is implied by the passage "Somehow, in Weed's deathstunned memory, Dr. Elasmo's video image had swept, had pixeldanced in, to cover, mercifully, for something else..." Since his commercials were so ubiquitous on TV at the time, is it possible that Weed was doing something else, meeting someone in a bureaucratic building in the city-- meetings that left him feeling stunned, guilty, and sick at heart-- and he has recast and shot these memories as meetings with the faux-celebrity of Dr. Larry Elasmo?

Plasticman indeed.

==Page 227==
'''"Dr. Larry Elasmo, or a person wearing, like a coverall and veil, his ubiquitous screen image grainy, flickering at the edges..."''' 
So not only is the real Elasmo tracking Weed, his TV image is doing it too!

==Page 228==
'''"Ilse, the hygienist..."''' 
Naturally, the dental hygienist in Larry's World of Discomfort is none other than Ilse, the high-heeled Nazi heroine of sixties S&M porno flicks, e.g., Ilse, She-Wolf of the SS.

==Page 230==
'''"...adjusted the pulsing vacuum to meet his own quickening rhythm..."''' 
The scene of Rex adjusting Bruno's carburetors while masturbating in the intakes clearly harks back to certain intimate moments involving Rachel and her MG's gearshift lever in V.

'''"Trash the Xanthocroid"''' 
(See note, [[Chapter 10#Page 197|p. 197]].)

==Page 231==

'''Elliot X''' 

Extremely close to being an anagram for Malcolm X's real last name, Little. Just switch a t for an o?
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_x WIKI]

Also, some believe the name "Elliot" is derived from the French "Elias" which comes from "Elijah" - which would also factor in a reference to Elijah Muhammad [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah_Muhammad WIKI]

==Page 232==

'''"land of the May Events"''' 

Rex is heading to France. May Events refers to the revolts in France in May of 1968. Possibly Rex feels these events going on are more pure in protest/outcome than what is going on with Weed, Frenesi, PR3, etc. especially now that he's feeling high on sacrifice, what with giving up Bruno and all. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_events WIKI]

See [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1#Epigraph epigraph] of ''Inherent Vice''.

'''"Neither one could know how few and fortunate would be any who'd be able to meet in years later than these and smile, relax beneath some single low oak out on an impossible hillside, with sunlight, and the voice of children... drink some chilly gold-green California Chenin Blanc, and laugh, and pour more wine"''' 

Flashsideways (or some-even-stranger-ways) to an imaginary, 4th-dimensional picnic in which Rex, Weed, and Prairie "negotiate an agreeable version of history." This is an important little scene, since it's where the details of the murder are made explicit at last. Or are they? Note the "nearly" in "he nearly blew me away," which seems to suggest that maybe Weed is merely wounded? (It's just Pynchonian smoke; Weed really is killed.) This scene appears to be Rex's fantasy -- except how does he know about Prairie?

I dont think this is necessarily Rex's vision, but Pynchon's foreshadowing (and an alternate version) of the family reunion, kindof a "what if" Weed and Rex had made it, what would they have said, looking back? Obviously, Rex nor Weed will make it to this dreamy "Wineland" (traditional translation of Vineland: see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinland Vinland]). See page 246 where it specifically refers back to this scene.

It is also ''possible'' that this is actually a dream sequence from Prairie's mind after taking in all of the stories and 24fps film (much like she and DL's convo break up the narrative). See pg. 325.

==Page 233==

'''"Weed had found himself a classical pigeon"''' 
The "flashsideways" ends with Pynchon switching from present tense to (mostly) past tense.

==Page 234==

'''The Invaders''' 

Science fiction TV show about alien invasion that aired on ABC for two seasons in 1967-1968. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invaders WIKI] The "aliens infiltrating human institutions", paranoia, etc. seems apt here.

'''chocolate-covered banana''' 

Howie enjoys one here, but also a favorite of Bigfoot Bjornson in ''Inherent Vice''.

==Page 235==

'''Amerikan''' 

From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satiric_misspelling#.E2.80.9CK.E2.80.9D_replacing_.E2.80.9CC.E2.80.9D Wiki]: In the 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, leftists, particularly the Yippies, sometimes used Amerika rather than "America" in referring to the United States. It is still used as a political statement today. It is likely that this was originally an allusion to the German spelling of America, and intended to be suggestive of Nazism, a hypothesis that the Oxford English Dictionary supports.

Note that Franz Kafka's unfinished, first novel, was spelled this way, titled by Max Brod, published posthumously. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerika_(novel) ''Amerika'']

==Page 236==
'''"...he reached for the Tube, popped it on, fastened himself to the screen and began to feed."''' 
A great William Burroughs-style science-fictional, Tube/addictive image.

'''"It's takin his soul, man"''' 
Certain primitive (and not so primitive) tribes believe that when someone takes your photograph it steals your soul. Or maybe Howie means the Tube.
But of course Brock has said that Weed's soul is exactly what he wants.

'''"Culito Canyon"''' 
Spanish for "Little Ass Canyon."

==Page 237==
'''"...might make the Guinness Book someday..."''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_Book Guinness Book of Records], published regularly by the Irish brewery/distillery company, chronicles current achievements in urban sports like phone booth stuffing.

==Page 238==
'''"Famous worms of song"''' 
A play on "The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, the worms play [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinochle pinochle] on your snout," sung to Mozart/Haydn/whoever's requiem. A famous childhood song, right up there with "Great green gobs of greasy grimy monkeymeat" (It's Gopher guts...see the alliteration.) "Hitler he had just one big ball" and the tragic ballad "Found a Peanut." This is kind of a heavy Pynchon hit on Frenesi's knowledge of Weed's impending doom.

==Page 239==
'''Note the asterisk at the top of the page. How come? Pynchon hasn't needed no steenking asterisks before! Can those worms have thrown him so far off balance that he can't carry on without typographic help? (Actually, there is one earlier asterisk occurrence, at the bottom of [[Chapter 1#Page 8|page 8]]. Go figure.)

'''"ND-1 filters"''' 
ND = Neutral Density; the suffix digit tells how many f stops it reduces incoming light (or outgoing baby-blue intensity) without changing color values.

'''"Nixonian reaction...continued to...compromise...what may only in some fading memories ever have been a people's miracle, an army of loving friends..."''' 
Pynchon seems bitter over the ease with which the government (and its media, and its money) destroyed the ideal/idyll.

==Page 240==
'''"'therapy sessions,' Brock called them..."''' 
Brock seems connected with Elasmo. Does this mean that Weed has really turned? Or that Weed's sessions with the tooth-yanker are just Vond's "reality adjustments," in which Weed is somehow osmosified to believe in Brock's version of reality (in which only power counts, and resistance is futile)?

As discussed on [[Chapter_12#Page_226|page 226]], Elasmo is the Freudian-style dream transformation of Brock Vond in Thanatoid Weed's "deathstunned memory". Pynchon, so far, hasn't described how Weed was "turned".

'''"Smith"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Wesson Smith and Wesson], the largest manufacturer of handguns in the United States.

==Page 241==
'''"24-frame-per-second truth"''' 
Hi, [[Chapter 8#Page 114|Jean-Luc Godard]]!

==Page 242==
'''"frogwork"''' 
Frogs are the knots in which ornate cords (like the ones on doormen's uniform coats) are tied. Similar to Buddhist "priest cords" sometimes used as hangings. Here, frogwork is an evocative metaphor for the intricate shadow cast by the tangle of overhead cables and trolley wires and a very apt one, you'll agree, if you've ever seen the rat's nest of wiring suspended above the street in San Francisco or San Diego.

==Page 244==
'''"the Arri and...a wind-up Bolex"''' 
Two small, light, quiet, highly portable 16mm movie cameras. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arriflex Arriflex's] electric motor is powered by a battery pack; the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolex Bolex] is (like Pynchon says) spring-driven.

'''"Howie'd kill them again"''' 
Surely should be "Howie'd kick them again".

No. Howie would kick-on the lights, Weed would chicken-out, Howie would kill the lights, then presumably Frenesi would work on Weed some more, then the cycle would repeat.

==Page 245==
'''"a battered old Auricon"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP-16 Auricon] is another 16mm camera, also battery (or AC) powered, with the handy capability to record live sound right on the film.

==Page 246==
'''"the shirt cloth still burning around the blackly erupted exit, pale flames guttering out..."''' 
Sounds great, but while we're no forensic experts we'd guess that burns would be characteristic of the entry hole of a gunshot wound, not the exit.

'''He would not after all be lucky enough to sit under that oak under that dreamed hillside someday with a miraculously saved Weed Atman, in some 1980s world of the future''' 

Here Rex's actions have changed his "possible" future (see page 232). Now neither Rex nor Weed will be a part of the exodus to Vineland (or Wineland). Also see page 325.

==Page 247==
'''"a Mole-Richardson Series 700 generator ... legendary Eclairs ... Miller heads, Fastaxes ... Norwood Binary light meters"''' 
All deluxe loot from the CotS Film Arts Dept. The "legendary" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclair_%28camera%29 Eclairs] (there you go again, Mr. Pynchon!) are innovative French 16mm cameras, quieter (and producing a steadier image) than the Arri, Bolex or Auricon cameras mentioned above. The Miller fluid head goes on top of a camera tripod and allows very smooth pans.

'''"Blue Cheer concert"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Cheer Blue Cheer] was a popular "acid-rock" band of the time, named after one of underground chemist Owsley Stanley's most popular (and potent) releases of LSD tablets. The tabs got their name because, in the charming flower-power style of the time, Owsley would dye each new release a different color and the blue tinge of this batch reminded users of a well-known laundry detergent.

'''"7242"''' 
16mm Ektachrome EF reversal film, a medium fast (125 ASA) workhorse stock.

==Page 248==
'''"...a handful of persons [were] unaccounted for. In those days it was unthinkable that any North American agency would kill its own civilians and then lie about it.... Vond referred to it humorously as 'rapture.'"''' 
Rapture is a Biblical reference to the Day of Judgment, when the dead and the living will be taken to Heaven. Vond uses the term again, later, to describe winching Prairie up "into the sky" and abducting her ([[Chapter 15#Page 376|p. 376]]). Pynchon may have picked up the term from ''Job'', [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_heinlein Robert Heinlein's] last great fantasy novel.

[[Image:RaptureSticker.png|thumb|Evangelical Bumper Sticker|right]]In the doctrine of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapture Rapture] ''only the Christian believers'' will be abducted by God. For evangelicals, Rapture of the Saved occurs before the time of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribulation Tribulation]. Hence the bumper sticker, "In Case of Rapture This Car Will Be Unmanned". People more like Pynchon's audience used "Beam Me Up, Scotty". Vond believes that, like Frenesi, children of the 1960's secretly long for discipline (cf. [[Chapter_13#Page_269|page 269]]) so his rapture analogy is apt.

'''"Fawning, gazing upward at the zipper of his fly, media toadies..."''' 
Here we see the "official" media, directed by the government, rewriting the Sixties on the spot. The only reporter to challenge Vond is dragged away.

'''"field-gray trucks"''' 
Feldgrau, that popular old Wehrmacht color!

==Page 249==
'''"tenebrous cool light"''' 
tenebrous = dark, gloomy.

'''"Federal Emergency Evacuation Route (FEER)"''' 
What a quintessentially Pynchonian idea, and what a powerful image, and what a great acronym!

==Page 250==
'''"ruins from Camelot"''' 
Little left from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kennedy Kennedy] presidency.

'''"the flagship of the 24fps motor pool, a '57 Chevy Nomad"''' 
Cool wheels, but not mentioned in the semi-extensive description of the 24fps vehicle collection on p. 194.

==Page 251==
'''"Virgil Ploce"''' 
Great name. And count on Pynchon to choose an anti-communist with an exploding cigar! Rumors about this supposedly-CIA-backed anti-Castro plot emerged after the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion Bay of Pigs invasion]. It's never been established whether the gambit was actually put into practice.

==Page 252==
'''"primer cord"''' 
Pynchon makes a common error in this reference; he may only have heard it said, never seen it in writing. This stuff is actually called "Primacord" (a copyrighted name of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensign-Bickford_Company Ensign-Bickford Company]). It's useful stuff, serving not only as a primer, but as a conveniently cord-shaped explosive substance.

'''"the sudden light from behind, the unbearable sight in the mirror"''' 
An atomic explosion.

'''"the hour of the rat"''' 
In Chinese astrology, the [http://library.thinkquest.org/C0113521/lcon.htm hour of the rat] is the two-hour period from 11pm - 1am. The same concept was used in ancient [http://www.yoshinoantiques.com/time.html Japanese timekeeping].

'''"Be groovy or B movie"''' 
Takeoff on [http://ask.yahoo.com/20061113.html "Be there or be square"].

==Page 253==
'''"...becoming its harsh woven shadow..."''' 
Frenesi = light; DL = shadow; together = film. Also, of course, ones and zeros.

==Page 254==
[[Image:ZPoster.jpg|thumb|Poster for ''Z''|right]]
'''"Hasta la proxima, querida mia"''' 
Spanish: "Until next time, my dear." The letter "Z" is, of course, the trademark of Zorro. This steamy scene seems virtually pointless; maybe Pynchon got horny while he was writing. "Perhaps...not unscented" indeed! ([[Chapter 8#Page 118|See also p. 118]], with the smell of DL's "pussy excitation.")

The letter "Z" also stands for Ζει, he lives, which was scrawled on Greek walls in the 1960's to show that the spirit of resistance still lived. This was popularized worldwide in 1969 by the political film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(film) ''Z''].

==Page 255==
'''"the subroutine Yukai na...a low-order limbic pleasure cycle that would loop over and over"''' 
Interesting use of computer programming lingo in the martial arts world.

More cyberpunk shtick.

'''"the rodent hour"''' 
Given the refs to Daffy and Bugs in the previous sentence, this might refer to the Mickey Mouse Club show on the Tube, but was that one hour or one half hour??

No, go back to [[Chapter_12#Page_252|Page 252]] "They arrived ... well before dawn, the hour of the rat ...". DL is indeed sneaking into the prison camp like a rat stealing some cheese.

==Page 258==
'''"''A llover''"''' 
What a great meal! ''A llover'' is Spanish for, "It's about to rain," but it also refers to the fact that it's "all over" for the outdoor desayuno. Pynchon puns again.

==Page 259==
'''"powder to the people"''' 
Ouch! Punning on the slogan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_to_the_people_%28slogan%29 "Power to the People"] which was a rallying cry of the Black Panthers, as well as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_to_the_People_%28song%29 a song by John Lennon].

'''"Feel like we were running around like little kids with toy weapons, like the camera really was some kind of gun, gave us that kind of power. Shit. How could we lose track like that, about what was real?"''' 
Frenesi has totally bought Vond's line about the powerlessness of film vs. a gun. (And that's how they got her. And us.)

:And yet: 
:"You don't die for no motherfuckin' shadows" page 202 
:"...sold off my only real fortune - my precious anger - for a lot of got-damn shadows" page 291

'''"who'd we save"''' 
Yet another preterite reference, and one that harks back to Hector's speech on [[Chapter 3#Page 28|p. 28]].
[[Image:PurpleOwsleyBear.jpg|thumb|A Purple ''Grateful Dead'' Bear|right]]
'''"Purple Owsley"''' 
Another run of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owsley_Stanley Owsley's] high-grade color-coded LSD. Cf. [[Chapter 12#Page 247|p. 247]]

The same Owsley "Bear" Stanley also worked as soundman for the band [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grateful_dead ''Grateful Dead''], and was one of the inspirations for their dancing bear logo.

==Page 260==
'''"You know what happens when my pussy's runnin' the show."''' 
If this is Frenesi's only motivation for the series of betrayals (including her betrayal of herself) that lie at the heart of ''Vineland'', it's a thin reed on which to build a book. Unless we buy into Sister Rochelle's Eden parable in which Vond represents the snaky seductiveness of authority, and Frenesi stands for a postwar America that's eager to surrender its freedom. Indeed, Frenesi's enjoyment of bondage and discipline games, which free her of responsibility, makes a strong connection with all the S&M sequences in the book (see next note).

These are Frenesi's rationalizations to DL, not Pynchon's explanations for her behavior. Note: "... getting things wrong on purpose, and more and more wrong as it went falling to pieces" and "blaming external drug molecules for each of her failures ...". There is some truth to her excuses, but, as Pynchon indicates, not the whole truth.

'''"behind the Thorazine curtain"''' 
Pynchon on a sadism kick. He does seem to have a weakness for this stuff, as many sequences in Gravity's Rainbow will attest.

'''"5 mg Stelazine plus 50 of Thorazine"''' 
Thorazine and Stelazine are antihallucinatory specifics, usually used to treat schizophrenics.

==Page 261==
'''"1,000-watt Mickey-Mole spot"''' 
An open face (lensless) focusing studio light from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole-Richardson Mole-Richardson company]. It rhymes, too.

==Page 263==
'''"out in the zodiac..."''' 
Vond is a Scorpio. What else?

'''"idiolalia"''' 
Pynchon loves these esoteric terms. It means a private language. Here starts the paranoia about 24fps'rs disappearing which echoes people disappearing from the computer ([[Chapter 6#Page 85|p. 85]]), and the Kahuna airplane ([[Chapter 5#Page 65|p. 65]]).

It also echoes the disappearing people in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four Nineteen Eighty-Four] and Philip K. Dick's novel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBIK UBIK]. Cf. [[Chapter_8#Page_111|page 111]].

==Page 264==
'''"Reagan's got it for when he invades Nicaragua,"''' 
DL's prediction of Reagan's invasion of Nicaragua never came true; the closest Reagan ever came was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Contra Iran-Contra]. Cf. [[Chapter_15#Page_353|page 353]]

==Page 265==
'''"Why would he come after us?"''' 
Good question.

'''"The whole Reagan program..."''' 
Yeah! Go, Pynchon, go!

==Page 266==
'''Vond is "after Frenesi...to use her for some task."''' 
OK, what task?

Perhaps to get Prairie, the future. Cf. page 50. Remember that this part of the story is taking place in the Reagan Era, not the Nixon Era. Pynchon's take on the Reagan Era was that the nightmare was beginning all over again.

'''"So the big bad Ninjamobile swept along on the great Ventura [Freeway]...above the heads of TV watchers, lovers under the overpasses, movies at malls letting out, bright gas-station oases in pure fluorescent spill...down the corridors of the surface streets, in nocturnal smog, the adobe air, the smell of distant fireworks, the spilled, the broken world."''' 
What a great paragraph! Yes, the cat can write -- rhyming verse and all: "flirters, deserters, wimps and pimps"

{{Vineland PbP}}

Chapter 12

2011-03-05T04:40:55Z

Lorenz: /* Page 218 */

{{Vineland PbP Text}}

==Page 218==
'''"up over the passes and out long desert arterials, out past the seed and feed houses and country music bars and Mexican joints with Happy Hours featuring 99 cent margaritas out of a hose, under the smog, the dribbling rain, the toxic lens of sky..."''' 
Mr. Pynchon, meet Mr. Chandler.

'''"At first Weed went around feeling like a political defector."''' 
Pun intended.

'''"chartreuse"''' 
An apple-green colour.

==Page 219==
'''"What an evening"''' 
Thanatoid Roast '84 is the "tenth annual get-together" -- which means there have been thanatoids since '75. So what happened in 1974-1975? Patty Hearst kidnapped by SLA. Nixon is impeached over Watergate, and resigns. Motion picture ratings system created. US Bicentenial celebration. Vietnam War ends; last 1,000 Americans evacuated from South Vietnam.

They were around before 1975, but you're on to something. See page 320.

==Page 220==
'''"CAMP"''' [[Image:CAMPlogo.gif|thumb|CAMP Logo|right]] 
[http://www.ag.ca.gov/bne/camp.htm Camp], the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting, is a multiagency law-enforcement taskforce set up by California to eradicate illegal marijuana cultivation and trafficking in the state. Although it is state-created, it includes representatives from state, federal, and local law enforcement agencies.

'''"Willis Chunko"''' 
Nice name.

==Page 221==
'''"Pale blue unmarked little planes appeared, on days of VFR unlimited nearly invisible against the sky, flown by a private vigilante squadron of student antidrug activists..."''' 
Cf. [[Chapter_1#Page 3|p.3]] ("squadron of blue jays stomping around on the roof...").

'''"Kommandant Karl Bopp"''' 
Another great name.

'''"pacified territory"''' 
Growers discuss CAMP progress in Vietnam-like terms.

==Page 222==
'''"All right, you parrots, listen up!"''' 
Parrot sale and shared dreams: Magic realism, gorgeous and surreal; tropical colors and flashy imagery.

==Page 223==
'''"can't shit, can't get a hardon"''' 
The Thanatoid Roast rendered from Van Meter's POV; his paranoia is expressed in terms familiar from [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''].

This passage doesn't concern the atmosphere of the Thanatoid Roast; it describes Van Meter's frustration in failing to lucidly dream his way into the same alternate reality that the children (claim to) perceive. Constipation and impotence are maladies of old age. Van Meter has lost his link to the dreams of the "younger generation" that have been shaped by the parrot media background. Perhaps that's why he's been reduced to playing Thanatoid gigs.

==Page 225==
'''"old-time Combo-Ork arrangements"''' 
There's that lingo again.

'''"rallentando"''' 
A typically obscure Pynchon word, this musical term means exactly the same as ritardando: played with decreasing pace. Perfect for the Thanatoid gig.

==Page 226==
'''"Larry Elasmo"''' 
Cool name. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasticman Plasticman]? Elasmos is Greek for beaten metal (hence elastic) plate. An [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elasmobranchii elasmobranch] is a fish, such as a shark, with a cartilage (not bone) skeleton and [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/elasmobranch tooth-like scales].

But what the fuck is he doing at the Thanatoid Roast? Pynchon is pushing the outside of the coincidence envelope.

Elasmo sequence. Mr. Pynchon, meet Mr. Kafka. This all seems boosted right out of The Trial. Here's Weed, another rebellious American child (like Frenesi), submitting to, or fascinated with, authority. "Because the Doctor says so..." turn your body over to coaches, boys with hardons. Go to the Draft Board Center and sit on the group W bench. Even rational, mathematical, radical Weed does what the dentist tells him to, even if it is manifestly senseless.

Among other questions worth asking: Who authorized Elasmo to issue these compulsory forms that require people to come to his office? And by what mysterious process does Weed's merely waiting around cause him to become confused and dispirited? Maybe the idea is simply to take Weed out of the picture at intervals, so Vond and Frenesi can talk and fuck. There's some hint (from Vond if not from Pynchon) that Weed is collaborating with Vond. If so, we'd expect at least a short scene showing that collaboration. The Elasmo sequence stands in the right position, and serves the same function -- but there's no hint whatsoever of Vond. Pretty weird.

'''"Dr Elasmo's video image had swept, had pixeldanced in"''' 
Image/raster TV techotalk. Pixels = the tiny dots that make up the Tube image.

Another possible explanation of the whole Dr. Larry's World of Discomfort sequence is implied by the passage "Somehow, in Weed's deathstunned memory, Dr. Elasmo's video image had swept, had pixeldanced in, to cover, mercifully, for something else..." Since his commercials were so ubiquitous on TV at the time, is it possible that Weed was doing something else, meeting someone in a bureaucratic building in the city-- meetings that left him feeling stunned, guilty, and sick at heart-- and he has recast and shot these memories as meetings with the faux-celebrity of Dr. Larry Elasmo?

Plasticman indeed.

==Page 227==
'''"Dr. Larry Elasmo, or a person wearing, like a coverall and veil, his ubiquitous screen image grainy, flickering at the edges..."''' 
So not only is the real Elasmo tracking Weed, his TV image is doing it too!

==Page 228==
'''"Ilse, the hygienist..."''' 
Naturally, the dental hygienist in Larry's World of Discomfort is none other than Ilse, the high-heeled Nazi heroine of sixties S&M porno flicks, e.g., Ilse, She-Wolf of the SS.

==Page 230==
'''"...adjusted the pulsing vacuum to meet his own quickening rhythm..."''' 
The scene of Rex adjusting Bruno's carburetors while masturbating in the intakes clearly harks back to certain intimate moments involving Rachel and her MG's gearshift lever in V.

'''"Trash the Xanthocroid"''' 
(See note, [[Chapter 10#Page 197|p. 197]].)

==Page 231==

'''Elliot X''' 

Extremely close to being an anagram for Malcolm X's real last name, Little. Just switch a t for an o?
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malcolm_x WIKI]

Also, some believe the name "Elliot" is derived from the French "Elias" which comes from "Elijah" - which would also factor in a reference to Elijah Muhammad [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elijah_Muhammad WIKI]

==Page 232==

'''"land of the May Events"''' 

Rex is heading to France. May Events refers to the revolts in France in May of 1968. Possibly Rex feels these events going on are more pure in protest/outcome than what is going on with Weed, Frenesi, PR3, etc. especially now that he's feeling high on sacrifice, what with giving up Bruno and all. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/May_events WIKI]

See [http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1#Epigraph epigraph] of ''Inherent Vice''.

'''"Neither one could know how few and fortunate would be any who'd be able to meet in years later than these and smile, relax beneath some single low oak out on an impossible hillside, with sunlight, and the voice of children... drink some chilly gold-green California Chenin Blanc, and laugh, and pour more wine"''' 

Flashsideways (or some-even-stranger-ways) to an imaginary, 4th-dimensional picnic in which Rex, Weed, and Prairie "negotiate an agreeable version of history." This is an important little scene, since it's where the details of the murder are made explicit at last. Or are they? Note the "nearly" in "he nearly blew me away," which seems to suggest that maybe Weed is merely wounded? (It's just Pynchonian smoke; Weed really is killed.) This scene appears to be Rex's fantasy -- except how does he know about Prairie?

I dont think this is necessarily Rex's vision, but Pynchon's foreshadowing (and an alternate version) of the family reunion, kindof a "what if" Weed and Rex had made it, what would they have said, looking back? Obviously, Rex nor Weed will make it to this dreamy "Wineland" (traditional translation of Vineland: see [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinland Vinland]). See page 246 where it specifically refers back to this scene.

It is also ''possible'' that this is actually a dream sequence from Prairie's mind after taking in all of the stories and 24fps film (much like she and DL's convo break up the narrative). See pg. 325.

==Page 233==

'''"Weed had found himself a classical pigeon"''' 
The "flashsideways" ends with Pynchon switching from present tense to (mostly) past tense.

==Page 234==

'''The Invaders''' 

Science fiction TV show about alien invasion that aired on ABC for two seasons in 1967-1968. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Invaders WIKI] The "aliens infiltrating human institutions", paranoia, etc. seems apt here.

'''chocolate-covered banana''' 

Howie enjoys one here, but also a favorite of Bigfoot Bjornson in ''Inherent Vice''.

==Page 235==

'''Amerikan''' 

From [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satiric_misspelling#.E2.80.9CK.E2.80.9D_replacing_.E2.80.9CC.E2.80.9D Wiki]: In the 1960s and early 1970s in the United States, leftists, particularly the Yippies, sometimes used Amerika rather than "America" in referring to the United States. It is still used as a political statement today. It is likely that this was originally an allusion to the German spelling of America, and intended to be suggestive of Nazism, a hypothesis that the Oxford English Dictionary supports.

Note that Franz Kafka's unfinished, first novel, was spelled this way, titled by Max Brod, published posthumously. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerika_(novel) ''Amerika'']

==Page 236==
'''"...he reached for the Tube, popped it on, fastened himself to the screen and began to feed."''' 
A great William Burroughs-style science-fictional, Tube/addictive image.

'''"It's takin his soul, man"''' 
Certain primitive (and not so primitive) tribes believe that when someone takes your photograph it steals your soul. Or maybe Howie means the Tube.
But of course Brock has said that Weed's soul is exactly what he wants.

'''"Culito Canyon"''' 
Spanish for "Little Ass Canyon."

==Page 237==
'''"...might make the Guinness Book someday..."''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guinness_Book Guinness Book of Records], published regularly by the Irish brewery/distillery company, chronicles current achievements in urban sports like phone booth stuffing.

==Page 238==
'''"Famous worms of song"''' 
A play on "The worms crawl in, the worms crawl out, the worms play [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinochle pinochle] on your snout," sung to Mozart/Haydn/whoever's requiem. A famous childhood song, right up there with "Great green gobs of greasy grimy monkeymeat" (It's Gopher guts...see the alliteration.) "Hitler he had just one big ball" and the tragic ballad "Found a Peanut." This is kind of a heavy Pynchon hit on Frenesi's knowledge of Weed's impending doom.

==Page 239==
'''Note the asterisk at the top of the page. How come? Pynchon hasn't needed no steenking asterisks before! Can those worms have thrown him so far off balance that he can't carry on without typographic help? (Actually, there is one earlier asterisk occurrence, at the bottom of [[Chapter 1#Page 8|page 8]]. Go figure.)

'''"ND-1 filters"''' 
ND = Neutral Density; the suffix digit tells how many f stops it reduces incoming light (or outgoing baby-blue intensity) without changing color values.

'''"Nixonian reaction...continued to...compromise...what may only in some fading memories ever have been a people's miracle, an army of loving friends..."''' 
Pynchon seems bitter over the ease with which the government (and its media, and its money) destroyed the ideal/idyll.

==Page 240==
'''"'therapy sessions,' Brock called them..."''' 
Brock seems connected with Elasmo. Does this mean that Weed has really turned? Or that Weed's sessions with the tooth-yanker are just Vond's "reality adjustments," in which Weed is somehow osmosified to believe in Brock's version of reality (in which only power counts, and resistance is futile)?

As discussed on [[Chapter_12#Page_226|page 226]], Elasmo is the Freudian-style dream transformation of Brock Vond in Thanatoid Weed's "deathstunned memory". Pynchon, so far, hasn't described how Weed was "turned".

'''"Smith"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smith_Wesson Smith and Wesson], the largest manufacturer of handguns in the United States.

==Page 241==
'''"24-frame-per-second truth"''' 
Hi, [[Chapter 8#Page 114|Jean-Luc Godard]]!

==Page 242==
'''"frogwork"''' 
Frogs are the knots in which ornate cords (like the ones on doormen's uniform coats) are tied. Similar to Buddhist "priest cords" sometimes used as hangings. Here, frogwork is an evocative metaphor for the intricate shadow cast by the tangle of overhead cables and trolley wires and a very apt one, you'll agree, if you've ever seen the rat's nest of wiring suspended above the street in San Francisco or San Diego.

==Page 244==
'''"the Arri and...a wind-up Bolex"''' 
Two small, light, quiet, highly portable 16mm movie cameras. The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arriflex Arriflex's] electric motor is powered by a battery pack; the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolex Bolex] is (like Pynchon says) spring-driven.

'''"Howie'd kill them again"''' 
Surely should be "Howie'd kick them again".

No. Howie would kick-on the lights, Weed would chicken-out, Howie would kill the lights, then presumably Frenesi would work on Weed some more, then the cycle would repeat.

==Page 245==
'''"a battered old Auricon"''' 
The [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CP-16 Auricon] is another 16mm camera, also battery (or AC) powered, with the handy capability to record live sound right on the film.

==Page 246==
'''"the shirt cloth still burning around the blackly erupted exit, pale flames guttering out..."''' 
Sounds great, but while we're no forensic experts we'd guess that burns would be characteristic of the entry hole of a gunshot wound, not the exit.

'''He would not after all be lucky enough to sit under that oak under that dreamed hillside someday with a miraculously saved Weed Atman, in some 1980s world of the future''' 

Here Rex's actions have changed his "possible" future (see page 232). Now neither Rex nor Weed will be a part of the exodus to Vineland (or Wineland). Also see page 325.

==Page 247==
'''"a Mole-Richardson Series 700 generator ... legendary Eclairs ... Miller heads, Fastaxes ... Norwood Binary light meters"''' 
All deluxe loot from the CotS Film Arts Dept. The "legendary" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eclair_%28camera%29 Eclairs] (there you go again, Mr. Pynchon!) are innovative French 16mm cameras, quieter (and producing a steadier image) than the Arri, Bolex or Auricon cameras mentioned above. The Miller fluid head goes on top of a camera tripod and allows very smooth pans.

'''"Blue Cheer concert"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Cheer Blue Cheer] was a popular "acid-rock" band of the time, named after one of underground chemist Owsley Stanley's most popular (and potent) releases of LSD tablets. The tabs got their name because, in the charming flower-power style of the time, Owsley would dye each new release a different color and the blue tinge of this batch reminded users of a well-known laundry detergent.

'''"7242"''' 
16mm Ektachrome EF reversal film, a medium fast (125 ASA) workhorse stock.

==Page 248==
'''"...a handful of persons [were] unaccounted for. In those days it was unthinkable that any North American agency would kill its own civilians and then lie about it.... Vond referred to it humorously as 'rapture.'"''' 
Rapture is a Biblical reference to the Day of Judgment, when the dead and the living will be taken to Heaven. Vond uses the term again, later, to describe winching Prairie up "into the sky" and abducting her ([[Chapter 15#Page 376|p. 376]]). Pynchon may have picked up the term from ''Job'', [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_heinlein Robert Heinlein's] last great fantasy novel.

[[Image:RaptureSticker.png|thumb|Evangelical Bumper Sticker|right]]In the doctrine of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rapture Rapture] ''only the Christian believers'' will be abducted by God. For evangelicals, Rapture of the Saved occurs before the time of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribulation Tribulation]. Hence the bumper sticker, "In Case of Rapture This Car Will Be Unmanned". People more like Pynchon's audience used "Beam Me Up, Scotty". Vond believes that, like Frenesi, children of the 1960's secretly long for discipline (cf. [[Chapter_13#Page_269|page 269]]) so his rapture analogy is apt.

'''"Fawning, gazing upward at the zipper of his fly, media toadies..."''' 
Here we see the "official" media, directed by the government, rewriting the Sixties on the spot. The only reporter to challenge Vond is dragged away.

'''"field-gray trucks"''' 
Feldgrau, that popular old Wehrmacht color!

==Page 249==
'''"tenebrous cool light"''' 
tenebrous = dark, gloomy.

'''"Federal Emergency Evacuation Route (FEER)"''' 
What a quintessentially Pynchonian idea, and what a powerful image, and what a great acronym!

==Page 250==
'''"ruins from Camelot"''' 
Little left from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kennedy Kennedy] presidency.

'''"the flagship of the 24fps motor pool, a '57 Chevy Nomad"''' 
Cool wheels, but not mentioned in the semi-extensive description of the 24fps vehicle collection on p. 194.

==Page 251==
'''"Virgil Ploce"''' 
Great name. And count on Pynchon to choose an anti-communist with an exploding cigar! Rumors about this supposedly-CIA-backed anti-Castro plot emerged after the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bay_of_Pigs_Invasion Bay of Pigs invasion]. It's never been established whether the gambit was actually put into practice.

==Page 252==
'''"primer cord"''' 
Pynchon makes a common error in this reference; he may only have heard it said, never seen it in writing. This stuff is actually called "Primacord" (a copyrighted name of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ensign-Bickford_Company Ensign-Bickford Company]). It's useful stuff, serving not only as a primer, but as a conveniently cord-shaped explosive substance.

'''"the sudden light from behind, the unbearable sight in the mirror"''' 
An atomic explosion.

'''"the hour of the rat"''' 
In Chinese astrology, the [http://library.thinkquest.org/C0113521/lcon.htm hour of the rat] is the two-hour period from 11pm - 1am. The same concept was used in ancient [http://www.yoshinoantiques.com/time.html Japanese timekeeping].

'''"Be groovy or B movie"''' 
Takeoff on [http://ask.yahoo.com/20061113.html "Be there or be square"].

==Page 253==
'''"...becoming its harsh woven shadow..."''' 
Frenesi = light; DL = shadow; together = film. Also, of course, ones and zeros.

==Page 254==
[[Image:ZPoster.jpg|thumb|Poster for ''Z''|right]]
'''"Hasta la proxima, querida mia"''' 
Spanish: "Until next time, my dear." The letter "Z" is, of course, the trademark of Zorro. This steamy scene seems virtually pointless; maybe Pynchon got horny while he was writing. "Perhaps...not unscented" indeed! ([[Chapter 8#Page 118|See also p. 118]], with the smell of DL's "pussy excitation.")

The letter "Z" also stands for Ζει, he lives, which was scrawled on Greek walls in the 1960's to show that the spirit of resistance still lived. This was popularized worldwide in 1969 by the political film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z_(film) ''Z''].

==Page 255==
'''"the subroutine Yukai na...a low-order limbic pleasure cycle that would loop over and over"''' 
Interesting use of computer programming lingo in the martial arts world.

More cyberpunk shtick.

'''"the rodent hour"''' 
Given the refs to Daffy and Bugs in the previous sentence, this might refer to the Mickey Mouse Club show on the Tube, but was that one hour or one half hour??

No, go back to [[Chapter_12#Page_252|Page 252]] "They arrived ... well before dawn, the hour of the rat ...". DL is indeed sneaking into the prison camp like a rat stealing some cheese.

==Page 258==
'''"''A llover''"''' 
What a great meal! ''A llover'' is Spanish for, "It's about to rain," but it also refers to the fact that it's "all over" for the outdoor desayuno. Pynchon puns again.

==Page 259==
'''"powder to the people"''' 
Ouch! Punning on the slogan [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_to_the_people_%28slogan%29 "Power to the People"] which was a rallying cry of the Black Panthers, as well as [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_to_the_People_%28song%29 a song by John Lennon].

'''"Feel like we were running around like little kids with toy weapons, like the camera really was some kind of gun, gave us that kind of power. Shit. How could we lose track like that, about what was real?"''' 
Frenesi has totally bought Vond's line about the powerlessness of film vs. a gun. (And that's how they got her. And us.)

:And yet: 
:"You don't die for no motherfuckin' shadows" page 202 
:"...sold off my only real fortune - my precious anger - for a lot of got-damn shadows" page 291

'''"who'd we save"''' 
Yet another preterite reference, and one that harks back to Hector's speech on [[Chapter 3#Page 28|p. 28]].
[[Image:PurpleOwsleyBear.jpg|thumb|A Purple ''Grateful Dead'' Bear|right]]
'''"Purple Owsley"''' 
Another run of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owsley_Stanley Owsley's] high-grade color-coded LSD.

The same Owsley "Bear" Stanley also worked as soundman for the band [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grateful_dead ''Grateful Dead''], and was one of the inspirations for their dancing bear logo.

==Page 260==
'''"You know what happens when my pussy's runnin' the show."''' 
If this is Frenesi's only motivation for the series of betrayals (including her betrayal of herself) that lie at the heart of ''Vineland'', it's a thin reed on which to build a book. Unless we buy into Sister Rochelle's Eden parable in which Vond represents the snaky seductiveness of authority, and Frenesi stands for a postwar America that's eager to surrender its freedom. Indeed, Frenesi's enjoyment of bondage and discipline games, which free her of responsibility, makes a strong connection with all the S&M sequences in the book (see next note).

These are Frenesi's rationalizations to DL, not Pynchon's explanations for her behavior. Note: "... getting things wrong on purpose, and more and more wrong as it went falling to pieces" and "blaming external drug molecules for each of her failures ...". There is some truth to her excuses, but, as Pynchon indicates, not the whole truth.

'''"behind the Thorazine curtain"''' 
Pynchon on a sadism kick. He does seem to have a weakness for this stuff, as many sequences in Gravity's Rainbow will attest.

'''"5 mg Stelazine plus 50 of Thorazine"''' 
Thorazine and Stelazine are antihallucinatory specifics, usually used to treat schizophrenics.

==Page 261==
'''"1,000-watt Mickey-Mole spot"''' 
An open face (lensless) focusing studio light from the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mole-Richardson Mole-Richardson company]. It rhymes, too.

==Page 263==
'''"out in the zodiac..."''' 
Vond is a Scorpio. What else?

'''"idiolalia"''' 
Pynchon loves these esoteric terms. It means a private language. Here starts the paranoia about 24fps'rs disappearing which echoes people disappearing from the computer ([[Chapter 6#Page 85|p. 85]]), and the Kahuna airplane ([[Chapter 5#Page 65|p. 65]]).

It also echoes the disappearing people in [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four Nineteen Eighty-Four] and Philip K. Dick's novel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UBIK UBIK]. Cf. [[Chapter_8#Page_111|page 111]].

==Page 264==
'''"Reagan's got it for when he invades Nicaragua,"''' 
DL's prediction of Reagan's invasion of Nicaragua never came true; the closest Reagan ever came was [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Contra Iran-Contra]. Cf. [[Chapter_15#Page_353|page 353]]

==Page 265==
'''"Why would he come after us?"''' 
Good question.

'''"The whole Reagan program..."''' 
Yeah! Go, Pynchon, go!

==Page 266==
'''Vond is "after Frenesi...to use her for some task."''' 
OK, what task?

Perhaps to get Prairie, the future. Cf. page 50. Remember that this part of the story is taking place in the Reagan Era, not the Nixon Era. Pynchon's take on the Reagan Era was that the nightmare was beginning all over again.

'''"So the big bad Ninjamobile swept along on the great Ventura [Freeway]...above the heads of TV watchers, lovers under the overpasses, movies at malls letting out, bright gas-station oases in pure fluorescent spill...down the corridors of the surface streets, in nocturnal smog, the adobe air, the smell of distant fireworks, the spilled, the broken world."''' 
What a great paragraph! Yes, the cat can write -- rhyming verse and all: "flirters, deserters, wimps and pimps"

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's good to be the King.

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

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

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

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

COINTELPRO is the real-world model for Brock Vond's projects. Pynchon has moved the program from the FBI to its parent agency the Department of Justice in order to emphasize the parallels with Orwell's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four ''Ninteen Eighty-Four''] and remove the specific association with J. Edgar Hoover. For a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_committee US Senate Committee] catalog of some of COINTELPRO's projects, click [http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/churchfinalreportIIcd.htm here].

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It's good to be the King.

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

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

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

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

COINTELPRO is the real-world model for Brock Vond's projects. Pynchon has moved the program from the FBI to its parent agency the Department of Justice in order to emphasize the parallels with Orwell's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nineteen_Eighty-Four ''Ninteen Eighty-Four''] and remove the specific association with J. Edgar Hoover. For a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_committee US Senate Committee] catalog of some of COINTELPRO's projects, click [http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/churchfinalreportIIcd.htm here].

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Chapter 10

2011-03-04T22:31:22Z

Lorenz: /* Page 198 */

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==Page 192==
'''"Zero Profile Paint & Body"''' 
Another zero.

'''"proprietary lacquer"'''[[Image:InvisiblePlane.jpg|thumb|Wonder Woman's Invisible Airplane|right]] 
makes Trans-Am invisible. A distant echo of Imipolex G in [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow'']?

A not-so-distant echo of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonder_woman Wonder Woman's] invisible airplane.

==Page 193==
'''"little robot fridge [named Raoul], with two round video screens...each with an image of a cartoon eye."''' 
This is so cute! And, significantly, this robot icebox delivers "refrigerator tunes."

'''"tachyon chamber"''' 
Science fiction window dressing, presumably an imaginary subassembly of the make-believe time machine. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tachyons Tachyons] are whimsical sub-atomic particles; the root is from the Greek = swift.

'''"exactly a tenth of a second after the warranty ran out, the 'sucker blew..."''' 
Clearly a hair-trigger critical-need-detector.

==Page 194==
'''"distant wash of freeway sound, the concrete surf"''' 
Nice writing. Is this the sound beer-riders hear? Or Chuck Berry's "highway sound" (from [[Chapter 15#Page 328|"Maybelline"]])?

==Page 195==
'''"ECO stock"''' 
See note, [[Chapter 8#Page 116|p. 116]].

==Page 196==
'''"grown up in New York City and, except for geographically, never left it..."''' 
Ah, we know the type.

==Page 197==
'''"Xanthocroid looks"''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Huxley Thomas Henry Huxley] (1825-1895) classified mankind into types, according to physical appearance. Xanthochroi, one of his classes, is a subdivision of the Leiotrichi, or smooth-haired type, having yellow or light-colored hair and a pale complexion. This is the prevailing type in Northern Europe. Aryan. Either Pynchon, his editor, or his typesetter has dropped the "h" in "chroi."

'''"Sledge Poteet"''' 
Cool name.

==Page 198==
'''"Tsuris"''' 
Yiddish for "trouble."

'''"Tzimmes"''' 
Yiddish for "a state of confusion." Yiddish is very rich in words for trouble and confusion.

'''"When backs were left uncovered and chores undone..."''' 
The interpersonal dynamics of 24fps are very convincing.

==Page 199==
'''"shaygetz"''' 
Yiddish for "non-Jewish man." This one happens to be Brock Vond.

==Page 200==
'''"her faithful 16mm Canon Scoopic"'''[[Image:Scoopic.jpg|thumb|Canon Scoopic 16|right]] 
The [http://www.canon.com/camera-museum/camera/cine/data/1956-1970/1965_sc16.html?lang=undefined&categ=crn&page=1956-1970 Canon Scoopic 16], introduced in 1965, was the first 16mm movie camera with a built-in zoom lens. It has a phallic appearance.

'''"this one [shot] of Brock ended up on a bedsheet"''' 
Specifically, this means projected on an improvised bedsheet screen, but of course it also foreshadows the smell of sexual developments before the fact.

'''"...you got some real pretty takes of this creep..."''' 
DL catches on right away that Frenesi is falling for Vond.

'''"The roll ended."''' 
But the flashback continues. Very smooth transition.

==Page 201==
'''"Then a man in a uniform, with a big pistol, would have to make you come"''' 
Sinister/sexy wordplay foreshadows the rapid development of Vond's takeover of Frenesi, and her infatuation with him. It's actually a microcosmic bondage scene, in which Frenesi, the bound partner, is freed of responsibility and guilt.

'''"arguments about light"''' 

Here Pynchon exposes the arguments that 24fps have about light. Though they believe they are all working for one cause, this seems to be their major argument, something they cannot agree upon. Meaning-of-life/origin-of-life/religious metaphor? See also p. 185.

'''"grid-access devices"''' 
Some resonance here to Gravity's Rainbow, and the tale of Byron the Bulb.

==Page 202==
'''"Central Power itself, merciless as a tornado ... only become, for a while, less visible"''' 
This is a clue about what it is about Brock Vond that attracts Frenesi.

'''"You don't die for no motherfuckin' shadows"''' 
Good advice.

==Page 203==
'''"CZ gas"''' 
High-powered tear gas but note that the initials are the same as DL's Czech motorcycle.

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