Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

Chapter 8

2009-02-26T14:16:25Z

Lyconaut: /* Page 117 */

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

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

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

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

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

'''"pepinares"''' 
cucumbers. See also the [[Chapter 1#Page 3|Cucumber Lounge]]. Why so many cucumbers? Phallic?

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

==Page 111==
'''"Cream of mushroom soup"''' 
Universal Binding Ingredient. Great gag, maybe even a true insight (Campbell's cream of mushroom soup being the central, and not-so-secret, ingredient of the ubiquitous, and often despised, "family dish" tuna noodle casserole). All stated in Pynchonian mock-technoese.

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

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

==Page 113==
'''"casseroles beginning to redline"''' 
A clever application of racing slang (redline = engine about to blow up from revving too fast) to cooking (casserole about to burn).

==Page 114==
'''"24fps"''' 
fps = frames per second. Motion picture film is projected at 24 frames per second. The radical filmmaking group seems to be based on a real "revolutionary film collective," sf newsreel -- right down to the lower case letters. It's also a subtle echo of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Luc_Godard Jean-Luc Godard's] famous dictum that "Cinema is truth 24 times a second."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In the 2000 Vintage edition there is no "Sorry, folks!", just [dash]"It's the Revolution, girl - can't you feel it?"

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

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

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

==Page 122==
'''"spheriphagous tulips"''' 
ball-catchers in a [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pachinko pachinko game]. Spheriphagous = sphere-eating.

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

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

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

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

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

==Page 123==
'''"like vacationing on another planet and losing her traveler's checks."''' 
This description of DL's puberty and adolescence is fine writing, and a telling insight.

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

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

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

==Page 126==
'''"''kobun''"''' 
Yakuza retainer; button man; bodyguard.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

'''"She and Prairie were out taking a break..."''' 
Fabulously smooth cross-fade out of flashbacks back to DL and Prairie talking at SKA.
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Chapter 4

2009-02-26T11:21:10Z

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==Page 35==
'''"imbrication"''' 
An overlapping, like leaves, fish scales, or certain geological strata.

'''"depraved yuppie food preferences"''' 
Go get 'em, TP!

'''"RC and Moonpie"''' 
Names taken from Big Bill Liston's 1951 hillbilly hit, "Gimme an RC Cola and a Moonpie." The MoonPie was the original marshmallow sandwhich. RC Cola was first marketed in 1905 in Plano, Texas. Back then you could buy an RC Cola and MoonPie for 10 cents, and some consider the favorite fast-food lunch of the 1950s, at least in the South. [http://www.timesanddemocrat.com/articles/2007/07/16/opinion/doc469a4b3cb3e75185050602.txt More on that MoonPie...]

==Page 37==
'''"Beer riders"''' 
A nice conceit, typically Pynchonian: kamikaze rednecks racing through the tule fog.

'''"behind a 409"''' 
This would be a 60s Chevy with a 409 cu. in. engine, made famous by the Beach Boy's hit "(She's real fine my) 409". The 1960s saw an arms race regarding engine size, with the Chevrolet 409 topping the Ford 406 cu. in. in 1961, and Chrysler topping Chevrolet with the 426 Ramcharger. [http://www.55-57chevys.com/coccc/articles/646/65asty1.html More on the Chevy 409...]

'''"white presences, full of blindness and sudden highway death..."''' 
Echoes the "white visitation" of [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=W#whitevisitation ''Gravity's Rainbow''], as well as Melville's whiteness of the whale. Also a pungent evocation of graveworms: There's more death in this phrase than meets the eye, foreshadowing the Thanatoids.

'''"...all at once, there in the road, a critter in a movie..."''' 
A Japanese horror movie, no doubt! ([[Chapter 5#Page 65|See note, p. 65.]])

'''Dick Dale''' 
Dale, a left-handed Californian (two strikes against) guitar player, was dubbed "King of the Surf Guitar" in the 1950s – and there's some truth to his claim that he invented surf music. He made a surprise reappearance in a commercial for the Nissan Armada in 2004 and 2005. [http://www.dickdale.com/ Dick's website]

==Page 39==
'''"Can love save anyone?"''' 
"Save" is Calvinist/Christian terminology -- another reference to the binary distinction between elect and preterite, one and zero.

==Page 40==
'''"Mr. Sulu"''' 
The navigator on [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_trek Star Trek]

==Page 41==
'''"The Steam Donkey"''' 
A bar named after the logger's mechanical badass winch.

'''"...she rilly freaked when she found out she was pregnant"''' 
As we'll see in the final chapter, Vond's last escapade is mostly an attempt to abduct Prairie. So the paranoid reader might ask: Is Frenesi merely a convenient mechanism to set up all of the important stuff in the book? Or is she simply Patty Hearst in reverse?

==Page 42==
'''"...time to go to commercials..."''' 
Zoyd remembers expecting life to be like TV -- a dangerous side-effect of TV addiction. The passage goes on to note that Zoyd was "Sent...gaga by those mythical days of high drama..."

'''"Le Bucheron Affame"''' 
Probably The Starving Logger, but possibly The Starving French Goat Cheese.

==Page 43==
'''"Humbolaya Restaurant"''' 
Humboldt County + Jambalaya (with tofu ''etouffe'', yet!).

'''"After a short recorded program of themes from famous TV shows..."''' 
The telephone "hold" circuit at NEVER plays TV themes, which is like calling Alcoholics Anonymous and getting a medley of "One Scotch, One Bourbon, One Beer" and "Hey Bartender." But of course, the "VE does stand for "Video Education"...

'''"'Ti Bruce"''' 
'Ti = Creole/Cajun shorthand for petit = little, hence Ti Bruce = Little Bruce. Can chef 'Ti Bruce be a gag on Bay Area chef and sausage-maker "Big Bruce" Aidells? Seems unlikely...but you never know.

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

==Page 44==
'''"script possibilities"''' 
Presumably, an off-the-cuff creation of a believable cover story concerning some vehicle's provenance.

==Page 45==
'''"another one of those intestinal pangs"''' 
... of fear. See also pages [[Chapter 1#Page 10|10]], [[Chapter 8#Page 116|116]], [[Chapter 11#Page 207|207]], [[Chapter 14#Page 299|299]].

'''"the slowest fast food in the region"''' 
Hilarious riff on trendy California health-food pizza.

==Page 46==
'''"The Marquis de Sod."''' 
Hazardously funny.

==Page 47==
'''"those old split 30's during the vampire shift"''' 
TV ad lingo, referring to 15-second TV spots (splitting a 30-second commercial break) often on in the wee hours. Vampire shift is a Pynchon usage, we think; more common is "graveyard shift."

'''"A lawn savant..."''' 
An amazing goof on "La Marseillaise" ("allons enfants...")

==Page 48==
'''"more liens than the tower of Pisa...more garnishes than a California burger"''' 
Bad, bad puns. Bad, bad Pynchon.

'''"Pat Sajak in The Frank Gorshin Story"''' 
Gorshin was a hollow-eyed comedian and TV celeb from the late fifties, sort of a cross between Dan Duryea and Richard Widmark. He was probably best known as The Riddler on the Batman TV show.

==Page 49==
'''Bodhi Dharma Pizza''' 
Ginsberg, Kerouac, and many of the other beat writers were deep into Zen Buddhism, including the famous zen koan that asks Why Has Bodhi-Dharma Left for the East? Some of that trickled down to the hippies, their (sort of) spiritual descendents.

==Page 50==
'''"Brock Vond"''' 
Another badass "V." Pynchon has a long-standing history of bad guys whose names start with "V." In this case, as we will see, the V stands for Vampire as well as Villain.

==Page 51==
'''"eightfold pizzic mandala"''' 
Extending the Buddhist riff on "Bodhi Dharma Pizza" on [[Chapter 4#Page 49|p. 49]: Eightfold because pizza is always cut into 8 slices, which reminds Pynchon of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eightfold_path eightfold path of classic Buddhism]. Also, pizza is round, like those beautiful symbols of that eightfold path. And we’re all stoned.

'''"all those long-ago political wars"''' 
Presumably referring to the decades of class struggle that form the subtextual background for this novel – from the (IWW) Wobblies at the turn of the 20th Century and the general labor strikes of the 1930s through the freedom rider/Black Panther/ hippie/yippie activism of the '50s, '60s and '70s, and on into the battle for existence carried on by progressive people against ever-increasing attacks by the legions of corporate evil headed by Nixon and Reagan in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s.

==Page 52==
'''"Baba Havabananda"''' 
i.e., have a banana. Groucho Marx meets Swami Satchidananda at R. Crumb's?

==Page 55==
'''"like a time machine departing for the future..."''' 
Fine writing.

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Chapter 3

2009-02-26T10:59:29Z

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

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

'''"musician Scott Oof"''' 
Another inspired name.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Chapter 3

2009-02-26T10:57:02Z

Lyconaut: /* Page 31 */

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

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

'''"musician Scott Oof"''' 
Another inspired name.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

{{Vineland PbP}}