Thomas Pynchon Wiki - User contributions [en]

Chapter 14

2009-08-27T05:32:51Z

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==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.

'''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.

'''"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.

==Page 303==
'''"conjunto"''' 
Spanish for "small band," or "combo."

'''"los vatos de Chiques"''' 
"Chicano dudes."

==Page 306==
'''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''].

==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!

'''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==
'''"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==
'''"...me entiendes como te digo?"''' 
Spanish for "Unnerstan' what I'm sayin'?"

'''"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.

==Page 313==
'''"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==
'''"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"''' 
Great intro to Zoyd in Vineland.

==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.

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Chapter 12

2009-08-27T05:14:23Z

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==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.

==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.

==Page 220==
'''"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''].

==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]? 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?

==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 232==
'''"...smile and relax beneath some single low oak out on an impossible hillside..."''' 
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?

==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)?

'''"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".

==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.

==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 Stan Owsley'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 used to 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.

'''"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.

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

==Page 254==
'''"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.")

==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.

'''"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??

==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.)

'''"who'd we save"''' 
Yet another preterite reference, and one that harks back to Hector's speech on [[Chapter 3#Page 28|p. 28]].

'''"Purple Owsley"''' 
Another run of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owsley_Stanley Owsley's] high-grade color-coded LSD.

==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).

'''"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]]).

==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?

'''"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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