Reader's Guide to Vineland
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in case of an atomic attack. DL returns to Berkeley and reunites with the 24fps survivors. They drive off to rescue Frenesi. DL uses Ninjette techniques to sneak into the camp and break Frenesi out. After dropping the 24fps people in Berkeley, she and Frenesi drive to Mexico, where Frenesi confesses to DL. DL is disgusted. She drives Frenesi back across the border and drops her in Las Suegras -- where, presumably, Frenesi is about to meet Zoyd. It was (says DL, narrating the end of the flashback in present tense at Ditzah's) the last time she ever saw Frenesi. There's some astrological stuff, the main thrust of which is that bad as things are they're about to get worse. (Generally a safe prediction.) There's also an alarming message from Zipi (Ditzah's sister) that several of the old 24fps members have recently disappeared. DL searches for (and finds) a bug. Then Ditzah, Prairie, Takeshi and DL pile in the Ninjamobile and head for cover.
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. p. 220 "Willis Chunko" Nice name. p. 221 "Kommandant Karl Bopp" Ditto. p. 221 "pacified territory" Growers discuss CAMP progress in Vietnam-like terms. p. 222-223 "All right, you parrots, listen up!" Parrot sale and shared dreams: Magic realism, gorgeous and surreal; tropical colors and flashy imagery. p. 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 GR. p. 225 "old-time Combo-Ork arrangements" There's that lingo again. p. 225 "rallentando" A typically obscure Pynchon word, this musical term means exactly the same as ritardando: played with decreasing pace. Perfect for the Thanatoid gig. p. 226 "Larry Elasmo" Cool name. Plasticman? But what the fuck is he doing at the Thanatoid Roast? Pynchon is pushing the outside of the coincidence envelope. p. 226-228 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. p. 226 "Dr Elasmo's video image had swept, had pixeldanced in" Image/raster TV techotalk. Pixels = the tiny dots that make up the Tube image. p. 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! p. 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. p. 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.
(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?
great William Burroughs-style science-fictional, Tube/addictive image. p. 236 "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. p. 236 "Culito Canyon" = Spanish for "Little Ass Canyon." p. 237 "...might make the Guinness Book someday..." The Guinness Book of Records, published regularly by the Irish brewery/distillery company, chronicles current achievements in urban sports like phone booth stuffing.
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," "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. p. 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?
light (or outgoing baby-blue intensity) without changing color values. p. 239 "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. p. 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)? p. 240 "Smith" = Smith and Wesson. p. 241 "24-frame-per-second truth" Hi, Jean-Luc. p. 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.
The Arriflex' electric motor is powered by a battery pack; the Bolex is (like Pynchon says) spring-driven. p. 245 "a battered old Auricon" Another 16mm camera, also battery (or AC) powered, with the handy capability to record live sound right on the film. p. 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.
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. p. 247 "Blue Cheer concert" 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. Yüklə 330,83 Kb. Dostları ilə paylaş:
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