Reader's Guide to Vineland
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- Bu səhifədəki naviqasiya:
- Movies in Vineland
- Godzilla, King of the Monsters
- The G. Gordon Liddy Story
history may let them rest (or even party) at last.
It's extremely odd that Pynchon, one of the finest writers of the 20th Century, should have a problem with endings -- but that's the fact, Jack. His best ending, the stupendously cinematic blackout in V *, is undercut by 36 pages of slow, intricate Epilogue that follow. The Crying of Lot 49 ends with a drawn-out reverie in which Pynchon seems to have finally discerned what the book is about -- communication -- but now it's time to pay the piper, finish quickly, and abandon the infant novel crying in its basket on the publisher's doorstep. And while the ending in Gravity's Rainbow is structurally "correct" (the plot and all the characters atomize as the V- 2 explodes at the end of its parabola), it's maddeningly unsatisfying since the book ends without a resolution. [*"Presently, sudden and in silence, all illumination in Valletta, houselight and streetlight, was extinguished. Profane and Brenda continued to run through the abruptly absolute night, momentum alone carrying them toward the edge of Malta, and the Mediterranean beyond."] Given this grim history of bitter ends, it should come as no surprise that there is a problem with the ending of Vineland. Vond is conveniently "faded out" (via a budget cut) in Chapter 15 to enable the Happy Ending. But if the novel represents the real world (as we must assume it does, or it would be no more than a pointless divertissement), what "real" event occurred in 1984 to justify Vond's withdrawal and defeat in the book? None, we think. Did Vond (and the threat he represents -- a repressive and totalitarian government) fade out in 1984? Hardly. The heaviest Federal/CAMP attack ever on Humboldt County marijuana growers occurred in August, 1990. Since Vond has clearly not faded away in real life, it's a cheat that he does so in the novel.
One of the most obvious (and charming) of Pynchon's stylistic trademarks is his frequent use of musical references; in fact, he seems to have a musician's viewpoint. Musicians (particularly jazz musicians), are hip, hep, preterite, and -- above all else -- cool. The jazzman on the bandstand observes the scene on the floor, but remains uninvolved, and often unobserved himself, though of course his rhythm and melodies are making the dancing happen -- a bit like Pynchon's role in his novels. But if jazzbos (and Pynchon) are preterites, they're preterites who recognize and accept their unredeemability -- which frees them to create, for only we are listening. Song lyrics have appeared in Pynchon's work from the very beginning -- other people's songs at first, but, increasingly, his own too. There's a revealing observation in one of Pynchon's earliest stories: "...[Dennis Flange] would sing Cindy the Noel Coward song, half as an attempt to recall the first few months they were together, half as a love song for the house: 'We'll be as happy and contented As birds upon a tree, High above the mountains and sea... However Noel Coward songs often bear little relevance to reality--..." --[Low-Lands, 1960] By the time V appeared, Pynchon's penchant for song as a literary device was apparent; scarcely a chapter can be found without at least one set of Pynchonian lyrics, and some "real" songs appear as well. This continued with The Crying of Lot 49, Gravity's Rainbow, and Vineland. Some of the early songs come with helpful hints for guessing the tunes. For instance, most of page 203 of the Ballantine paperback version of V is devoted to the 1956 phenom of Davy Crockett, going on to declare that "the [Davy Crockett TV/Movie theme song] invited parody." Whereupon Pynchon gives it to us with both barrels: nine verses of The Ballad of Rooney Winsome. Unfortunately, it has become increasingly difficult to assign tunes to Pynchon's more recent lyrics. Given all the hints that Pynchon is, in fact, a musician, it's only reasonable to assume that most of these songs are set to original melodies -- but until Little, Brown comes out with The Authorized Thomas Pynchon Songbook, we're on our own. In 1970, a folk-rock band called The Insect Trust (one of whose members, Robert Palmer, would go on to fame and fortune as a music critic for The New York Times) issued an LP called Hoboken Saturday Night. It included a version of one of Pynchon's loveliest lyrics from V, "The Eyes of a New York Woman." An appropriately bluesy tune was provided by one Jeff Ogden -- not a member of the band. Surprisingly, Pynchon
was displeased with Insect Trust's initiative. A lawyer representing the writer contacted the band and told them Pynchon wanted the LP withdrawn. After some negotiation, the band agreed to stop performing the song live, and Pynchon withdrew his threat of legal action. As far as we know, this is the only time a Pynchon song has been performed and/or recorded. Pynchon's songs in Vineland are arguably his best. If only we knew the tunes! Songs In Vineland Little Grass Skirt ( 63) Wacky Coconuts (66) Floozy With an Uzi (104) Just Like a William Powell (162) Kick Out the Jambs (191) Thanatoid World (224) Another Cheap Romance (281) Lawrence of Arabia (309) Daughters of the Road (331) The Tube (336-337) Es Posible (356) Like a Meat Loaf (363)
Film and filmmaking was a major theme in Gravity's Rainbow -- and clearly, Pynchon's interest in the cinema has not flagged. There are more explicit film references in Vineland than in any previous Pynchon novel. This tends to underscore the possibility that the novel is, in fact, itself a movie. Some of the films are imaginary "movies for TV" -- usually in the form of The Something-or-Other Story with Somebody-or-Other. Real movies are invariably followed by a bracketed date -- probably a satirical takeoff on academic film criticism.
Penn as Larry Bird, Paul McCartney as Kevin McHale, Lou Gossett, Jr., as Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Douglas as Pat Riley, and Jack Nicholson (notorious round ball fan) as himself. (371, 377)
One of the greatest pleasures in reading Pynchon is his genius for creating outrageous/clever/amusing names
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