Rec.

[Steelhead]

>Wolfe's book about Kesey seems to alluded to at times--
>"living inside the system is like being on a bus driven by a madman" and
>"double de-clutchingly, heel and toe, away goes Roger Mexico" seem like
>references to the Merry Pranksters' bus driver--the legendary Neal Cassady,
>linchpin of the Beats and the 60s Counterculture.
>
>Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)


OK, Don.  I'll buy that, to a point.  But if "Further" was part of the
System, and Cassidy, its charismatic leader, I'm not sure even I'd like
to join the Counterforce.  In this same vein, however, I'd have to toss
in Pynchon-buddy Paul Krassner's (the editor of the Realist) new retrospective
of those days Confessions of a Raving Unconfined Nut.

But here's a question for you (You like movies don't you, Don? All these
other Pynchon-heads seemed to have already been treated for that
malady--not me, I'd still rather look than read).  What the hell was
Ruggles watching, in those
days.  I have my ideas, like:

Preston Sturges' commedies, such as Miracle at Morgan Creek, Hail the
Conquering Hero, and Sullivan's Travels, which are so Pynchonesque

Buster Keaton, The General, the Navigator, Ballonitics, Cops, and the
Electric House, just to name a few of my favorites

Fritz Laing, nothing new there, but is Mabuse out on videotape and does
anyone talk about his strange Hollywood oeuvre, Rancho Notorious, Ministry
of Fear, Manhunt,The Big Heat (wow!) and Moonfleet?

Godard, Alphaville, et all, for the paranoia, wild cutting and left-wing pov

Resnais, Last Train, and all that

Welles, Touch of Evil, Journey into Fear, Lady from Shanghai (great,
neglected film), Mr Arkadin, Kane, of course

Nicholas Ray, everything, but particularly They Live By Night, In a Lonely
Place, Run for Cover, and Rebel

Howard Hawkes, yes a studio director and not a subversive one, but look at
the crazy way I was a Male War Bride, Bringing Up Baby or His Girl Friday
(Hugh Grant the next Cary Grant?...in his wet dreams) are put together, he
could pull that screwball stuff off and still make films like The Big
Sleep, Scarface, 20th Century, and Red River...man where have directors
like Hawkes gone

Raoul Walsh (that up and down bastard), Pursued, High Sierra, White Heat,
Breaking Point

The much neglected Jacques Tournier, Cat People, I Walked with a Zombie,
Experiment Perilous,  Way of a Gaucho, Out of the Past and The Fearmakers
(oooh..)

Hitchock, no doubt Pynchon saw all of those, many, many times

Kubrick, everyone mentions Strangelove and Lolita, but what about the even
better Paths of Glory and The Killing (take that Quentin Tarrantino, you
shamelss plagerist)

And, then, there are the Russains, of course, the men of the montage, like
Pudovkin and Eisenstein.

W-wait a minute, certainly, Frank Tashlin's complete canon belongs here,
esp. Artists and Models, The Girl Can't Help It (a female Slothrop?), and
the Disorderly Orderly

Wow.  Get excited just talking about it.  Now, if Blockbuster just carried
any of these films maybe I could get my fix.

Steelhead