two notes

[David Jordan]

On Sun, 14 Jan 1996, Chris Stolz wrote:

> 
> Two things i recently noticed-- are there any comments.
> 
> 1)  Pynchon's writing has one enormous pop-cultural hole in it:
> I vcan find no references to professional sports.
> 

I can.  In _Vineland_ he makes two passing references to Brent Mussburger,
a well enough known sports commentator.  Brent (if I may be so familiar)
is the sport figure Prairie Wheeler says she would most like to be (in
answer to a teacher's question) (p. 327).  A few pages later, the narrator
opines that Mr. Mussberger would consider the shoplifting techniques
employed by Prairie and her mallrat companion, Che, to be "at a fairly
easy ... level of play" (p. 331). 

> 2) 1984 was the year that the Vineland Behavioral Adaptation 
> test appeared, this being a psych profile that determines to what 
> extent people with certain types of "problems" (antisocial 
> behaviors, histories of violence or abuse, low IQ, etc.) can 
> adapt to non-institutional life (among other things).  

There's also an extensive township in southern New Jersey call "Vineland." 
It was probably there in 1984.  How about that?  (For reference consult,
say, the Rand McNally roadmap of New Jersey, and for a from-the-periphery
look at the odd, _Vineland_-related ethos and reality of southern New
Jersey consult _The Tracker_ by Tom Brown.)

David Jordan
littlcat at netcom.com