Pig Bodine WAS Re: Drugs in Pynchon's fiction

[Doug Millison]

TRP makes it pretty clear in his SL intro that Bodine is based on a real
person. Of Dennis Flange, in "Low-lands", he writes:  "Oddly enough, I had
not intended this to be Dennis's story at all -- he was supposed to have
been a straight man for Pig Bodine. The counterpart in real life to this
unwholesome bluejacket was actually my starting point. I had heard the
honeymoon story when I was in the navy, from a gunner's mate on my ship
[...] As it turned out, my partner's drinking companion figured in a wide
body of shipboard anecdote. Transferred before my time to shore duty
someplace, he had become a legend. I finally did get to see him the day
before I was discharged, mustering in the early morning outside a barracks
at the Norfolk naval base. The minute I caught sight of him, before I heard
him answer to his name, I swear I had the strange ESP knowledged that
that's who he was. Not to overdramatize the moment -- but because I still
like Pig Bodine so much, having brought the character in a time or two
since in novels, it's pleasant to recall that our paths really did cross in
this apparitional way."

At 8:51 AM -0400 10/26/99, Paul Mackin wrote: [...]
>And yes there is Bodine. Having been a Navy enlisted man myself I came
>across many Bodines. If you're not already a Bodine when you go in, you
>will certainly get lots of encouragement to become one, if you have any
>inclinations along thos lines at all--there's such a big appreciative
>audience to draw upon.  I don't see Bodine as being a REAL person.[...]

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