LSD, JFK, CIA?

[Tim Strzechowski]

jbor wrote:

> But Oedipa doesn't seem at all non-plussed about Hilarius's use of those
> various hallucinogens in "the experiment he was helping the community
> hospital run." (10)

I disagree.  When Hilarius asks how the pills are, she replies, "I'm not taking
them." (Harper Perrenial, 16).  Thus begins a Marx Brothers-esque conversation
between the two in which Oedipa's trust in the good Doctor is questioned.  She
tries to divert his attention to the "half a million others" (patient/guinea
pigs, I assume) to badger, and concludes her conversation by hanging up and
vowing to never "take the capsules he'd given her... She didn't want to get
hooked in any way, she'd told him that" (18).  Oedipa almost sounds like one of
those typical voice-overs in a 1957 public service film reel: "Kids today are
getting hooked on reefer, and going insane."  Is Oedpa non-plussed?  I'd say
she's downright fed-up with Dr. H. and the drugs he's giving her! (She does
advise Mucho to hang up on him if he calls while she's gone, don't forget).

> The point certainly doesn't seem to be that the use of
> LSD, cactus juice, mushrooms etc was being kept secret by anyone either. I
> think the image which immediately follows (Uncle Sam as a junky) doesn't so
> much indict the C.I.A. for the irresponsible use of mind-altering substances
> in research as it does the mainstream of American science and govt. (cf. Who
> put the coke in Coca-Cola in _GR_?)
>

No, there are no specific references to the CIA.  I don't believe anyone said
that Pynchon was, in this novel, pointing his finger accusingly (and/or
directly) at the CIA.  But the clandestine drug experimentation conducted by the
CIA (the historical fact behind the fiction) was, in fact, a horrid marriage
between "the mainstream of American science and government" that the stoner
Uncle Sam hallucination comes to represent.

I don't recall if it was discussed, but what do people make of the "Fu Manchu"
transformation of Uncle Sam immediately following her conversation w/ Dr. H.?

Tim