correcting typo RE: col49 2 pt2

[jbor]

Actually, excerpts from the novel were published in _Esquire_,in December
1965, and _Cavalier_ in March 1966. I suspect that the latter excerpt at
least, entitled 'The Shrink Flips', includes the LSD references which are in
the novel. Of course, as many have been pointing out, the use of LSD and
other hallucinogens in a range of contexts, including psychotherapy and
experimental medical research (on housewives, among a cross-section of other
subjects, I would assume), was widespread in the U.S. during the early 60s,
and much had already been written about it, in fiction and non-fiction works
with which Pynchon would have been quite familiar.

John's point about Oedipa using the heroin metaphor (16), is more
interesting to ponder. Oedipa had been to college, perceives herself as
well-informed and somewhat "hip", or post-hip at least, I think. I wonder
when the use of the word "horse" for heroin originated? What's striking to
me is Oedipa's (and the narrator's?) apparent ambivalence towards heroin and
heroin addiction. The way the image is generated is just so mundane and
matter-of-fact, but what it points to is the way that the modern -- or
*postmodern* -- urban landscape is like some surreal or nightmarish
apparition.

best


on 8/8/01 2:57 AM, Doug Millison at DMillison at ftmg.net wrote:

> My typographical error in the previous message. COL49 was published in May
> 1967, still in advance of the Summer of Love that brought the hippies and
> LSD international publicity and catapulted them out of their fringe
> sub-culture status.