LSD, JFK, CIA?

[jbor]

on 8/7/01 10:08 AM, Tim Strzechowski at Dedalus204 at mediaone.net wrote:

> 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).

But she has kept going to see him on a regular basis, will continue to do so
("She didn't leave. ... " on p. 11), does so in fact later on when she comes
back to Kinneret, and she doesn't seem to find it particularly unusual for
him to be ringing her at home at 3 am. She certainly doesn't seem
non-plussed about the fact that there is a community hospital-sponsored
hallucinogen trial going on. I agree that she is somewhat prudish about a
number of things, which will come to the fore later on in the book. I don't
find her attitude towards drug use to be one of these things, however.

> 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.

Oedipa's sudden vision of a hovering, drug-fucked Uncle Sam pointing his
finger right between her eyes (at her "Third Eye", I wonder?) makes the
indictment of officialdom, if there is indeed one, rather broader than the
CIA, was my point. I believe you'll find that Doug did bring the CIA into
play in the discussion, which is how the thread got the subject line in the
first place I guess. But I agree with you that the CIA is not relevant at
this point in the novel.

best