The colors. So many colors.

[Kevin Troy]

I have a theory about Vheissu.  But first, a disclaimer:

I don't want to bore you.  Most of the discourse on hallucinogens is
rather silly and/or banal, but I'll try to stay away from that.  This
seems like as good a time as any to bring it up, what with DMT being a
topic of discussion, the threads on Hollander's "decrypted" interpretation
of COL49, and, of course, the V. group read.  In the interest of making an
appointment, I'll keep this succint and, perhaps, undeveloped and
superficial.

So, then:  Godolphin finds, in Vheissu, a "madman's kaleidoscope" which
does not have anything beneath the surface, no soul. Could it be that,
among oh-so-many-other things (the excellent thread on Pym, etc. being
just one), Vheissu was Pynchon's way of telling his generation not to look
for the numinous in LSD?

Aside from the always-changing colors and "not real shapes, but meaningful
ones," (7.iii), and the desire to find the heart of the place (7.x), both
characteristics of LSD experiences, I also see a (admittedly vauge)
similarity between Godolphin's expedition and the then-vogue expeditions
to Central and South America to study indoles (amanita, ayahusca).  And,
of course, it was just as much the In Thing as everything else that is
(somewhat sympathetically) parodied in the antics of the WSC.

The bits with Hilarious, Mucho, and LSD in _Lot 49_ indicate that Pynchon,
in short, did not trust LSD as Tim Leary (and others) would have had it.
And the Whole Sick Crew indicates that Pynchon had New York Hipsters, the
sort of people very likely to try LSD, or at least read Burroughs and
Ginsburg, in mind while he was writing _V._

So, my question is

1)  Does anyone else see a relation between the surface-only/"nothing more
than Baedacker" element of Vheissu and an argument that hallucinogens are
not the way to find one's soul?

2)  If Pynchon did intend to make that point, why wouldn't he just write a
scene where, say, the WSC slips Benny some acid?  Was Pynchon just shy
about writing drugs into his first novel (for any number of reasons --
didn't want to be considered a "drug culture author," paranoia, afraid his
dealer would cut him off, just kidding on that last one)?

(2) is more important than (1), but (2) is irrelevant without (1).  If
that makes sense.

I'm going to leave it at this; if anyone is interested, you know what to
do.

Kevin Troy