VLVL2 (10) Alchemy, 192

[Paul Nightingale]

(192.2-3) "... near as anybody could tell unobserved ..."

A chapter about filming, whether or not the subject (Brock Vond, trapped
finally on 200) has tried to evade the camera, begins when
DL/Takeshi/Prairie imagine themselves under surveillance: that is, they
conjure up the image that would confirm their presence and take steps to
evade the recording eye.

At the same time, this opening passage raises the possibility that,
because/if no record exists, the journey hasn't, not really, taken place. Of
course we 'know' it has: because the narrative informs us? However, the idea
of an alternative scenario will be important when considering 24fps, whose
work functions as another kind of surveillance (of power and the powerful).

(192.3) "Manuel and his auto alchemy team ..."

Alchemy: another term that has obvious and perhaps less obvious meanings,
perhaps allowing of a degree of ambiguity.

>From the OED, with selected references:

1. The chemistry of the Middle Ages and 16th c.; now applied distinctively
to the pursuit of the transmutation of baser metals into gold, which (with
the search for the alkahest or universal solvent, and the panacea or
universal remedy) constituted the chief practical object of early chemistry.

1601 Shakes. Jul. C. i. iii. 159 That which would appeare Offence in vs, His
Countenance, like richest Alchymie, Will change to Vertue.  1683 Pettus
Fleta Min. ii. 1 Alchimie ... an Art of Distilling or Drawing Quintessences
out of Metals by Fire.  1776 Gibbon Decl. & F. I. 371 Philosophy, with the
aid of experience, has at length banished the study of alchymy.  1837
Whewell Induct. Sc. (1857) I. 232 It has been usual to say that Alchemy was
the mother of Chemistry.  

2. fig. Magic or miraculous power of transmutation or extraction.

c1600 Shakes. Sonn. xxxiii, A glorious morning ... Guilding pale streames
with heauenly alcumy.  1640 Quarles Enchir. lxiii, It is a Princely
Alchymie, out of a necessary Warre to extract an honourable Peace.  1824
Byron Juan ii. cciii, Wisdom, ever on the watch to rob Joy of its alchemy.
1872 Blackie Lays of Highl. 35 Toilsome Nature's patient alchemy.  

†3. A metallic composition imitating gold; ‘alchemy gold.’ Hence applied to
a trumpet of such metal, or of brass as its chief constituent. Obs.

1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. Concl., Coines of gold, siluer, alcumy and
copper.  1667 Milton P.L. ii. 516 Four speedy cherubim Put to their mouths
the sounding alchymie.  1677 Lond. Gaz. mcclxiv/4 One Livery Coat ... with
Alcomie Buttons.  1695 Ibid. mmmlxxi/4 A strip'd Wastcoat with plain Alcomy
Cuffs.  

†4. fig. Glittering dross. (‘All is not gold that glitters.’) Obs.

1591 Harrington Orl. Fur. (Trench Sel. Gl. 4) Though the show of it were
glorious, the substance of it was dross, and nothing but alchymy and
cozenage.  

5. attrib. (See 3.)

1657 J. Trapp Comm. Ps. xiii. 6 II. 600 Alchimie-gold ... will not passe the
seuenth fire.  

The meaning that most clearly applies to the passage above is the second,
magical transmutation, the car into "empty roadway". Here, one might
consider the media representation of Zoyd's window-jump (15) or the
quasi-magical resurrection of the Vomitones in Ch7.

Other meanings refer, with variations, to the relationship between the Real
and the Imitative (following Lacan, the Imaginary): the relationship between
any text and that which it claims to represent. Perhaps the amulet that has
use-value for Prairie but not Zoyd (eg, 67); or Frenesi's worthless check
(91).

The first meaning introduces the idea of a quest, for Prairie the
replacement of absence by presence, the absent Frenesi by a range of texts
(and of course see, in this chapter, "designer seltzer" as some kind of
"universal remedy").

Other meanings highlight an act of substitution, whether or not the
intention is to mislead (those who will be misled). Zoyd's "Calvin Klein
original" and the Logjam's makeover (5-8); or DL as Clark Kent (133-134),
and then as Frenesi (151).