VLVL2 (1): Annotations (pp. 10 - 11)

[Tim Strzechowski]

VLVL2 (1): Annotations  (pp. 10 - 11)


10.2  "unquiet ghosts"   Perhaps a subtle foreshadowing of the Thanatoids?

10.11  "one of those gotta-shit throbs of fear"  A common stylistic device in Pynchon's work, equating scatology with emotions of fear, paranoia, etc.  Interestingly, it's also a device used several times by George Orwell in 1984.  For example, upon hearing the tune "Oranges and lemons, say the bells of St. Clement's [...]," Winston's "heart seemed to turn to ice and his bowels to water" (Centennial Edition, 103).

10.16  "DEA field agent"  Employee of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/

And for anyone seeking employment therein:
http://www.usdoj.gov/dea/job/agent/page-01.htm

10.17  "Zuniga"  (sorry, don't know how to type the tilde)  Looking back in the archives, Tim Ware gives a pretty interesting basis for the name:

"Pynchon, being an opera buff, may have had the character Zuniga from Bizet's Carmen in mind. Don't remember the details in Carmen, but I recall Zuniga was Lietenant to Corporal Don Jose who becomes obsessed with Carmen, an obsession which eventually brings him to ruin. Zuniga played
an authority figure, a cop, who becomes an antagonist to Don Jose as DJ abandons rationality in pursuing the flirtatious Carmen."
http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9809&msg=31015&sort=date


10.22  "Zaxxon machine"  "You pilot an attack shuttle whose mission is to strafe the enemy's 'Asteroid City'. Destroy fuel tanks, gun implacements, missiles, fighters and a large enemy robot. The game uses an isometric three-quarters perspective that was a unique concept to arcade games of that era."
http://www.klov.com/Z/Zaxxon.html
http://www.kinetic-arts.co.uk/jamma/zaxxon/zaxxon.htm

10.28  "Cerruti suit"  http://www.cerruti.net/  (????) 

10.36  "you better not fuck up this one"   A phrase often found in Pynchon's works; likewise found in GR ("[...] and try not to fuck up" [p. 12]), as well as in Cheech and Chong films ( * doper connection).  When assigning household chores, my wife tells me that a lot, too ...

11.32  "Mr. Spock's Vulcan hand salute"   A character from the original Star Trek TV series (1966 - 1969), Mr. Spock was memorably (and logically) played by Leonard Nemoy.  The Vulcan hand salute is achieved by holding the palm out, and creating a "V" by splitting the middle and ring fingers (index-middle together, ring-pinky together).  Apparently, the hand salute was created for the character by Nemoy, and was based on hand symbols he'd observed as a child at the synogogue.
http://members.rogers.com/nimoyleonard/nimoy_startrek.html

11.35  "empty-minded"  Yet another common phrase used by Pynchon.  For example, in the opening chapters of GR when describing Pirate Prentice:  cf. "Pirate in the lavatory stands pissing, without a thought in his head" (6); "Emptying his mind -- a Commando trick -- he steps into the wet heat of his bananery [...]" (7).  Also later in GR: "There was hardly a thing now in Slothrop's head but getting to Bianca" (480).

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