VLVL Count Drugula, or Mucho the Munificent
Otto
ottosell at yahoo.de
Wed Apr 7 04:15:33 CDT 2004
----- Original Message -----
From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, April 06, 2004 2:56 PM
Subject: Re: VLVL Count Drugula, or Mucho the Munificent
> >>> the "beer and tobacco headache" which isn't typical for a dope smoker.
> >>
> >> Unless it's a case of too much tobacco in the mix. I don't think you
>>> can
> >> realistically argue against the fact that there are drugs and wild
> > > parties at the commune,
> >
> > I admit that it's been the reality in those that these communes had
> > become the dope Safeway's for the freaks living in the cities.
>
> The "snitch Safeway" was the house Van Meter and Zoyd were living in at
> Gordita Beach (25),
In the text it's Zoyd's complaint about what had been done to the "movement"
with those "inexhaustible taxpayer millions" (24).
> where all the dopeheads were selling out on their
> friends for a few bucks just so's they could score their next deal.
>
With the exception of Zoyd, "the big idealist" (29):
"Hector had been trying over and over for years to develop him as a
resource, and so far -- technically -- Zoyd had hung on to his virginity."
(12)
"Each time Zoyd failed to inform on these people, Hector grew furious." (24)
"all the dopeheads" -- you're exaggerating. The text doesn't say so, Pynchon
isn't promoting drug use but he never says that every dopehead inevitably
will turn into a snitch someday.
> > I don't argue that there are no wild parties and drugs. We're told about
> > wild parties with a lot of beer and tobacco, but no word of dope, acid
> > or
> > sex orgies here. Your "drug commune" is still speculation. My thought
> > was
> > that the "beer and tobacco headache" doesn't fit very well into the
> > description of a typical "drug commune," as you've called the place.
>
> I think it's far more likely that Zoyd's headache has been caused by too
> much "spinner" in the mull. There's no mention anywhere else in the text
> that Zoyd is a tobacco smoker; I find it unlikely that Pynchon would
> suddenly turn him into one here, on page 307 of the novel, particularly
> when
> Zoyd's suddenly got his "own" marijuana again the very next day (309.2).
The next evening precisely. Mucho's place is in San Francisco, capital of
the hippies. It should've been very easy to get something to smoke on the
way from the freeway exit to Telegraph Hill back in those days.
http://www.mustseesanfrancisco.com/attraction-maps.htm
http://kea.cs.uni-magdeburg.de/thorhaue/travel97/sanfrancisco15.html
> What is also made quite clear in the section is that those commune members
> looking for an all-night party are high (306.32-4).
>
These people appearing at the door at unexpected hours aren't necessarily
commune members. Is it the door of the room Zoyd and Prairie are in or is it
the entrance of the house the text refers to? If the entrance is meant then
these people might be strangers looking for something they imagine that
could happen behind the doors of a "drug commune."
The last community I've been living in had a sticker at the front door
saying: "Everything you imagine--behind this door it happens!"
> > I have the impression that you don't get my points very well.
>
> No, we have taxi drivers in this part of the world too.
Play the ball, Rob, not the man.
> You seem intent on
> glossing over Pynchon's critique of the 60s counterculture in the novel,
My intention is to get out of the text what's within. What I don't get out
of it is your blind eye to the crimes of the federal agents and the state
that is presented in the novel. The novel depicts a -fictional- reality that
seemed to require a counterforce, may it have failed or not. I don't think
that many Americans would admit that America's been so dangerouly close
to fascism as the novel tells.
The critique of the 60s counterculture, its hedonism, drug use and political
naivete is of course there. The political naivete goes into two directions,
the belief that the most powerful government on earth could be defeated by
wearing flowers in your hear, and the belittlement of the crimes of the
countries of the "real existing socialism."
> and
> I don't find much basis for your arguments and opinions in the actual
> text.
>
> best
As the "Ron-in-the-shade"-example proves I could say the same. I've
provided enough textual evidence for my interpretation.
Otto
"I would much rather trust the views of taxi-drivers on any matter of great
political importance than those of writers and intellectuals." (DM Thomas )
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,1147406,00.html
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