VLVL2 (15): Law Enforcement 101

[Dave Monroe]

   "For according to a rumor sweeping the film
community, a federal grand jury was convening to
inquire into  drug abuse in the picture business.  A
sudden monster surge of toilet flushing threatened
water pressure in the city mains, and a great bloom of
cold air spread over Hollywood as others ran to open
their refrigerator doors more or less at once,
producing this gigantic fog bank in which traffic
feared even to creep and pedestrians went walking into
the sides of various buildings.  Hector assumed
parallels were being drawn to back in '51, when HUAC
came to town, and the years of blacklist and the long
games of spiritual Monopoly that had followed.  Did he
give a shit?  Communists then, dopers now, tomorrow,
who knew, maybe the faggots, so what, it was all the
same beef, wasn't it?  Anybody looking like a normal
American but living a secret life was always good for
a pop if times got slow--easy and cost-effective, that
was simple Law Enforcement 101."  (VL, Ch. 15, p. 339)


"A sudden monster surge ..."

p. 339 "sudden monster surge of toilet flushing ...
and ... cold air"   A new Pynchonian fable: Dope
paranoia results in Hollywood fog bank.

http://www.mindspring.com/~shadow88/chapter15.htm


HUAC

The House Un-American Activities Committee (1947-54)

http://www.moderntimes.com/palace/huac.htm

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0824313.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Un-American_Activities_Committee

http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/huac-main.html


"the years of blacklist"

http://www.english.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/blacklist.html

http://classicfilm.about.com/library/weekly/aa032899.htm

http://www.moderntimes.com/palace/blacklist.htm

http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6442/


"Communists then, dopers now"

>From David Thoreen, "The President's Emergency War
Powers and the Erosion of Civil Liberties in Pynchon's
Vineland," Oklahoma City University Law Review, Vol.
24, No. 3 (Fall 1999), pp. 761-98 ...

   As Hector will slowly discover, the planned
invasion of Nicaragua will be accompanied by
repressive domestic policies. The topping irony is
that he will ponder these matters en route to Las
Vegas, having "obtained a confiscated Toronado,"
itself a prize of such policies. Slothrop-like, Hector
pieces together parts of the Brock Vond puzzle: 

[...]

The federal grand jury convening to look into drug use
in the movie industry is a metaphorical invocation of
Hollywood blacklisting, a reminder of the infectious
patriotism that can be drummed up by a good witch
hunt. It seems at first merely a tongue-in-cheek jab
at the reruns of American history--until we recall
(and Pynchon himself reminds us) that Reagan was
President of the Screen Actors Guild during this
period....

http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/lpop/etext/okla/thoreen24.htm

And see as well ...

Thoreen, David.  "The Fourth Amendment and Other
   Modern Inconveniences: Undeclared War, Organized
   Labor, and the Abrogation of Civil Rights in
   Vineland."  Thomas Pynchon: Reading from the
   Margins.  Ed. Niran Abbas.  Madison, NJ:
   Fairleigh Dickinson UP, 2002.  215-33.

"tomorrow, who knew, maybe the faggots?"

http://foia.fbi.gov/hoover.htm

http://www.geocities.com/northstarzone/HOOVER.html

Hack, Richard.  Puppetmaster: The Secret Life of
   J. Edgar Hoover.  Beverly Hills: New Millenium
   Press, 2004.

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/4638275/

Summers, Anthony.  Official and Confidential:
   The Secret Life of J. Edgar Hoover.  New York:
   Putnam, 1993.

"Anybody looking like a normal American but living a
secret life was always good for a pop ..."


"Law Enforcement 101"

Cf. Room 101?  See ...

http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/1984/

http://www.mediabistro.com/articles/cache/a438.asp

Thanks for that one, davemarc ...


	
		
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