Roger Mexico

[jbor at bigpond.com]

Pynchon's time in Mexico struck me as relevant also, particularly as he 
would have been there while writing some of the novel. (Not sure that 
he had the dental work done there -- California?)

The name "Roger Mexico" sounds a bit like an (alternative) archetypal 
hero's name, Indiana Jones or George Washington or something along 
those lines. Like Slothrop and Pirate, there is much in Roger's outlook 
and behaviour which, I think it's safe to say, Pynchon empathised with. 
I agree that the idea of Mexico as alternative/subsidiary to the U.S. 
is in play.

best

On 05/12/2005 John Doe wrote:

> [...] As for Mexico, there's also a more personal, more
> pedestrian "meaning" for Pynchon's choice of that
> word; he went to Mexico and lived there briefly and I
> think, though I may be misrecalling here, that he
> underwent painfull dental surgery there too....so of
> course such a salient memory would be grist for
> playfull nomenclature...
>
>
> --- Keith McMullen <keithsz at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
>> Perfect name for a Jessica Swanlake lover:
>>
>> rog·er
>>
>> TRANSITIVE VERB:
>> Inflected forms: rog·ered, rog·er·ing, rog·ers
>> Chiefly British Vulgar Slang To have sexual
>> intercourse with (a woman).
>> Used of a man.
>> ETYMOLOGY:
>>  From  Roger, spoken representation of the letter r,
>> short for
>> received. V., from  Roger, penis, from the name
>> Roger.
>>
>> "Mexico" is said to be  from a Nahuatl word.  The
>> Nahuatl people were
>> also known under the broader term of Aztec.  It is
>> from the Nahuatl
>> that we get words like coyote and tomato.  They
>> built a huge city on an
>> island in the middle of Lake Texcoco, which used to
>> lie where Mexico
>> City is today (it has since been drained).  As many
>> as 300,000 people
>> lived there, and they traveled between the island
>> and the mainland via
>> several large causeways (causing very little smog in
>> the process).  One
>> name of this city was Metzthixihtlico.
>> (from http://www.takeourword.com/TOW126/page2.html)
>>
>>