Counterflying on the Pynchon drug 'connection"

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

     Bryan Snyder:
     Someone else said:

     "Note, in the very start of the section we're on right now, page 296:

          Frank obtained his mount, an Indian paint named Mescalero 
          with mischief in his eye. . . .296

     The significance of this pops up on pgs 390/394, 
     in a Peyote trip of notable Magical qualities."

     I say:

          See The Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Casteneda.  
     I love that book, even if I spelled the author's name wrong 
     (which I'm not even sure I did). "Mescalito" is the name 
     given to and is considered by the brujo to be an
     entity whose spiritual residence is within Peyote.  

Exactemento!

     Great postings!
     B

Well, thank you very much and it's Castaneda (That's why Goddess 
created Google). I've heard so much lately concerning the situation of 
confusing one's own opinion with the opinions of the author with one's 
own opinions usw. But here, it is very easy to find the opinion of the 
author. In addition to the Introduction from Slow Learner viz. weed: 
"that useful substance" [8], there's this sober epiphany from Vineland:

            "Well I still wish it was back then, when you 
            were the Count. Remember how the acid was? 
            Remember that windowpane, down in Laguna 
            that time? God, I knew then, I knew. . . ."

            They had a look. "Uh-huh, me too. That you 
            never were going to die. Ha! No wonder the 
            state panicked. How are they supposed to 
            control a population that knows it'll never die? 
            When that was always their last big chip, 
            when they thought they had the power of life 
            or death. But acid gave us the X-ray vision 
            to see through that one, so of course they 
            had to take it away from us."
            Vineland 213/214

Go back to Mucho, his first trip, back around '64 getting involved 
with some left coast psychotherapy that spun Acid into the mix:

            ". . . .when those kids sing about 'She loves you,' 
            yeah well, you know, she does, she's any number 
            of people, ages, shapes, distances from death, 
            but she loves. . . ."

Now this is not just the drugs talkin' here folks, there's some spiritual
goings-on here, a real sense of the visionary. This is a big theme
from The Crying of Lot 49 to the present. [Can't/won't vouch for V.]
Visions count. On a certain level, Our Beloved Author is a New England 
Transcendentalist of sorts, attending to intelligent entities in nature, 
such as Mescalero, signs in the sky like Rainbows and Cloud-Cocks
and positioning Elmer Fudd in Tuva, possibly in Shambhala.