On: Vineland or VL-IV, the title

[Mark Kohut]

Vineland...land of vines...the name the Vikings gave it when they discovered America, "North America" in the late 900s. They landed in Newfoundland, a land
so warm then that grapes grew there. (Like California).

In Pynchon's introduction to a reissue of "1984", Orwell's novel, he speaks of the geographer who invented the term World-Island to encompass MittelEurope and EastEurope and EastAsia, given a spin by Orwell in that novel. He also uses World-Island in "Against the Day", his most geographically encompassing novel. 

It seems clear that he, an anti-the-State guy in many ways, sees the world in terms beyond national boundaries much of the time. So, I suggest Vineland is
about an America much older than the founding of the United States-- and broader.

Perhaps in line with Pynchon's beliefs in much older "collective unconscious" [In the "Definitions" chapter of Jung's seminal work Psychological Types, under the definition of "collective" Jung references representations collectives, a term coined by Levy-Bruhl in his 1910 book "How Natives Think". Jung says this is what he describes as the collective unconscious. Freud, on the other hand, did not accept the idea of a collective unconscious.]--Jung---deep grounding of our species in natural "nations"...[Cf. the 'deep Germany' deeper than any historical Germay in AtD]

The land mass was also named Woodland by Leif Erickson. Trees are a major positive element/symbol in TRPs work. Notice the cover of the hardcover of 
Vineland