ATDTDA (33) - p. 924-6 peyote

[kelber at mindspring.com]

El Espinero:  "But the hikuli is not for everyone."

For those, like me, who’ve never indulged (hell, no one’s ever offered it to me), here's a sample description of the experience:

http://www.miqel.com/entheogens/first_western_peyote_trip.html

For those who have indulged, a question:  in the first very long sentence ("Before too long ... view the sky."), is Pynchon perhaps describing a peyote vision he himself had, or are we meant to parse the literal meaning of Frank's vision?  The second sentence takes Frank on a journey to/from Aztlan.  There's somewhat a rehashing of what Wren told him about the flight from Aztlan back on p. 277-78: fleeing from invaders who forced them to make offerings in the form of human sacrifices.

In Frank's vision, they're trespassers, aka in ATD as The Trespassers, possibly gringos who literally visited Aztlan from the future (our present?), or a vision of the future (from the Aztlan past) when the U.S. would seize the Southwest (Aztlan) from Mexico.

Some images:

a tlachiquero, or maguey cutter:

http://www.getty.edu/research/conducting_research/digitized_collections/mexico/images/91.html

Frida Kahlo with her parrots:

http://visualarts.walkerart.org/detail.wac?id=3156&title=Current+Exhibitions

skeletons of raw sugar:

http://www.gourmetsleuth.com/sugarskullsmaking.htm

heliograph:  this is actually a device with mirrors used for long-distance Morse code communications.  Pynchon means heliogravure, a photoengraving technique.

http://www.cfmgallery.com/artists/Dali/pages/Heliogravurehtm.htm

Laura