INHERENT VICE (Exploring the title)

[John Bailey]

This is great - Pynchon has been much more interested in the permutations of
historiography of late (uh, the last two-three decades) as well as
photography and film (etc) and the genre-based averageness (let's face it)
of the IV excerpt might end up being part of an interesting exploration of
the way history ends up as a faded snapshot out-of-focus. He did dub himself
an historical novelist in the letter of support for Ian McEwan, and I think
since GR (at least) he has been consistently applying his
technical/physical/chemical/scientistic interests to the process of
history-making. I doubt Inherent Vice will be any different here.

2008/11/27 Ya Sam <takoitov at hotmail.com>

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> EXPLORING
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> INHERENT VICE: STRUCTURES
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> ....
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> Sulfiding—This is the formation of silver sulfide when silver reacts with
> sources of sulphur. This can result from the presence of sulphur in the
> atmosphere, but it is most often due to inadequate washing that leaves
> behind residual processing chemicals (fixers) in the print. The result is
> yellowing, staining, and fading of the image, usually beginning with the
> highlights.
>
> Redox—The visual results of redox reactions vary depending on the type of
> image, but generally they include loss of highlight detail, fading, and
> change of image color to reddish, yellow, or yellow-brown. Silver mirroring
> (formation of a bluish metallic sheen on the surface of the image) is also a
> result of oxidation-reduction, and is particularly characteristic of silver
> images suspended in a gelatin binder.
>
> BindersVarious materials have been used as binders (in which the
> image-forming material is suspended) for photographic prints. Albumen (egg
> white) tends toward chemical reactions that cause it to yellow over time,
> which is exacerbated by the presence of residual fixative and mounting on
> poor-quality board. Albumen also becomes brittle and subject to cracking.
> Collodion (cellulose nitrate) is not flexible and becomes brittle, leading
> to cracks in the emulsion, but otherwise is fairly chemically stable and
> does not yellow. Gum arabic was used as a binder for gum bichromate prints,
> which are stable but rare because they were difficult to produce. Gelatin,
> the most common binder material, is made from animal proteins. It is fairly
> stable chemically but is quite sensitive to moisture in the air.  etc,
> http://www.preservation101.org/session2/expl_iv_cs-photo_bw.asp
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