It Was Twenty Years Ago Today

[rich]

the waiting/anticipation is always preferable than the eventual
reality (see Flaubert) but there is also the Dr Zaius at the end of
Planet of the Apes:  "you may not like what you find"

all the hopes of the mid Oedipa 60s eventually trashed by end Manson 60s

Pynchon's books always are commenting on today when looking
back--curious how IV will shape up in that regard---I'm expecting less
of the outer dark paranoia and more of a gritty vibe--as always, will
be interesting to see how he goes beyond the trad detective story,
with fuller vision, and somehow which I think is the hard part
commenting on today

Both Vineland and 49 were topical stories (written for most part in
the present tense)
IV will be the first of these California books to be written about the
past exclusively (unless there;s a time machine-ha)

possibly fleshing out that exact point when it all went wrong in
Pynchon's liefetime as he sees it?

advanced copies for reviewers--wonder when that happens?

rich

On 4/9/09, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> I might argue---the new one will add more circumstantial evidence---that TRP
> sees the Shambala of America---very so to speak---- in his lifetime as when
> Oedipa is waiting for the Crying to 1969, yes, on the evidence of the two
> sixties books?
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Bekah <Bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
> To: Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
> Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Sent: Thursday, April 9, 2009 1:17:09 AM
> Subject: Re: It Was Twenty Years Ago Today
>
> I watched the whole thing - all of them.  Lots of memories there.  Thank
> you,  Robin!  That's my times and I loved that album.  (And I saw Yellow
> Submarine more than 13 times.)
>
> But I'm not sure how much 1967 has to do with Vineland - it's a kind of
> background for it, for sure,  but Vineland takes place in 1969 and that was
> a world of difference.  The clips from your post are from 1967 for the most
> part with 1987 remembering them - great stuff.  The Summer of Love in 1967
> was so free and new and beautiful.  No one was calling anyone else a "hippie
> bum"  because the term was barely invented (disputes here, I know). The
> hippies were pretty much being peaceful in San Francisco at the time
> although there were anti-war demonstrations.    In 1969 (Vineland) the
> anti-war people were splitting into the faction demanding more militant
> activism.  The 1969 break (Country Joe) with the flower-power of 1967 ("Are
> You Going To San Francisco?")    is exceptionally well done in Vineland.
> The flower-people  of the Haight dissolved into the Weathermen of 1969 or
> went other ways.    (Maybe y'all don't see the difference now.)
>  The  Beatles split in 1970.  :-(
>
>
> 1969 was these old favorites:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBdeCxJmcAo&feature=related
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tenV9Din7K4&feature=related
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIvs4j4IniA&feature=related
>
> Bekah
>
>
> On Apr 8, 2009, at 9:06 AM, Robin Landseadel wrote:
>
>> Stumbled across this looking about fro Timothy Leary's quote about Baby
>> Boomers being the first generation to be "demand fed," and was overjoyed
>> to see most [if not all] of this scorching epochal sensation. "It Was
>> Twenty Years Ago Today" came out in [surprise, surprise] 1987, coinciding
>> with the first issue on CD of Sgt. Pepper. While ostensibly concerning
>> itself with "Sargent Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band", this documentary
>> opens up to include Allen Ginsberg, Abby Hoffman, some of the original
>> Diggers, Timothy Leary and various and sundry artists and anarchists,
>> including a number of anarcho-artists. Essential viewing, great background
>> for Vineland:
>>
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TO_dI5vVFRc
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jjJ5sZ7S-fo&feature=related
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtayyf4lX2Y&feature=related
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6DVbugM60k&feature=related
>> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WBgSCCdGgg
>
>
>
>
>