Starting the Group Read +SPOILERS

[Robin Landseadel]

On Aug 14, 2009, at 3:21 PM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:

> Some other specifics that really made me groan:
>
> (p. 158):
>
> "Jason took a withered joint from his pocket and lit up.  Doc  
> recognized the smell of inexpensive Mexican produce, and also that  
> someone had forgotten to remove the seeds and stems.  When Jason  
> offered him a hit, he pretended to inhale and after a while handed  
> it back.
> 'Righteous weed, man.'
> 'Yeah, just saw my dealer, he charges high, but it's worth it.'"

Somewhere in the "Bitches Brew" inspired opening mix of the Firesign  
Theater's "Not Insane or Anything You Want To" there's something that  
sounds like a Late-night-TV ad CD offers, in this case one for "Dope  
Humor of the Seventies." I look back at the script for "Nick Danger"  
and I realize it's sui generis, pretty much the first artifact of that  
sounds like what that Late-night-TV ad CD offers, in this case  "Dope  
Humor of the Seventies." I can't help but think of "Nick Danger" when  
I read Inherent Vice and that may be one of the Inherent Vices of the  
text, but I could care less. In a way one really can't exclude what  
passed for humor to a stoned audience in 1970 with a story set in  
1970. You might think of it as another form of Vaudeville, a mode of  
humor trapped in a pastness that defines that art.