Woodstock

[kelber at mindspring.com]

-----Original Message-----
>From: John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com>

>
>Was thinking about Woodstock this weekend as it's impossible around
>here not to (a lot of coverage). Is this just a non-US thing?

There's probably a lot, but I tend to tune that stuff out.  There's a movie coming out soon focussing on the Yasgur family, which looks reasonably worth seeing.

Taking Woodstock, directed by Ang Lee.

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1810039590/trailer

In terms of why Woodstock and the other 1969 events aren't mentioned, well, the book seems to take place in 1970.  But the larger reason (I think) is that Pynchon, like many others, identifies the Manson murders as the "end" of the sixties.  Mark or Dave posted a review (can't remember whose) yesterday in which the reviewer pointed out Pynchon's propensity to document moments of transition, rather than specific periods (WWII-Cold War, rather than WWII itself, etc.).  So the pivotal events get ignored or pointedly positioned in the far background.  With the zillion shades of meaning we can ferret out for the phrase "inherent vice,"  Manson is certainly the inherent vice lurking within the free love/hippie movement.  At least he destroyed people's perception of the innocent flower children.

Laura

Laura
>
>Which leads to three questions, each broader than the last:
>
>1. Beatles vs Stones - nothing to add, but I always thought the big
>opposition was Beatles vs Elvis - you had to choose a side and stick
>to it. Elvis was Americanism, Beatles were Internationalism. PLUS I
>love all the stories about Elvis deciding he was a CIA agent, sending
>letters to the CIA, trying to get the Beatles barred from the US by
>appealing to the CIA.
>
>Educate me.
>
>2. Where's Woodstock in IV? Where are all the artists who played that
>supposedly pivotal event (besides Country Joe...)? Was the IV playlist
>really more typical of your average preterite stoner than those Name
>Bands? And even Neil Young was based in Topanga up until the late 60s.
>
>3. Where are all of those Popular Trademarked Sixties Nostalgic
>Milestones? Woodstock, the Moon Landing, etc? Apart from the Manson
>murders, IV pretty much seems to stick to surface streets, dropping
>names that might have slipped off the grid, or require a bit of
>memory-nudging or research to catch. It's not a nostalgic novel in the
>sense that it just namechecks the usual suspects; although it might be
>nostalgic towards a particular seam of 60s/70s America that isn't
>captured by your usual commercial Today in History retrospective. Or
>is it? I came in a decade or so late and half a world away.
>