When the Smog Cleared Thirty Years Later--Methland

[Mark Kohut]

I want to say that TRP has pointed to your themes in Vineland and, even in
Inherent Vice a little......

--- On Tue, 8/18/09, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com>
> Subject: When the Smog Cleared Thirty Years Later--Methland
> To: "“pynchon-l at waste.org“" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2009, 11:11 AM
> Hi all--
> 
> IV ends on a somewhat anxious note, Doc wondering about
> what will be
> revealed when the fog clears (or words to that effect)
> Well, California (Salton Sea) being one of the homes of
> metamphetamine
> one could safely say what was revealed 30 yrs down the road
> when the
> fog finally cleared was Methland.  a perfect drug for
> the working
> poor, stressed out to the max, gotta work double shifts to
> make ends
> meet, meth made them feel good, one of the few good things
> in their
> lives, as the small Midwestern towns shrunk and decayed,
> who offered
> only shit jobs with no benefits, the perfect drug for those
> scuttling
> under the heels of  BigAgra, the Pharmaceutical
> industry, the Mexican
> drug cartels, the US government, law enforcement, and other
> disturbed
> tweakers.
> 
> This is surely great fodder for a great novel that can
> encompass so
> much of what is wrong, tragic and downright evil about the
> forces of
> control in post-cold war capitalism; corruption, violence
> (sexual and
> otherwise) the drug wars and drugs, like meth.
> 
> Hopefully, someone (Vollman's Imperial pbly covers some of
> this but we
> need a better novel) will write it some day. In the interim
> I
> recommend reading Nick Reding's book.
> 
> No Doc Sportellos here folks...
> 
> Rich
>