IVIV (1) Can't Buy Me Love

[Robin Landseadel]

On Aug 26, 2009, at 6:44 AM, John Carvill wrote:

> Heh. Yeah, and a 'Sortilege' practices clairvoyance by *sorting lots*.
> Pulling in Maxwell's demon and LOT49. Everything connects.

There's plenty of Lots qua Lots in Inherent Vice. Considering Pynchon  
V. Stearns "The American Waste Doctrine" and TRPs luddite chums, it's  
not altogether shocking that Real Estate constantly re-appears in  
Pynchon's writing. Plenty of connections to go around for everybody!.  
This is the bailiwick I've  been drawn to. Doubtless we will find many  
other threads to pursue by the time this is all hashed out.

Which reminds me:

	'Thanks for coming, Marlowe. Drink?"

	I got that look on my face you get when a drunk asks you to
	have a drink. I could feel it. He grinned.

	''I'll have a Coke," he said.

	"You pick up fast," I said. "I don't think I want a drink right now.  
I'll
	take a Coke with you."

	He pressed something with his foot and after a while Candy
	came. He looked surly. He had a blue shirt on and an orange
	scarf and no white coat. Two-tone black and white shoes,
	elegant high-waisted gabardine pants.

	Wade ordered the Cokes. Candy gave me a hard stare and
	went away.

	"Book?" I said, pointing to the stack of paper. "Yeah. Stinks."

	"I don't believe it. How far along?"

	"About two thirds of the way-for what it's worth. Which is damn
	little. You know how a writer can tell when he's washed up?"

	"Don't know anything about writers." I filled my pipe . "When he
	starts reading his old stuff for inspiration. That's absolute. I've
	got five hundred pages of typescript here, well over a hundred
	thousand words. My books run long. The public likes long
	books. The damn fool public thinks if there's a lot of pages there
	must be a lot of gold. I don't dare read it over. And I can't
	remember half of what's in it. I'm just plain scared to look at my
	own work."

	"You look good yourself," I said. "From the other night I wouldn't
	have believed it. You've got more guts than you think you have."

	"What I need right now is more than guts. Something you don't
	get by wishing for it. A belief in yourself. I'm a spoiled writer who
	doesn't believe any more. I have a beautiful home, a beautiful
	wife, and a beautiful sales record. But all I really want is to get
	drunk and forget."
	Raymond Chandler, "The Long Goodbye"

I mean, just in case anybody finds that whole Raymond Chandler as  
background figure in Inherent Vice, the whole highbrow lit vs. lowbrow  
pulp in fiction, usw. Lotsa low-lying fruit in that orchard.

> I think you may be seeing MKULTRA, Paperclip, CIA etc. appearing just
> a wee bit more than they're actually 'there', though. I know that line
> of inquiry is an interest of yours, but there are other aspects to the
> book(s).

And by all means pursue them!

> Yes, given GR's (ostensible) setting, and COL49, we do tend to hear a
> little mental gong being struck when we encounter swastika tattoos
> etc. But taking every such instance as a pointer to the CIA is maybe
> going a bit too far?

. . . not rilly. I was continuing from where I've been at since the  
Vineland read. Too many names dropped lining up with too many times  
things happened in Vineland and Inherent Vice. Yup, they're plenty  
intertwined.

> I'd prefer to see a discussion of the theme Janos brought up - way
> back - concerning the autobiographical aspect, and how Inherent Vice
> may help to illuminate or explain certain sections and aspects of GR.
> The CIA do of course come into it, nobody's going to claim that They
> don't, but there must be other threads worth unravelling.

Of course there are and I'm not stopping anyone, am I?