IV Ch 17 Notes

[rich]

Here are some notes. I'll send my thoughts on this chapter tonight
enjoy

Rich

296
Denis climbs through the alley window
Another sly reference to She Came in Through the Bathroom Window?
(protected by a silver spoon--describes Shasta sorta nicely)

Denis woke up...(the bed fire)
Is there some sort of reference here to good karma surrounding a dude
like Denis?--even his inattentiveness is self-correcting (the fire put
out by the waterbed)

White Owl cigars
My first entry into cigar smoking were these kinds--cheap, with a
white plastic tip if memory serves though I could be wrong on that.
awful stuff really. Doc uses it like a blunt in today's parlance.  no
doubt this is a nudge nudge moment on Pynchon's part. but who knows,
maybe folks back then did this kind of stuff.

297
Free concert at Will Rogers Park
apocryphal though many free concerts were given there over the years

The Lighthouse, famous club in Hermosa Beach
check it out now: doesn't look to very hip judging by the current clientele
http://www.thelighthousecafe.net/gallery.html

Juicy James--a hot dog stand near the Lighthouse. I found brief
mentions of a Juicy James running a coffee shop and surf mat (people
surfed on mats, yes) rental place in Hermosa Beach where his son Billy
Ray James and other surfers used to hang out in the late 1960s
http://www.hermosabeachhistoricalsociety.org/aug05newsletter.html

298
Pics of all the cars mentioned on this page are on the IV wiki

299

Pink Floyd's Instellar Overdrive and the Vibrasonic--see IV wiki for
interesting insight: Possible joke here on 'overdrive' since the
distance from the intersection of Pier Avenue and the Pacific Coast
Highway to LAX is around six miles. Sure, the song is long, about ten
minutes, but Doc would have to be speeding like crazy, which isn't
mentioned, to make that mileage with time still left on the song. At
any rate, significant distance and/or time are casually covered and
I'm going with mysterious power of interstellar overdrive giving them
a helping hand.

"a gift"  they told him, 'for  projecting alternate personalities,
infiltrating, remembering, reporting back"--though a description of
Coy's talents going undercover, this is a fine explanation of
Pynchon's own talent as a writer, no?

301

in the toilet stall at LAX passing compromising notes under the
partition to a state legislature--see the recent news reports about
Senator Larry Craig caught in the Minneapolis airport men's room in a
sex sting.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/12/29/larry-craig-sex-sting-bat_n_153900.html

305
Shasta says all the women around Mickey loved the brutal way he
treated them, he made them invisible, played rough, and they loved it.
any comments on that? Has sex been so degraded in the post love-in era
that its become so far flung from any sort of love, affection, caring?
the following S&M sham seems to confirm just that. I found much of the
sexual overtones of this chapter very troubling, soulless, and very
sad.

305--307
Notice that throughout Shasta and Doc's S&M bit, Shasta plays the
submissive role but is actually controlling Doc.  It is a very weird
scene. I can't think why she is acting the way she is here--she's
flirting sure, and maybe horny as well, but that doesn't explain the
underlying menacing aspect the scene exudes, something isn't quite
right. and this is the first time they are meeting after the whole
Mickey boondoggle. they don't seem to know/trust each other but they
are acting like they do. In fact, they both, at least during the
flirtation and sex seem like, well... controlled, circumspect,
zombie-like. I found this the most un-erotic sex what with the Manson
fetish thrown in.

306
the connection Doc makes with Shasta regarding his acid trip and her
presence on the Golden Fang seems way too easy, so simple. not sure
why Pynchon felt the need to be so--is it part of the playacting that
both Doc and Shasta exhibit during their reunion?

308
Shasta, after acting one way, then becomes the worried girl noting her
fears after Sharon Tate was murdered, afraid of being the next victim.
This is noted right after all that Manson play-acting.  weird.

313-314
But to end the chapter, Shasta, through a notable and visible anger,
is able to see through Doc's facade and lays it on him. It's a pretty
important point in the novel where it is revealed why Doc is helping
Coy shake off the Viggies and Nixonites because he can't escape
himself. That is a pretty devastating indictment.

Rich