IV Ch 17 Notes

[Joseph Tracy]

On Dec 7, 2009, at 2:02 PM, rich wrote:

> 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?
Cool observation. Also a required habit when you serve others interests.
>
> 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?
It seems that Shasta in describing these scenes with Mickey is  
asserting in an almost clinical way her  lust/digust internal  
connection to the degradation she is describing. She is in some sense  
the sexual aspect  of  a certain kind of slave/master game. The  
attractions of power, status, money, style that projects freedom and  
seems to offer freedom  but  part of the contract is  servility.
  Shasta, Frenesi, and Lake all seem driven to seek escape( from  
fear, parental hurt, idealism, internal dishonesty) in serving male  
power fantasies. I think they represent the twisting of human  
relations that is that part of the soul that wants to sell itself.  
Everyone wants to hide it or hide from it , to have that sense that I  
am not a prostitute because there are things I won't do for any  
price.   Pynchon is shoving a certain kind of sexual fantasy which is  
more like porn than a relationship and I had much the same reaction  
as others and as I think it is likely intended. Yuck. This hard core  
sex is also pretty common in hard boiled detective and spy fiction,  
and maybe P is asking us to think about why that is. It is hard to  
say, because he rarely has tender hearted sex and seems to distrust  
sex as a measure of love. Cyprian, who finds both  love and the  
fulfillment of his sexual desires ends up leaving these relationships  
for something more spiritual.
Like Dylan said
Dreams never did work for me anyway
Even when they did come true

Doc is telling himself several internal stories. In some sense they  
are all lies and at the same time they are all earnest and true.  
Probably other characters  are the same. Coy , just mentioned is  
obviously so,  and Shasta. Maybe she really has a deep affection for  
Doc, she certainly sees him in a penetrating way. Maybe she thinks  
that Doc is that type who if she fulfills his hardcore fantasy will  
move on, look for something more.
> 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?
Again, can it be both? Such things are always open to interpretation,  
Even if they are both sincere, they are almost surely also both  
doubtful and unsure.
>
> 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.
This seems to me like the most loving thing Shasta does. This is the  
real S&M , love as the concept by which we measure our pain, pain as  
the sting that confirms what is real,   the truth that hurts , the  
surgery that can allow healing.
>
> Rich