VLVL (12) - Intro

[Bekah]

Hi all -
(I really tried to get all my posts into plain text but I'm not sure  
it works because I can't get rid of double spacing when I cut and  
paste quotes even if I supposedly change the formatting to plain.)


This is a VERY complex but carefully structured chapter set back and  
forth between 1969 and 1984.

* Pages 218-226 are set at a Thanatoid convention in Holytail, 1984 -  
ends with Weed Atman remembering the events of 1969.
* Pages 226-238 are the events in 1969 leading up to the day before  
Atman's death, mostly from Atman's point of view.
* Pages 239-247 relate the events as they led up to Atman's death  
mostly from  Frenesi's pov.
* Pages 247-248 Here are a couple paragraphs on which show Prairie  
and DL watching film clips of the 1968 incident.
* Pages 248-261 deal with the aftermath of the fateful day in 1968 -  
spinning through a couple years, I think.
* Finally, pages 261-267 have  DL and Prairie and  comparing notes in  
1984.

There are plenty of annotations for your leisurely perusal at:
http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_12
and
http://www.mindspring.com/~shadow88/chapter12.htm
also
our last reading in 2003-04 / Chapter 12 was in January of '04.
http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0401

Fwiw,  I think one reason Vineland doesn't seem, at this point  
anyway,  so densely packed with arcane allusions is because many of  
us have read and reread this book so the element of surprise and  
uncertainty has been replaced with recognition.   Also, unlike  
Against the Day or Mason & Dixon where the arcane is truly arcane,   
the time frame and setting of Vineland is almost familiar to more  
than a few of us - relatively nostalgic,  you might say.  Fwiw,  I  
think Inherent Vice is going to be similar in this respect and for  
the latter reason.

Bek