VL--IV, "a gig of death" or Don't Take the Piano Player!

[Robin Landseadel]

Just a few random thoughts here.

Calling Kahuna "Priestly" is a little off the mark.  Shaman is closer  
to the real meaning of the word. In fact, Kahuna is a Hawaiian word,  
defined in the Pukui & Elbert Dictionary as "Priest, sorcerer,  
magician, wizard, minister, expert in any profession." Thus sprach the  
Wikipedia. But note that this sort of magic is more local and  
traditional, less institutional. On top of that, "Kahuna" is emeshed  
in surfing folklore—The Big Kahuna becomes a term for a champion  
surfer, at least going back to the 1959 film Gidget. In any case, the  
Kahuna Airlines episode shares a lot with the wonderful peyote episode  
in Against the Day.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kahuna

The "Fake Book" reference will be developed in the Wayvone Wedding  
chapter [coming up after the chapter where Frenesi is the central  
character]. This is simulacrum city here---remember that Zoyd is a  
Keyboard player [piano player is limiting in meaning], the instrument  
onboard the Kahuna Airlines skyliner is not only making fake versions  
of all these instrumental sounds, it seems to be a moody sort of  
instrument anyway with its own distemperment. And Takeshi Fumimota  
first appears in disguise as a "Hippie Musician", with fake blond wig  
and sunglasses playing out of a fakebook. Remember as well that  
Takeshi first encounters DL disguised as Frenesi. . .

	. . .another modern philosopher who addressed the topic, Gilles
	Deleuze, takes a different view, seeing simulacra as the avenue
	by which accepted ideals or “privileged position” could be
	“challenged and overturned.” Deleuze defines simulacra as
	"those systems in which different relates to different by means of
	difference itself. What is essential is that we find in these
	systems no prior identity, no internal resemblance."
	http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulacrum

The next time we encounter a fakebook, it is co-written by Deleuze.

The central element in this scene is Karma, much like the peyote scene  
in Against the Day. Frank [Ewball, really] saves the brujo El  
Espinero. In return, Frank gets a vision that aims him towards Sloat  
Fresno, enabling Frank to clear that bit of business off his plate.  
Onboard Kuhuna Airlines, Zoyd [really!] saves Takeshi. As a reward  
Zoyd gets a a little "amulet" that turns out to be a variety of a "get  
out of jail free" card for Prairie.


On Jan 2, 2009, at 10:12 PM, Michael Bailey wrote:
> . . .The "Priestly' Airlines, which is "always hiring', which flies
> non-skeds into the East Imperial Terminal, hires Zoyd as piano player
> on this 'gig of death'where 'the departed' do not match the arrivals
> because something happened, in between, up there?