Lot 49 Ch 3 Random Notes & Shit

[rich]

Perennial 1990, pgs 44-80
Note:  the Wiki and Kerry's concordance to the book cover lots re:
Trystero and the Coureir's Tragedy. I thought I'd jot down my
impressions or shit I haven't found anywhere else. some are crap
others might be

pg. 44

"Things then...turning curious"--rather standard detective novel boilerplate?

"that's what would haunt her"--there's lots of these looking back on
references in this chapter--reminds me of some comments that maybe the
end of the book is not the end of the book--as if Oedipa is reviewing
how she got to be where she is (back in her tower or within some other
mysterious dispensation?)

"revelations in progress around her"--could be but could also be
Oedipa's plunge into solipsism or Pierce's clever sickness

44-45

"revelation thru stamp collection"--referencing the end of the book

46

Potsmaster--despite the WASTE connection I think Pynchon likes these
goofy puns--pot master. ha

48

"couple three"--the man sure likes that term, eh?

Stockhausen--another example of an alternative way of
communication--can't think of a better example of a representative of
the WASTE symbolism than him in music

Mike Fallopian--for a book so hung up on revelation and otherworldly
spirits, there are lots of references to the earthly--female anatomy
reproduction doesn't get any more earthly.

A kute coincidence:
When Metzger asks MF if he's one of those right-wing nut outfits w/r/t
to the Peter Pinguid Society (Porky Pig?)-reminds me of Tom
Metzger--Former member of John Birch Society, Knights of the Ku Klux
Klan Grand Dragon, Christian Identity minister--Metzger also worked in
the defense industry in electronics in the 60s in Southern
California--He joined the John Birch Society, but quickly became
disillusioned with the organization because, as he later explained, "I
soon found out you could not criticize the Jews."  In other words,
someone you would kinda expect or not be surprised to be in a place
like the Scope, no?

49

Rear Admiral Popov--a profane reference to anal sex/orgasm?;
references to San Francisco, "cruisers seemed to prefer cruising";
Pinguid (greasy pricks)

March 9, 1864--US Grant was appointed C-in C of the Union army (and
the bringer of doom to the Confederacy)--one of Pynchon's jokes
considering Pinguid is named after a Confederate officer and they
revere that sacred date the PPS (Post Post Script--a nice description
of Duke Angelo's secret ink in the Courier's Tragedy play?)

51

excluded middle--the creeping horror of both marxism and capitalism

Peter Pinguid is also a speculator in real estate like Pierce; Oedipa
giggles at the connection; she won't be later as the connections start
piling up

52

in the ladies latrine (i don't equate latrine w/ a woman's
bathroom--pynchon plays around with gender roles throughout the book)

the WASTE ad--the thought that even an underground communication
system is corrupted by the ephemera of the trash-y and
vulgar--contrast also w/ the PPS mail system which is just bland
(working within the system)--i.e. how alternative is it?

54

all she will remember [about Fallopian]--looking back again

first mention of the Tristero (languid and sinister blooming--I
thought those two words were odd pair;I found a poem by Baudelaire in
the Flowers of Evil called The Mask (tinyurl.com/The-Mask)--I think a
translation of the poem by Graham Reynolds in the late 50s--a poem
about uncovering the truth beneath a veil--maybe someone has
discovered this already?)
flowers blooming. wow
the paragraph ending in 'wanting to hear' has parts that allude to
other sections of the poem:

the Mask: to steal enjoyment from this tempting smile [49:  would its
smile be coy]
the Mask: exquisite features are a mask..debased ornament with fine
grimace [49: its luminous stare smile gone malign and pitiless]

the rest of the Mask I think resonates with Oedipa's plight (our plight)

'why is she weeping? in her lovely pride
...what unknown evil harrows her lithe side'

'...she must live tomorrow, evermore
tomorrow and tomorrow, as we must'

followed by 'or rather a unique performance'--the Courier's Tragedy

55

Pierce has invested in real estate across the US--AZ, TX, NY, and
FL--further proof that PI's legacy is America

as noted recently on the list why do the Paranoid's get names and not
their "chicks"?


55-56

the visual of the sea as the image of redemption--embracing the
feminine--the ugliness assumed into general truth; the male-ly
"seaward thrust" will always "fall short"--an exact reversal of
Botticelli's Birth of Venus--the pure exiting the ocean to be covered
and to know shame and sorrow, blown by the winds, this way and that,
to be assumed into particulars

56

Lake Inverarity--a place of real Bad Shit--no trees, earth-moving machines

Metzger exhibits his hear, see, speak no evil--no white Knight he

57

"men in crewcuts--one with a broken arm--a hint of hidden violence,
crew cuts denote military, fbi, police, more bad shit

58

Mambo Italiano in this section--eggplant parm to eat, tony jaguar,
cosa nostra (our thing)--the mafia seems a neat metaphor, the secular
version perhaps of the more otherworldly Tristero (which sounds
italian)--commonalities: secret rites, rituals, omerta (silence but
linguistically means literally manliness), then the GI bones in Italy,
and Jaguar's Lucky Luciano type dealings
Interestingly enough the first recorded use of the term Mafia is in a
play titled The Mafioso of the Vicaria (1863)--the word Mafia like
Tristero in their play, is never mentioned by name

60

local Table--why is table capitalized

Oedipa calls Di Pressi a selfish schmuck--if anyone is selfish its her
companion Metzger who sits on the booze so the Paranoids wont get to
it--she does have her blind spots

61-62

Dead GIs--b/w Naples and Rome--the WW2 campaign here sounds like the
snafu the British and Americans found themselves at Anzio--essentially
beach landings to circumvent German defenses (the Winter Line--Italy's
terrain favored defense--they also had crack parachute troops
fighting--one of the few competent things linked to Herman Goring's
name--his eponymous division)--the landings were a disaster,
beachheads were crowded, troops were surrounded, many Allied captured
and killed (parallels what the British, French and ANZAC forces
experienced at Gallipolli in the First World War against the Turks
(the battle is mentioned earlier in the novel--the Baby Igor TV Movie)

The GIs are said to have died dumbly--like some in the Courier's
Tragedy (Domenico's tongue cut out--ick!)

62

Forest Lawn and American Cult of the Dead--Forest Lawn is a collection
of cemeteries and memorial parks scattered throughout California and
beyond; ACD reminds one of the Alameda County Death Cult (which the
Manson Family would later eerily emulate)

63

you know blokes...black knit leotard--like those worn by the
effeminate black-clad Trystero figures in the Courier's Tragedy

64

even the birds can't find the redemptive Pacific

65

held than b/w a traffic analysis firm and wildcat electronics
firm--the freeways and LA--what will they communicate, what are they
communicating

pre-apocalyptic, death-wishful & unprepared a little poignantly abyss
of civil war"--like America just entering the meat grinder of Vietnam
and social upheaval

"crawl inside a cannon"--next up will be a crawl inside a rocket

66

Maenads roar--oh those Kindly Ones--the three effeminate black-clad
figures in the Courier's Tragedy? many scholars believe that when they
were originally referred to as the Eumenides, it was not to reference
their good sides but as a euphemism to avoid the wrath that would
ensue from calling them by their true name. (ritual reluctance)

Niccollo disguised as an elderly procuress--can't count the number of
instances of gender reversal in Lot 49, cross-dressing and the like

Thurn & Taxis--lots been said about T&T (dyno-mite)--remembered
sitting on the steps of the Feldernhalle in Munich last year which
were littered by Thurn & Taxis beer bottle caps

69

Pasquale's orgy while battles raging outside--like Foppl's parties in
sudwest afrika?; Two Poe connections in this passage--Masque of the
Red Death and the ape suit wearing assassins tangentially reminds one
of Poe's story Hop Frog which involves an assassin who murders his
king and others dressed like orangutans

Metzger smokes--you'd think after hearing the GI bones charcoal story
he'd think twice

71

ritual reluctance and naming ambiguity again connects Trystero to the
Mafia--certain things are better left unsaid.

73

blank verse is mentioned on this page (stuttering, Tristero the word)
as well as on pg 75 (Metzger calls Act V of the play as such--a Road
Runner Cartoon in blank verse)

Angelo also has a Foppl-like orgy while knowing his doom is coming

79

Driblette gives the spirit flesh by his art but by drowning himself
later he returns to that spirit by sacrificing his flesh--is oblivion,
madness, the only alternative to the flesh, the only way to some sort
of redemption, to be subsumed into some general truth? is that in
Oedipa's future

random recycled shit:

‘wharfingers’: impoverished, diseased sailors who had been left behind
when their vessels departed to prevent shipboard epidemics.

is pynchon the diseased sailor spinning
the ball here
and we're driblette--
making that wharfinger's yarn real?

or is pynchon simply driblette

making real what those beautiful,
diseased drunken sailors
sweated, humped and cried
all those years in innumerable bars, beds
and snow drop prisons across the globe?


criticize freely

rich