IV 15 259-261

Heikki Raudaskoski hraudask at sun3.oulu.fi
Wed Nov 18 08:50:52 CST 2009



Was the resurgence of "Plan 9 from Outer Space", another zombie flick  
(among other things), already under way?


Quoting John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com>:

> There was Val Lewton's great "I Walked With a Zombie" in 1943 but I'm
> not aware of many others (and the kind of zombie depicted in that film
> is radically different to the one we're now familiar with).
>
> btw, recently read a fascinating article on real Haitian zombies:
> http://www.mensjournal.com/into-the-zombie-underworld
>
> No idea what this 'men's journal' site is but ended up suckered into
> reading the whole essay.
>
> On Thu, Nov 19, 2009 at 12:15 AM, Paul Mackin   
> <mackin.paul at verizon.net> wrote:
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Kohut" <markekohut at yahoo.com>
>> To: "John Bailey" <sundayjb at gmail.com>
>> Cc: "pynchon -l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>> Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 7:12 AM
>> Subject: Re: IV 15 259-261
>>
>>
>> Night of the Living Dead made in my old hometown. I know someone a zombie
>> extra, in it.
>>
>> I do not think Zombies were at all in the public consciousness.
>>
>> Me: Weren't there a few (maybe a lot) of zombi movies back in the 30s or
>> 40s?
>>
>> Vague recollection.
>>
>> P
>>
>> I do know another guy who is writing a book on Zombies. He has said the
>> growth of them in popular culture, all forms, has been masive.
>>
>> --- On Wed, 11/18/09, John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> From: John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com>
>>> Subject: Re: IV 15 259-261
>>> To: "pynchon -l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>>> Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 2:03 AM
>>> Re: Zombies. Night of the Living Dead
>>> [1968] arguably redefined the
>>> concept of the zombie in the US, and indeed made it a
>>> figure of
>>> popular culture in a way it hadn't been before. For the
>>> P-listers
>>> around at the time of IV, were zombies really part of the
>>> public
>>> consciousness? I know there's been a massive resurgence in
>>> popularity
>>> lately but are all of the zombie refs in IV appropriate to
>>> the times?
>>>
>>> On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 5:50 PM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>
>>> wrote:
>>> > Fritz calls to tell Doc Shasta landed 2 days ago at
>>> LAX
>>> >
>>> > Fritz Drybeam- Interesting name- Given the context,
>>> one thinks of the noir
>>> > film director Fritz Lang. Drybeam made me think of a
>>> beam of light. Film
>>> > noir is all about harsh angular lighting. FD is
>>> using the Arpanet to look
>>> > into hidden things but how useful his searches are is
>>> not clear, and on 258
>>> > he tells Doc that the FBI is watching back and asking
>>> him why he is so
>>> > interested in Shasta.
>>> >
>>> > The line that jumps for me on this page is "Glenn
>>> Charlock is still dead,
>>> > but hey, who cares about the criminal element ,
>>> right?"
>>> >
>>> > He keeps complaining till Fritz says it's Doc's
>>> problem now. Fritz has
>>> > been spending too much time with the Arpanet and needs
>>> to get back to
>>> > chasing down skips and deadbeats. There is a constant
>>> tension between
>>> > working to address real crimes of violence and serving
>>> the quasi legal
>>> > machinery and interests of the powers that be.
>>> >
>>> > Fritz doesn't want to look into Puck; seems to know
>>> this is dangerous
>>> > territory.
>>> >
>>> > Clearly, my reading in the chapter summary of of the
>>> incident with the gold
>>> > copper traces and Noguchi was wrong. I missed the joke
>>> with 'calling in the
>>> > lab' and Doc was referring to an historic incident
>>> where Noguchi was
>>> > suspended for a month. No p-listers seem to have
>>> noticed or cared.
>>> >
>>> > The recurrent theme of Zombies shows up when Doc
>>> watches a Zombie Movie but
>>> > falls asleep before the part at the end that confuses
>>> him. Zombies seem to
>>> > be IV's Thanatoids, a rather darker take on the living
>>> dead. Still we get
>>> > the idea that Doc thinks about Zombies as karmically
>>> real and doesn't want
>>> > to be one. This movie is about 2 brother's rivalry
>>> over a woman , ending
>>> > when one( manipulated buy a voodoo priest) stabs the
>>> others wife and he and
>>> > she end up dead, floating in the surf. Maybe P is
>>> forecasting how Doc is
>>> > manipulated by Bigfoot into a violent confrontation
>>> with AP and PB.
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>> >
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>






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