IV 15 259-261

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Given Fritz is a German name, I read it as Drei-beam.  Apparently there are three-beam lasers that are used in optical analyses.  Gets into the idea of Fritz doing deep investigations via the ARPANET.

http://www.opticsinfobase.org/ao/abstract.cfm?uri=ao-47-18-3221

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
>Sent: Nov 18, 2009 7:24 AM
>To: Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>
>Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: Re: IV 15 259-261
>
>Drybeam also made me think drywall. 
>
>the internets: bits (of light?) thru walls?
>
>--- On Wed, 11/18/09, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
>
>> From: Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>
>> Subject: IV 15 259-261
>> To: "pynchon -l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>> Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 1:50 AM
>> 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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