IV 15 259-261: wikipedia on 'the undead"

rich richard.romeo at gmail.com
Wed Nov 18 11:55:47 CST 2009


last man on earth w/ vincent price is very good. an sorta early
version of omega man

rich

On Wed, Nov 18, 2009 at 11:23 AM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net> wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Kohut" <markekohut at yahoo.com>
> To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>; "Heikki Raudaskoski" <hraudask at sun3.oulu.fi>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 18, 2009 10:20 AM
> Subject: Re: IV 15 259-261: wikipedia on 'the undead"
>
>
> Goes way back in folklore...inclu Arabian Nights.....Poe,
> Lovecraft......1929 book "introduced the word 'zombie'"--Time mag
> sez.......Haitian voodoo sources fed in 20th Century.........
>
> Plan 9 from Outer Space is 1959.
>
> Zombies not free from their 'masters' until late sixties; could not walk
> until a year later....
>
> yes, Romero's film is when concept went wide in the culture, says the Great
> Wikipedia:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zombie
>
> Yeah, the wiki list of zombie movies has an overwhelming proponderance of
> post 1968 offerings.
>
> Only noticed a few exceptions
>
> King of the Zombies 41
> Rovolt of the Zombies 36
> Zombies on Broadway
> Terror Creatures of the Grave 65
> TGeen aghe zombies 59
> Ouange 36
> The Last man on Earth 64
> The Ghost Breaker 40
> the Dead one 61
>
> Dont't remember seeing any of them;/
>
> P
>
>
> --- On Wed, 11/18/09, Heikki Raudaskoski <hraudask at sun3.oulu.fi> wrote:
>
>> From: Heikki Raudaskoski <hraudask at sun3.oulu.fi>
>> Subject: Re: IV 15 259-261
>> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>> Date: Wednesday, November 18, 2009, 9:50 AM
>>
>>
>> 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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