Re: IVIV (15) 269/274—7000 Romaine Street Revisited

[alice wellintown]

> It's a reference to a character created by the same author, this time a
> fictionalized version of an occult figure that figures into Gravity's
> Rainbow—something of a cross-development of themes found in GR's prelude. I
> do not think Mickey Wolfmann IS Howard Hughes, the way that Nicholas
> Nookshaft is purdy dern close to Aleister Crowley. Hughes is Hughes in
> Inherent Vice, & Trick Dick is just as trickey and just as dickey as in real
> life. It's a fully justified parallelism. I don't think Mickey Wolfman is
> Howard Hughes, but his story says a lot about the America of Howard Hughes'.

Isn't it more likely that P is just doing what he always does with
this conspiracy and cia material?
Hughes wasn't kidnapped by Onassis and JFK wasn't murdered by the cia.
But positive paranoia, like a powerful mind opening drug or some other
mind opening experience, can help poor and powerless people see things
that the elect doesn't want them to see. Paranoia, however, also has a
negative side, like a powerful drug or a powerful jones, it can act
like a thief and rob one's life or even make one commit a murder. Is
the Doc who murders a Hypocrite.

The Thief


Thou robb'st my days of business and delights,
   Of sleep thou robb'st my nights ;
   Ah, lovely thief, what wilt thou do?
   What?  rob me of heaven too?
   Even in my prayers thou hauntest me:
   And I, with wild idolatry,
Begin to God, and end them all to thee.
Is it a sin to love, that it should thus
   Like an ill conscience torture us?
   Whate'er I do, where'er I go—
   None guiltless e'er was haunted so!—
   Still, still, methinks, thy face I view,
   And still thy shape does me pursue,
As if, not you me, but I had murdered you.

>From books I strive some remedy to take,
   But thy name all the letters make;
   Whate'er 'tis writ, I find thee there,
   Like points and commas everywhere.
   Me blessed for this let no man hold,
   For I, as Midas did of old,
Perish by turning every thing to gold.

What do I seek, alas, or why do I
   Attempt in vain from thee to fly?
   For, making thee my deity,
   I gave thee then ubiquity.
   My pains resemble hell in this:
   The divine presence there too is,
But to torment men, not to give them bliss.