IVIV (11) p. 163-164

[Clément Lévy]

Hi all, thanks for your comments, Dave, Mark, Laura and Michael.
Cars are quite an issue in IV, maybe, because they're an issue in LA  
area. We may have another word about it.

- postcard, postmaster, mail: possible memory of the W.A.S.T.E. mail  
system in COL49. Note that there's no typo in "postmaster."

- lance-coco: this French word sounds perfectly forged, it is similar  
to lance-pierre (slingshot or catapult in English). I may add that,  
contrary to GR and AD (where I found a few errors), there are many  
French words in IV, all of them being correctly put: Café Asiatique  
(77, 80), Tex Wiener École de Pilotage (134) and Cootie Food for coup  
de foudre (144) so far. The verb lancer means throw, but there seems  
to be no known occurrence of lance-coco in French. It's a good  
neologism.

- "some island he had never heard of out in the Pacific Ocean, with a  
lot of vowels in its name"
Have your pick here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 
List_of_islands_of_France and scroll down until French Polynesia
I'd favor Huahine, Tetiaroa, Anuanuraro or Matuerivavao.
But according to the French Polynesia Post and Telecommunications  
Office (Office des Postes et Télécommunications, www.opt.pf), as of  
today there are post offices on these islands only: Ahe, Amanu, Anaa,  
Apataki, Aratika, Arutua, Bora Bora, Faaite, Fakahina, Fakarava,  
Fangatau,  Fatu Hiva, Hao, Hereheretue, Hikueru, Hiva Oa, Huahine,  
Katiu, Kaueti, Kaukura, Maiao, Makaroa, Makatea, Makemo, Mangareva,  
Manihi, Marokau, Mataiva, Maupiti, Moorea, Mopelia, Napuka, Niau,  
Nihiru, Nuku Hiva, Nukutavake, Puka Puka, Pukarua, Raiatea, Rangiroa,  
Rapa, Raraka, Raroia, Reao, Rimatara, Rurutu, Taenga, Tahaa, Tahiti,  
Tahuata, Takapoto, Takaroa, Takume, Tatakoto, Tauere, Tematangi,  
Tepoto Nord, Tikehau, Tubuai, Tureia, Ua Huka, Ua Pou, Vahitahi,  
Vairaatea. My favourites here would be Kaueti, Niau or Tikehau. And  
listen to Puka Puka! Doesn't it sound like Puke-a-hook-a-look-i  
island in GR (Great Books of the 20th Century ed., p. 647)? But on  
any of these islands, there mustn't be any lance-coco operated mail  
system!
Now, let's remember that from 1966 to 1996 French army conducted lots  
of nuclear bomb test on Mururoa and Fangataufa atolls in Polynesia  
(in the Tuamotou archipelago).

- p. 91, the "insurance history" of the Golden Fang cites Polynesian  
islands: Moorea, Bora-Bora and Tahiti. So this region of the Pacific  
had already been mentioned.

- Le Petit Larousse is a French dictionary. Many entries are  
illustrated with a lot of pictures, from very early on, which makes  
it different from the Petit Robert (no pictures, but analogical links  
between entries) or from the Littré.

- "but he knew it was from Shasta": the narrator doesn't say that Doc  
recognized Shasta's writing. Another ESP? Cf. Myrna's "ESP" p. 127  
and Doc's "extrasensory chops" p. 129.

- "I wish you could see these waves"
We may be deep into the history of surfing here. According to Ben  
Marcus (From Polynesia with Love, The History of Surfing from Captain  
Cook to the Present), surfing may have been invented by Polynesians  
who came from Tahiti, and was developed in Hawai'i:

“Forced to migrate into the vast region by the push of population and  
the pull of the horizon, the first Polynesians arrived in the  
Hawaiian Islands in the fourth century A.D. The Polynesians who made  
the arduous journey from Tahiti and the Marquesas to Hawai'i were  
necessarily exceptional watermen and women who brought a deep love  
and knowledge of the ocean with them. The Polynesians who made it to  
Hawai'i also brought their customs with them, including playing in  
the surf on paipo (belly) boards. Although Tahitians are said to have  
occasionally stood on their boards, the art of surfing upright on  
long boards was certainly perfected if not invented in Hawai'i.”
http://www.surfingforlife.com/history.html

See also Wikipedia, which doesn't confirm the hypothesis of a  
Polynesian origin of surfing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_surfing

And also a very accurate historical essay by Geoff Cater who cites  
the first surfing-scene witnessed by Europeans. It was recorded in  
Tahiti by Samuel Wallis, in 1767.
http://www.surfresearch.com.au/h_AncientBoards_0000_Menu.html

Today, a few surfing spots in Tahiti seem to be very famous like  
Teahupo'o or Taapuna. Many others are presented here, with pictures:
http://www.letahitien.com/index-cat-pages-id-40-surf-tahiti.html

- Shasta's message sounds very melancholy but she gives Doc a clue,  
seemingly unintentionally.

- Ouija board. We've seen one already in Gravity's Rainbow, at  
Snoxall's (GR, BB20thC p. 32).

- "his city dump memory": here again, the waste motif.

- "everybody was desperate": they had to if they considered getting  
high on belladonna. It is dangerous:
"Atropa belladonna, along with related plants such as jimson weed  
(Datura stramonium), has occasionally been used as a recreational  
drug because of the vivid hallucinations and delirium that it  
produces. These hallucinations are most commonly described as very  
unpleasant, however, and recreational use is considered extremely  
dangerous because of the high risk of unintentional fatal overdose.  
In addition, the central nervous system effects of atropine include  
memory disruption, which may lead to severe confusion." (that was the  
wikipedia)

- cold capsules: they are full of tiny multicolor beads. Sorting them  
by color must be exhausting. I found a few brands of cough medicine  
that contain belladonna alkaloids: Belcomp-PB, Migracet-PB and  
Ergocaff-PB (found them on drugs.com) but I cannot tell if they are  
the drugs Pynchon is talking about.

- Visine: a brand of eye-drops medicine. According to wikipedia (them  
again), "A common urban legend is that a few drops of Visine in an  
unsuspecting victim's drink will cause a harmless bout of diarrhea.  
This will not produce diarrhea, but oral administration of Visine can  
induce dangerous side effects […]"

- morning glory as a hallucinogene: see Erowid's website:
http://www.erowid.org/plants/morning_glory/morning_glory.shtml
It was studied by Albert Hofmann who wrote a paper on the use of a  
variety of Ipomoea by the Aztec: "Teonanácatl and Ololiuqui, two  
ancient magic drugs of Mexico", Bulletin on Narcotics, Issue 1, 1971;  
3-14. You can find this paper here:
http://www.erowid.org/plants/mushrooms/references/other/ 
1971_hofmann_bulletin-narcotics.shtml

- "the problem about Ouija boards—" indeed! this one gives an address  
valid (in a way that must be discussed) only months later. Months?  
this the time-line problem. We talked about this sooner on the list  
but I cannot find when it was.

- TV cop shows: also a motif in VL, p. 83, and elsewhere too.

Today has been a long day! I'll write later tomorrow (thursday)
Clément