IVIV (11) 176

[Clément Lévy]

- each listening on headphones to a different rock 'n' roll album and  
moving around at a different rhythm"
It may recall the deaf-mute dancing scene in The Crying of Lot 49, p.  
90, in my 127 pp. paperback edition, but there is also something much  
clearer here, and it is quoted by Levine in the paper mentioned  
earlier: Levine, Michael L. "The Vagueness of Difference: You, the  
Reader and the Dream of Gravity's Rainbow." Pynchon Notes 44–45  
(1999): 117–31.
Here's Pynchon's TCOL49 passage:
Whenever I put the headset on now,' he continued, 'I really do  
understand what I find there. When those kids sing about "She loves  
you", yeah well, you know, she does, she's any number of people, all  
over the world, back through time, different colours, sizes, ages,  
shapes, distances from death, but she loves. And the "you" is  
everybody. And herself. Oedipa, the human voice, you know, it's a  
flipping miracle.' His eyes brimming, reflecting the colour of beer.  
(99)
And Levine's comments:
« The fact that Mucho is speaking under the influence of LSD lets  
Pynchon throw out this idea as primarily a joke, although Pynchon  
demonstrates as well as anyone else how serious jokes can be. In  
Gravity's Rainbow, however, the idea that "'you' is everybody" does  
not seem at all like the product of a drug-addled mind; it is built  
into the very structure of the novel. This realization might make  
close attention to the ambiguity in Pynchon's use of the second  
person seem pointless. Yet only by sorting out the possible referents  
of "you" in any given instance can we see how inclusive a normally  
exclusive word can be. If "you" should be read as "everybody,"  
realizing exactly who "everybody" is is nevertheless important, if  
for no other reason than to remind us that it refers to actual  
people, not merely to an abstraction. » (127)

- more important here is the fact that rock 'n' roll is not going to  
be free anymore. It is as if Doc only knew music through open-air  
free concerts. The "glimpse at the other side" shows how Doc realizes  
that "everybody" is going to prefer private ownership of records  
bought in stores after a cautious listening via headphones. The major  
companies will love that until Internet, mp3, Napster, The Pirate Bay  
and the controversies about Digital Rights Management and public  
domain. See Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig, a free book on this matter:
http://www.free-culture.cc/freecontent/

- headphones, a pun explained on the wiki: http://inherent- 
vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_11#Page_176

- Dark Shadows, a gothic soap-opera (1966-1971). Pynchon is still  
very timely.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Shadows
and its theme, a rather difficult melody
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WvO1b3f4DGs