Coy

[Mark Kohut]

Yes, terrif posting......Coy, musician, a classic artist figure, nicely linked to Orpheus, etc......is a nice layer.

But I think this Orpheus myth may be lifted and layered to be placed in a very different context---not unlike what TRP often does. Doc ain't close to Odysseus in any ways that aren't a real sttttttrrrretttttchhh, inmho.



--- On Mon, 10/19/09, kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:

> From: kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com>
> Subject: Re: Coy
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Monday, October 19, 2009, 1:50 PM
> Great thought-provoking post, Joseph
> (as usual).  Some provoked thoughts:  Coy-Orpheus
> playing Brazilian music ties in with the Brazilian movie
> Black Orpheus.  Might Shasta be Persephone, also
> returning from the Underworld,though probably not on a
> permanent basis where Doc's concerned?  And Doc, then,
> is Odysseus, also returning from his quest into the
> Underworld?  A case could also be made for Coy as
> Odysseus, in that he descends into the Underworld on his own
> while his wife waits for him at home.  Like Odysseus,
> Coy returns home.  Doc is lost in fog at the end, much
> as Slothrop disintegrates.  Not all journeys have a
> conventionally happy ending, but unhappy or indeterminate
> endings are a lot more interesting.
> 
> Laura
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> >From: Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>
> >Sent: Oct 19, 2009 11:06 AM
> >To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> >Subject: Coy
> >
> >Coy Harlingen :Heroin addict, Sax player session man,
> undercover  
> >agent for cops,/Vigilant/FBI ?, husband of Hope, father
> of Amethyst,  
> >seeker of return home( Jason, Orpheus, Euridice).
> >
> >Coy:  The politics of heroin in Southeast Asia (
> Harper &Row)
> >by Alfred W McCoy - Mark Kohut wrote: Coy was on
> heroin; just a Mc  
> >short of McCoy on heroin......... Coy- hard to get
> >
> >Harlingen   -  Harlingen Texas (
> named after Harlingen, Netherlands ,  
> >Frisian version of same name as Harlinton, Middlex) far
> south near  
> >brownsville 80% mexican was airforce base, almost died
> when base  
> >closed -harley- lingo- ingen- gen  . 
> ARLINGTON CEMETERY :  named   
> >after virginia town which was named after Harlington,
> Middlesex      
> >Name etymology:  Place( open field)  of the
> army , Ton= town
> >Harley' s (HD)  also have connections to
> war(Pancho Villa , WW1)and  
> >heroin (Hells angels,Easy
> Rider)   Harlequin-romance stories
> >
> >I think Coy Harlingen's story is a version of the
> Orpheus and  
> >Euridice story of Greek myth which may be a major
> mythic refrain of  
> >the novel. It takes up a regular pattern and theme of
> Pynchon's  
> >fiction in journeys to the underworld( Vheissu, Chumps
> of Chance  
> >hollow earth/ sub sand machine witch, caves in Mexico/
> in Colorado/  
> >Switzerland, down urinal, caves in Peenemunde, subtext,
> underwater  
> >bones, Dante', Lemuria etc....)
> >One of the main forms this journey takes is an
> immersion into the  
> >great game of  imperial espionage, undercover
> operations and  
> >underground resistance.  Often those who travel
> this way experience a  
> >crisis point when they find the game is simply a
> lucrative and greedy  
> >cover and themselves implicated in serving people and
> actions which  
> >are despicable.  What happens then varies , some
> seem unable to  
> >emerge, some disappear in transcendence beyond the
> knowledge of self  
> >or reader. Some, perhaps most, bounce like
> yo-yos.  Some journeys  
> >turn back  toward something more humble that you
> might call home,  
> >usually without so much sentiment, often flawed, but
> a  place with  
> >love, family , friends, dogs, hope. Whether there is
> such a place is  
> >not easily answered.
> >
> >Whatever the origins, the character of Orpheus has
> generated myth,  
> >legend and supposed history( as teacher and founder of
> mystery  
> >religions).  He is always a musician and was the
> lyre player aboard  
> >the Argo who played so beautifully that he broke the
> spell of the  
> >sirens over Jason. In this chapter Jason is a pimp who
> is under the  
> >spell of flash, cash,  and stash and is naive and
> unable to control  
> >"his" women and admires the slick operation of the
> Golden Fang. Doc  
> >goes from Jason to a bar where there is a torch singer
> who has him  
> >pretty intrigued but he is even more drawn by the
> musical  
> >reappearance of Coy Harlingen and is caught up again in
> the implied  
> >story of a homecoming in the house of the Harlingens.
> >
> >The major story of Orpheus is his love story with
> Euridice .   
> >Supposedly on the day of his wedding, Euridice is
> chased by Aristaeus  
> >the son of Apollo into a nest of snakes and
> bitten.  Coy meets Hope  
> >in a junkie bar ( nest of poison injectors)  on
> the Mexican border in  
> >the loo where they shit out and puke up packets of
> heroin and are  
> >soon injecting together ( a 2 fanged serpent). In the
> myth Orpheus,  
> >upon Euridice's loss, plays music so sad it moves the
> gods and they  
> >advise him to go to the underworld to plead with Hades
> which he  
> >successfully does.  In this story both Hope and
> Coy are sinking into  
> >addiction and watching their child drink milk laced
> with heroin from  
> >Hope's breasts when Coy OD's in mysterious
> circumstances and Hope  
> >never sees the body and questions his death.  The
> song that moves the  
> >reader's hearts and Doc's is the powerful evidence of a
> Love from  
> >both Coy and Hope.  When we meet her she is
> healthy , recovered,  
> >attractive (apart from her false teeth), and has ample
> money which  
> >appeared when Coy "died" and/or disappeared into the
> underworld. Her  
> >daughter is healthy, curious and lively. But what Hope
> really wants  
> >is her husband and clearly not to resume the habit.
> >
> >Coy's journey is revealed in pieces more slowly. First
> we find him in  
> >the Club Asiatique where he gets paid, but doesn't know
> who he works  
> >for.. He is straight now and living with the Boards and
> concerned  
> >about Hope & Amethyst.  He tells the Doc GF is
> a boat with smuggled  
> >goods and dangerous. We see him next at the Boards
> place where Doc  
> >gives him a coded message amidst an  atmosphere of
> intense paranoia  
> >that H& A are OK.  The Boards are so blinded
> by egotism they don't  
> >even know their sax player is the reputedly dead Coy.
> Then he shows  
> >at the Nixon rally and Penny says he is a cop
> snitch.  In Ch 10 he is  
> >playing with the chanteuse and tells Doc he took the
> offer to work  
> >undercover to get straight and serve his country . Now
> he has  
> >realized that the people he is working for are not
> protecting people  
> >but addicted to war and control/power/money. His
> addiction is dead  
> >but he is still trapped in the underworld.  He
> misses his wife and  
> >child, his only consolation is music.
> >
> >Now Plato says Orpheus is a weak willed coward who if
> he had any  
> >manliness would have died . But Plato was a fascist
> prick and the  
> >ultimate ideologist. Pynchon seems to have arranged
> things more along  
> >the lines of where there's Life there's Hope or vice
> versa. Like  
> >committing honorable seppukku is really not the way to
> save your  
> >marriage ( or much else).
> >
> >In the myth, Orpheus is allowed to lead Euridice out of
> hell if he  
> >trusts Hades and Euridice enough to not turn around to
> check up  
> >before escaping. He fails and sings sad music until
> killed by women.
> >
> >As a parable of addiction this is pretty accurate; the
> recovered  
> >person can lead the way but can't set the other free.
> That is a step  
> >by step process they must take themselves.  As a
> parable of  
> >unconsolable love as a source of the saddest and most
> beautiful music  
> >it works well also. Somehow the saddest music purifies
> cleanses and  
> >renews the will to love.
> >
> >
> >Love guarantees neither success nor failure in the
> short term,  some  
> >addicts recover , some don't,  families and
> marriages heal and they  
> >fall apart, nations occasionally heal.  In  a
> version  of the myth,  
> >Orpheus refuses women after Euridice's death and
> consoles himself  
> >with boys. This sounds to me a sad explanation for
> homoerotic love  
> >and art. Even the greeks could not fully accept this
> aspect of human  
> >diversity.
> >
> >What is the way back from, or away from  war as a
> way of life? What  
> >is the way back from or away from our many addiction's.
> Can anyone   
> >or anything break the hold of ego and greed enough to
> heal this  
> >paranoid country. Neither TV nor not TV, neither sex
> nor not sex,  
> >neither information nor not information. Pynchon
> saturates us with  
> >the detritus and the weighty issues of the early 70s
> until we are  
> >reeling with it. Things haven't changed much. The gods
> of our age are  
> >hard to move. Pynchon documents the course of empire
> and resistance  
> >as it affects every type of individual, using satire,
> cultural  
> >insanity, and moments of sheer horror to diffuse
> simplistic self  
> >satisfaction and jolt the mind awake.
> >
> >One of the great gifts of our times are the people who
> have ventured  
> >into the dark places and come back to tell the truth,
> but the  
> >greatest power of these visionaries is when they lead
> people out of  
> >hell.  I think of people like Bayard Rustin, Pete
> Seeger, Aung San  
> >Suu Kyi Dorothy Day, but  just as much, maybe even
> more on a personal  
> >level, one thinks of  the friends and teachers and
> bakers and makers  
> >and children who surprise us with courage grace and
> insight , empathy  
> >and love, and information we can use.  I think one
> thing Pynchon is  
> >trying to do is showing the struggle to escape the
> powers of hades as  
> >it plays out in the confused, compromised realities of
> average  
> >screwed up people. The lights may be rare but
> they  come through the  
> >cracks in the world..
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