IVIV (11) p. 163-164

[John Bailey]

Nice connection. Was doing some reading on Lovecraft today,
coincidentally. And just checking in on "Call of Cthulhu" I also
notice that one of its threads concerns a guy called Webb leading an
expedition to Iceland and Greenland and coming across some of those
ancient Lovecraftian evils. Pretty novel correspondence to AtD
there...

I don't think IV is particularly Lovecraftian in any explicit way, but
I definitely reckon Pynchon knows his Cthulhu mythos and HP's style
bleeds into his writing at various points. Same with Poe. And
Hawthorne, etc. All part of an East Coast US tradition of mannerist
English that's both antiquarian and populist.

Hey look: the entire text of "Atlantis and the Lost Lemuria" is
available online! God bless you, internet.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/10701330/The-Story-of-Atlantis-and-the-Lost-Lemuria

The "Lost Lemuria" section is indeed pretty fun reading.

On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 9:03 PM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen
<lorentzen at hotmail.de> wrote:
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> ----------------------------------------
>> Date: Thu=2C 22 Oct 2009 17:21:31 +1100
>> Subject: Re: IVIV (11) p. 163-164
>> From: sundayjb at gmail.com
>> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>>
>> Shasta really is hinting that Doc should go check the location where
>> the Golden Fang HQ has been built=2C isn't she? I think the apparent
>> melancholy edge to her note made me miss that.
>>
>> The picture on the postcard is pretty obviously meant to suggest
>> Lemuria by this point=2C too. So she's writing from Lemuria or whatever
>> that represents in the novel.
>>
> =20
> =20
> Pynchon could be influenced by Lovecraft here. In "The Call of Cthulhu" it
> says: " ... queer dreams of differrent persons=2C some of them citations fr=
> om
> theosophical books and magazines (notably W. Scott-Elliot's ATLANTIS AND TH=
> E
> LOST LEMURIA)=2C and the rest comments on long surviving secret societies a=
> nd
> hidden cults ...". A footnote in this Penguin Book story-collection of mine
> informs us that the Atlantis/Lemuria text was published in 1925 as a reprin=
> t=20
> of two seperate books written for the Theosophical Publishing Company. Thos=
> e
> were THE STORY OF ATLANTIS (1896) and "The Lost Lemuria" (1904[!]).
> =20
> kfl =20
> =20
> =20
> =20
> =20
>>
>> I also think her opener=2C "I wish you could see these waves"=2C is
>> enormously suggestive. Waves have a kind of mythical power in IV (and
>> are important in AtD too). I don't know much 'bout science but I think
>> waves are pretty right-now=2C yeah? Anyone want to help out there? Waves
>> as opposed to discrete particles=2C planes=2C euclidean geometry or
>> something?
>>
>> Shasta's in a (fantasy) place where the waves are crazy. Maybe she's
>> just onto that new Google Wave thing.
>>
>> On Thu=2C Oct 22=2C 2009 at 4:46 PM=2C Joseph Tracy wrote:
>>> Great Research Clement=2C Ya gotta love the sounds of polynesian languag=
> es=2C
>>> pronounceable or not.
>>>
>>> On Oct 21=2C 2009=2C at 8:55 PM=2C Cl=E9ment L=E9vy wrote:
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> - Shasta's message sounds very melancholy but she gives Doc a clue=2C
>>>> seemingly unintentionally.
>>>
>>> My sense is that it was deliberate=2C If she is in captivity and being w=
> atched
>>> the message would have to seem innocuous. The trip to the Hole in the bl=
> ack
>>> clouded rainstorm doesn't seem very romantic=2C not really a tender memo=
> ry.
>>> Had she been to the new Fang building while in captivity and recognized =
> the
>>> location? I kinda feel like Pynchon is using the Ouija board as an openi=
> ng
>>> to the duality of a certain kind of a greedy use of the spirit world. It=
>  is
>>> preceded by some nasty desperate-stoner imagery( anybody ready for visin=
> e
>>> as a way to cleanse the doors of perception?) and seems to open the door=
>  to=2C
>>> well=2C hell=2C or at least a local franchise. Some of Doc's bad karma s=
> eems
>>> to converge here=2C Japonica=2C the dart=2C cocaine(a drug Pynchon conne=
> cts to
>>> self destruction) the paranoid Blatnoyd.
>>>>
>>>> - Ouija board. We've seen one already in Gravity's Rainbow=2C at Snoxal=
> l's
>>>> (GR=2C BB20thC p. 32).
>>>
>>> Can someone translate this to the Penguin page #
>>>>
>>>> - "his city dump memory": here again=2C the waste motif.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> - "the problem about Ouija boards=97" 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.
>>>
>>> NIce alternate take to the one I offered above with the directions from
>>> another time zone. Would definitely fit with other Pynchon time distorti=
> ons=2C
>>> especially ATD.
>>>>
>>>> - TV cop shows: also a motif in VL=2C p. 83=2C and elsewhere too.
>>>>
>>>> Today has been a long day! I'll write later tomorrow (thursday)
>>>> Cl=E9ment
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>                                         =
>