Fwd: IVIV (11) 165-166

Fri Oct 23 18:13:55 CDT 2009

I don't think you got this message. Maybe a problem on the p-list? I  
found a few errors here: The 5th Dimension were 5, plus the other  
errors I corrected in my precedent e-mail.
Clement

> De : Clément Lévy <clemlevy at gmail.com>
> Date : 23 octobre 2009 13:44:44 HAEC
> À : P-list -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Objet : IVIV (11) 165-166
>
> - "Howdy dopers" etc. Something interesting here (163). Sortilège's  
> comment  ("Did you hear" etc.) is an ironic interpretation of the  
> message probably recorded that Doc hears when he calls the number  
> suggested through the Ouija board. Irony because what it says could  
> be the contrary of what it means.
> It's quite the same with Shasta's message, as Joseph Tracy said:
>> My sense is that it was deliberate, If she is in captivity and  
>> being watched the message would have to seem innocuous.
> In a similar way, on the voice mail, the message said by the girl  
> is very friendly ("cooed a female voice") whereas this could lead  
> to something sinister (murder and kidnapping).
>
> - Rosecrans Blvd. is not a street name in LA, it could be Rosecrans  
> Ave., that goes from the sea through Compton and to La Mirada. It  
> is parallel to Manhattan Beach Blvd. But there's a song called  
> Rosecrans Blvd. by The 5th Dimension, a soul-music band. This song  
> is on the Up, Up, and Away (1967) LP. On the cover of this LP,  
> there is a picture of the five members of the band in a air-balloon  
> basket, and a motto is written too: Go Where You Wanna Go (because  
> this album features a cover of this song by The Mamas and The Papas).
> http://music.aol.com/song/rosecrans-blvd/215665
> Rosecrans Blvd. is a love song, every strophe begins with  
> "Rosecrans Boulevard" but the lyrics sound funny at some point. The  
> singer must be Billy Davis, Jr., he has a low, warm and mellow  
> voice, violins, piano, guitars, and a soft riff of a trumpet after  
> every line or so.
>
> I passed a lot of exit signs in my town driving along freeways
> To San Diego and Point South (?)
> But there was a time last summer
> When I came down from Manhattan
> And though I knew I shouldn't, it was just too hard
> And I made my move at Rosecrans Boulevard
>
> Rosecrans Boulevard
> Stop your calling me
> You know I never loved her anyway
> I just used her over and over
>
> [faster, same voice, only more high-pitched, a swirl of violins]
> But there were times when she'd left and I'd think I loved her
> One night on Manhattan Beach I said things that moved (?) too fast  
> to suit her
>
> [ralentendo, nearly a pause and then ]
> Then I held her close and dried her tears
>
> Rosecrans Boulevard
> Who cares what you think
> The girl was half-crazy
> The way she drove her little car
> Down Sunset Boulevard
> At 3 in the morning doing 90 miles
> And higher (?) in a 30 miles zone
> And blame me when she got a ticket
> But in there was a smile
> It was really what made all the airlines go
> She was a spiritist you know
> Shot (?) down on an uncombatting mission
> And though I pity
> Every time I drove my car past Rosecrans Boulevard
> I wonder why I did it [trumpet again, a couple arpeggios on the  
> piano and a few random notes on a glockenspiel at the very end]
>
>  I could listen to the song on Spotify. Nothing on youtube. To use  
> spotify one needs to register some time before. Here is a link if  
> you are already using it:
> The Fifth Dimension – Rosecrans Blvd.
>
> Is the girl a west-coast Rachel Owlglass? is she a stewardess? or  
> am I making all a much fuss about a random song?
>
> - Tommy James and the Shondells: the only one music band named in  
> this chapter: they did bubblegum music, and from 1968, psychedelic  
> rock. Toured with Hubert Humphrey on his campaign in 1968. A few  
> hits in 1969: "Crystal Blue Persuasion", "Sweet Cherry Wine", and  
> "Ball of Fire," but in 1970 the group split after Tommy James  
> collapsed during a concert (a reaction to drugs, according to  
> wikipedia) and was even pronounced dead. But he recovered. He plays  
> the guitar (not a tenor sax like Coy), and here's Crimson and  
> Clover (1968) where he uses a vocoder to give his voice a very  
> strange sound, near the end of the song:
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=old3vg4vq2U&feature=fvw (love is the  
> answer)
>
> - "what could be more auspicious": TJ and the Shondells could be a  
> good music for Doc. If you listen to Sweet Cherry Wine (only recent  
> lives on youtube), you'll hear: sweet cherry wine/ open your mind/  
> sweet cherry wine/ so very fine.
>
> - notice the changing weather: "weird", "unnatural," "hitherto- 
> unreported-circle-of-Hell-black" clouds. "Everybody had turned  
> their lights on though it was midday": it looks pretty  
> catastrophic. People who consider Pynchon as an American Dante will  
> like the allusion to the Commedia.
>
> - their trip: from Gordita Beach to La Brea means going North by  
> Inglewood, so they don't take Rosecrans Blvd. for a very long time.  
> After La Brea, they are "someplace over Pasadena" when the flood  
> begins.
>
> - Orange Julius is a fruit juice chain store. Not related to Orange  
> county. http://www.orangejulius.com/
>
> - "a gigantic excavation". Is this a tomb?
>
> - "Here's your dope, you fucking idiot" Disappointment for Shasta  
> and Doc. This is how they explain Sortilège's remark.
>
> - "a doorway, a great wet temple entrance, into someplace else"  
> Perception of space has gotten weird (without weed). It sounds  
> strange that Doc and Shasta don't try to go through this door… but  
> they prefer to have sex instead.
>
> - "the old namesake river" Los Angeles River's bed lies West from  
> Pasadena and goes to the South near downtown and further on. They  
> could be anyway near the river between Los Angeles Downtown and  
> Compton, for example. Check the Wired.com Unofficial Thomas Pynchon  
> Guide to Los Angeles*
> http://www.wired.com/special_multimedia/2009/pl_print_1708
>
> - note this dream of the river filled up to "a sizable inland sea  
> that would presently become an extension of the Pacific". It would  
> make the Californian coast an island, as the first Europeans to see  
> this country imagined it:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_California
>
> - The present state of Doc and Shasta's relationship is described  
> without any psychological description. "She was already halfway out  
> the door" (not the temple entrance!), "Doc saw it happening",  
> "Forgetting for a few minutes etc." It reminds me of Slothrop in  
> London under the flying bombs. The danger here is the flood, but  
> the two lovers ignore it, and we should also note that their desire  
> skipped from dope to sexual pleasure.
>
> - "Back at the beach:" end of the trip. The rain continues for  
> days: "every day up in the hills", which has bad consequences for  
> land-owners: landslides (see p. 165) attack the real-estate. Note  
> the metonymy, the economical entity "came sliding down", not only  
> the land.
>
> - hair spray: it could remind us Œdipa's flying hair spray bomb, p.  
> 24.
>
> - "termitic house of Gordita Beach": termits were already noted in  
> Vineland, see the Pynchon Wiki:
> http://inherent-vice.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php? 
> title=Chapter_1#Page_6
>
> - "Goodyear Blimp". See the official page: http:// 
> www.goodyearblimp.com/fleet/spirit_america.html
> The first Spirit of America was launched in 1968 over Los Angeles
>
> _ Aspen, Colorado: cf. "freak power" p. 9: Hunter S. Thompson lead  
> a "freak power" mayoral campaign with Joe Edwards. See:
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Battle_of_Aspen
>
>
> Best,
> Clement

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