IVIV (12): 195-197

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Photos are bad in the wrong hands.  One of TRP's more sympathetic characters, Merle in ATD, was a photographer, after all.  The zombie-like Boards may be in cahoots with the Fang, or they may just be looking for their stolen souls, but we-the-readers surely don't support their ripping off Denis' pictures.  Spike's footage of the Chick Planet kidnapping is another case in point.  Spike's documentary footage supplies Doc with info about the bad guys, as does Fritz and Sparky's computer hacking.  Now if the cops were doing it ...

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
>Sent: Oct 30, 2009 3:12 PM
>To: kelber at mindspring.com
>Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: Re: IVIV (12): 195-197
>
>A--and, I just want to add another surface ob based on TRPs bag of tropes
>and vision-carriers:  The Boards were hunting for photos............
>
>photos are not good things in Pynchon....
>
>--- On Fri, 10/30/09, kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
>
>> From: kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com>
>> Subject: IVIV (12): 195-197
>> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>> Date: Friday, October 30, 2009, 12:43 PM
>> p. 195:
>> 
>> "the CII computer up in Sacramento" 
>> 
>> What's CII?
>> 
>> Council of International Investigators?
>> 
>> http://www.cii2.org/index.shtml
>> 
>> or something to do with this (see posting by PHM re: CII
>> number)?
>> 
>> http://www.calccw.com/Forums/general-ccw-discussion/3560-ca-ccw-permit.html
>> 
>> Sparky: a nickname for an electrician.  Also, the
>> character Radar O'Reilly was always communicating with in
>> M*A*S*H.
>> 
>> p.196:  Denis is freaked because members of The Boards
>> have broken into his house, ostensibly looking for the
>> photos he took at their house.
>> 
>> " ... they are supposed to be freaks, a freak surfadelic
>> band, that's their public image, and freaks don't rip off
>> other freaks, and most of all if they take your food, freaks
>> share it.  Didn't you see that movie?  There's
>> this actual 'Code of the Freaks' --"
>> 
>> Cute joke about Freaks (1932), which I've always been too
>> squeamish to watch.  But Denis' comment strikes me as
>> one of the most poignant moments in the book.  Denis'
>> indignation captures the outright sadness people felt when
>> they realized the vague, half-baked promises of the '60s
>> weren’t gonna pan out.  Manson's shadow looms
>> again  -- he looked and acted like a freak, like "one
>> of us" (to quote the movie), but turned out to be the exact
>> opposite -- Free Hate, not Free Love. The Boards act like
>> zombies and pigs instead of surfer dudes.  If we're
>> assuming them to be, in part, an analog of the Beach Boys,
>> there's another whiff of Manson, since one or more of the
>> Beach Boys rubbed shoulders with Manson.  Denis has
>> every right to be upset.
>> 
>> General Tso's Broccoli:  the Hippie version of General
>> Tso's Chicken.  One more case where TRP edges toward
>> anachronism.  Szechuan cuisine was around in the early
>> '70s, but Cantonese cuisine (with its Chow Mein and Chop
>> Suey designed for bland American tastes) was dominant. 
>>   General Tso's was marketed in Szechuan restaurants,
>> but it was another "Chinese" dish, designed for American
>> tastes.  It's hard to believe that "General Tso's"
>> anything would have entered the general parlance.  Not
>> impossible, but a stretch.
>> 
>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_Tso's_Chicken
>> 
>> LK
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> 
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