IVIV 77

[Michael Bailey]

ok, so the girls leave him a note, written in hot pink toenail polish,
and a PS: Beware of the Golden Fang!!!

as he recalls the incident of Mickey's kidnapping, he realizes Jade
was the last person he saw there,
and, in typical tortuous syntax, and not lacking a Jim Morrison
reference, ponders whether she might
have something more to tell him.

a) detectives often get clubbed on the head:
a feature of almost every Rockford episode (a wisecracking 'tec I liked)
Nick Danger ("then it hit me: what a sap she had!")

b) Pynchon's already slid a humorous tentacle of truth into that
convention, back on
page 22 with "faster, anyway, than the staff on Medical Center can say
'subdural hematoma'"

"So, knowing them to be longtime Club Asiatique regulars" - plus the
fact she just
told him so in the note - he heads out to their "beachfront mansion"

Motella's closet full of Hawaiian shirts is a nice counterpoint to
Mickey's closet full of ties...
one could point out that while Mickey's custom made ties were an
artifact of his promiscuity,
Lourdes and Motella's shirts are probably also left and taken in turn
by a steady supply of
gentlemen callers.

And in a nice touch, Motella also lends Doc a string of love beads...







-- 
"Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the
revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world
declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism." -
Martin Luther King