IVIV Hope Harlingen: a wacky theory (possible spoilers)

[David Morris]

Well, 1970 would be the first year after 1969, the year that finished
off the 60's.  Wouldn't IV be set in 1969?

DQ was corrupted by Romances (thanks, MB), and Doc thinks Sherlock
Holmes was a real person, one who's drug addiction justifies Doc's
indulgences.  Everyone in VL andIV uses popular TV shows as a medium
of communication.  And film in GR is called "pornography."  Fiction in
all its forms is a corrupting distraction from real first-hand
experience, like a drug.

On Fri, Sep 11, 2009 at 6:56 AM, Tore Rye Andersen <torerye at hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> An interesting passage here is Isaiah Two Four's words to
> Zoyd towards the end of VL:
>
> "Whole problem 'th you folks's generation," Isaiah opined,
> "nothing personal, is you believed in your Revolution, put
> your lives right out there for it - but you sure didn't
> understand much about the Tube. Minute the Tube got hold of
> you folks that was it, that whole alternative America, el
> deado meato, just like th' Indians, sold it all to your real
> enemies, and even in 1970 dollars - it was way too cheap...."
> (VL, 373)
>
>It would seem Pynchon (or the implied author, or whoever) points to 1970 as some kind of sea change.  The Tube doesn't play a very large part in the sections of VL that take place in the Sixties. Those sections are more about the material, and potentially revolutionary, medium of film - 24fps and all that - just as GR is very much about film. In the sections of VL that deal with the Eighties, the immaterial medium of the Tube is of course pervasive; it's everywhere and everything.