IVIV and Entropy

[Robin Landseadel]

On Sep 12, 2009, at 8:20 AM, Doug Millison wrote:

> . . . given the way he criticizes his early work in the Slow Learner  
> introduction, I wonder if in IV he has alluded or referred to his  
> stories in a way that might reflect his later judgments of them, in  
> the way that he presents these allusions in the IV text.

Pynchon definitely does that in Against the Day, where episodes and  
language—grippe espagnole, anyone?—are re-used and corrected in the  
process. That whole Cinderellas, distorted communications and  
alternative Postal systems cluster in Lot 49 is greatly expanded in  
AtD, La Jarretière returns for a brief curtain bow, we have a  
variation on the Learned English Dog in Pugnax & there is an Oedipal  
Scene over an inverted rarity—stamps commemorating the Pan-American  
Exposition in Buffalo, New York of 1901.

Just a wild guess here folks, but I'll bet we'll find lots of cross- 
references to Gravity's Rainbow at or near Gordita Beach. We've only  
had about a month with the book right now, I haven't spent the time to  
go back to Gravity's Rainbow—too busy reading IV and Chandler— but all  
those citations of military-industrial sites in the South Bay didn't  
get in the book by accident.

On Sep 11, 2009, at 8:59 AM, Doug Millison wrote:

> To me, IV seems to work very much like a cartoon, in its visuals and  
> dialogue, and the way the story moves,  where Pynchon's descriptions  
> stand in for a cartoon's visuals while action and dialogue work like  
> a comic book  or, because of the length of the book, a graphic novel.

Odd to speak of this, but like Doc, I feel a deeper attachment to the  
figure of the animated cartoon character. Bugs Bunny, Road-Runner,  
Popeye, Mighty Mouse all express a visceral level of violence,  
expressed in pratfalls of exquisite design—vaudeville at its finest.  
Someone with an engineering background could appreciate this sort of  
manufactured art, it's like rocket science in it's attention to  
detail. At the same time, in a dopers dreamscape the Chuck Jones  
Coyote goes back to being the Brujo's Coyote, the essential myths  
under the animated figure come to life. In an LSD induced state or a  
fever dream, the animated characters can become physically palpable,  
Snow White goes back to her Babylonian and Nordic parents, Bug's  
pulling himself out of a top hat goes back to Atu 1, the Magician's  
card. These are archetypes of the Badass.

You're right about the novel's motion being much like that of like  
Animation or Comic books/Graphic Novels. Rendering Inherent Vice in  
the style of one of Paramount's 1940's animated shorts would sleaze  
things up enough to get the tone just right.