IVIV: The Feds

[rich]

and the unending turf battles between federal and local law
enforcement--there's more nuance to this in IV than in any other
Pynchon book

rich

On 9/15/09, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Borderline might signify the borderline between private citizens and The
> State?
>
> --- On Tue, 9/15/09, John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> From: John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com>
>> Subject: IVIV: The Feds
>> To: "Pynchon Liste" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>> Date: Tuesday, September 15, 2009, 12:48 AM
>> Doc walks Penny back to work at her
>> request, which is really just an
>> excuse to hand him over to Special Agents Flatweed and
>> Borderline.
>>
>> Anyone with "flat" in their name, or "border" or "line" is
>> bound to be
>> up to no good in a P novel. Not so sure about the weed
>> though...
>>
>> Did some googling and came across someone asking a dope
>> forum what
>> "flat" weed refers to. Answers suggested that it's cheap,
>> mass
>> produced marijuana packed into bricks. Not good quality. As
>> one puts
>> it: "flat weed is a mass produced schwag weed usually seedy
>> and low
>> quality..
>> they plantations that grow this "flat weed" will grow 100's
>> some time
>> 1000's of plants at a time and will stick the finished
>> product in a
>> large vice and compact the shit out of it and cut them into
>> the
>> quantity they're selling them in pounds or kilos..."
>>
>> Like the vice reference.
>>
>> Borderline was a 1950 film in which customs agents attempt
>> to sort out
>> and capture a complex dope-smuggling ring in Mexico.
>> Starred Fred
>> MacMurray (whose big noir moment was of course Double
>> Indemnity) and
>> the bad guy was Raymond Burr (who's mentioned in
>> Vineland).
>>
>> Borderline also brings up borderline personality disorder,
>> but I don't
>> see how BPD would be relevant here.
>>
>> ------
>>
>> "Gotta say I've always admired you guys, eight P.M. every
>> Sunday
>> night, wow, I never miss an episode!" says Doc. He's either
>> obviously
>> taking the piss or doing that fake "I'm just a dumb doper"
>> routine.
>>
>> What show is this referring to? "The F.B.I"? That's what
>> I'm guessing,
>> and we get a ref to the show's lead character Lew Erskine
>> shortly.
>> Fits in with Doc's frequent lament regarding the
>> conditioning effect
>> of 60s/70s law enforcement TV.
>>
>> In fact the first comment on the IMDB listing for FBI is a
>> case in point:
>>
>> "I swore I was going to grow up to work for the F.B.I. --
>> that's how
>> wonderful and influential this program was...
>>
>> He had a convertible RED Mustang!!! He would travel the
>> world, take
>> out the criminals...and then at the end cruise Washington,
>> DC in a RED
>> CONVERTABLE MUSTANG!!! And...end up at his Washington, DC
>> Brownstone!!
>> I mean, how cool of a job was THAT?!?!?! "
>>
>> ------
>>
>> Doc is pretty straight in this scene. Penny excuses herself
>> to the
>> bathroom, but Doc knows "her gait when she had to piss, and
>> this
>> wasn't it."
>>
>> That's pretty amazing detective work. I doubt I'd ever make
>> that kind
>> of observation.
>>
>> -----
>>
>> Doc takes "a second and a half to get spiritually
>> prepared". Odd little phrase.
>>
>> -----
>>
>> "Come on, Larry, let's find us a cup of joe." Dialogue
>> right out of a
>> TV script. And the feds start off by suggesting a nice
>> legal drug they
>> can share. Doc wonders when he'll get to smoke a joint
>> again.
>>
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