IVIV: chapter seven—Eel Trovatore

[Robin Landseadel]

On Sep 21, 2009, at 7:48 PM, Bekah wrote:

> It's very odd how different parts of IV appeal to different people  
> here.   Imagine me looking up the highways and race & beach-music  
> stuff while others are more into the lit-crit or sociology or  
> politics or musicology or films.    I really want to check out the  
> restaurants someone asked about.
>
> Bekah
> who drove a 1963 VW with lots of bug and flower decals on it.

Well, if you're into Pynchonian menus like I am, the Belaying Pin is  
your kind of eatery:

	''I'm Chlorinda, what'll it be," A waitress in a combination Nehru
	jacket and Hawaiian-print shirt, just long enough to qualify as a
	minidress, and with a set of vibes that didn't help sharpen
	anybody's appetite.

	"Ordinarily I'd go for the Admiral's Luau," Sauncho more
	diffident than Doc expected, "but today I guess I'll just have the
	 house anchovy loaf to start and, urn, the devil-ray filet, can I get
	 that deep-fried in beer batter?"

	"Your stomach isn't it. How about you, l'il buddy?"

	"Mmm!" Doc scanning the menu, ''All this good eatin'!" while
	Sauncho kicked him under the table.

	"If my husband dared to eat any of this shit, I'd throw him out on
	his ass and drop all his Iron Butterfly albums out the window
	after him."

	"Trick question," Doc said hastily. "The, uh, jellyfish teriyaki
	croquettes I guess? and the Eel Trovatore?"

	''And to drink, gentlemen. You'll want to be good and fucked up
	by the time this arrives. I'd recommend Tequila Zombies, they
	work pretty quick." She stalked away scowling.

I guess the first thing to note here is that attempt at a miniskirt— 
distaff members of the list ought to have a field-day with the risible  
dress code of this book.  There's lots of outfits designed for "free  
love" the kind of romantic engagement that usually leads us to:

	. . . the unspoken footnote that the word* these days was being
	way too overused. Anybody with any claim to hipness "loved"
	everybody, not to mention other useful applications, like
	hustling people into sexual activities they might not, given the
	choice, much car to engage in.
	IV, 5

* Have you heard? The word is "Love."

Mind you, this scene follows immediately after the line—

	"what old karma lies unavenged, waiting its moment."

. . . and note how often vengeance in Pynchon's novel's appears in the  
form of diabolical things to be eaten, such as the way Brigadier  
Pudding's old karma worked itself out.

Then there's Chlorinda—it's usually spelled Clorinda. The name comes  
from a Latin expression meaning "Brilliant." Adding the "H"  
contributes Chlorine from which we can derive hydrochloric acid,  
something that  ''All this good eatin'!"  will doubtless increase the  
level of. Chlorinda is yet another brief walk-on but it's hard to  
imagine anyone more brilliantly acidic than this waitress.

Of course the "l'il buddy?" not only sends us back to Gilligan's Isle,  
but connects Doc to  Gilligan, thus connecting Doc to one of the  
better known Potheads in Hollywood, Bob Denver.