Re: IVIV: chapter seven—Eel Trovatore

[malignd at aol.com]

You're right.  I hadn't considered the waitress in light of the 
unconscious with Leej and Vehi.  Or that eating a bad meal, or any 
meal, was about internalizing and coping.



<<What do you mean she is not;  what is she? I think Robin nails it, 
not just snappy, but acidic. The Toxic sounding seafood in Jungian 
terms might stand for questionable shit from the unconscious, a prelude 
to a real acid immersion in the unconscious with Leej and Vehi. But in 
Jungian though eating something implies internalizing and coping.  
Foreshadowing?, contrast? maybe a bit of both, but this meal  and the 
conversation deepens anxiety. Afterwards The Vehi acidic meal offers 
reinforcement of the concern for Shasta but also reassurance.>> 


-----Original Message-----
From: Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Sent: Wed, Sep 23, 2009 12:36 pm
Subject: Re: IVIV: chapter seven—Eel Trovatore







On Sep 23, 2009, at 11:22 AM, Ray Easton wrote: 
 

> Mark Kohut wrote: 

>> hey, she IS a verbally snappy waitress putting down just about All 
>> the food? 

> 

> Well, no, she is not.  She clearly is *supposed* to be such, but > 
she is not.  And that's one the reasons that this is bad writing. 

> 

> Ray 
 

What do you mean she is not;  what is she? I think Robin nails it, not 
just snappy, but aci
dic. The Toxic sounding seafood in Jungian terms 
might stand for questionable shit from the unconscious, a prelude to a 
real acid immersion in the unconscious with Leej and Vehi. But in 
Jungian though eating something implies internalizing and coping.  
Foreshadowing?, contrast? maybe a bit of both, but this meal  and the 
conversation deepens anxiety. Afterwards The Vehi acidic meal offers 
reinforcement of the concern for Shasta but also reassurance. 
 

Is the LSD memory of another world from which Doc came and from which 
he derives his compactness and  a "density" that has him breaking 
through walls, a kind of reference to his ability to penetrate barriers 
to his investigations, and his focus on evidence and leads while 
smoking weed like a chimney.  The whole story  feels more Jungian than 
I first perceived but with a different set of collective memories, and 
while comic in tone, may be designed as a kind of alternative mythos of 
the detective story which will yield treasures to a probing search. 
 

The shit about Flip, Lemuria, and the true board is really funny to me, 
but again smacks of arrangements of collective uncoscious not mapped by 
Jung but making a lot of sense in terms of alternative tribes, nations 
, historic patterns etc.   I know of a legendary Christian Surfer from 
the Arcata CA area respected by all the surf community which was 
instrumental in carefully documenting toxic=2
0effluent from a paper 
plant. The plant was closed and redesigned with strict standards 
despite all their grousing that they couldn't afford it. 
 

I hope the Coen brothers take an interest, this is really their 
terrain.