IVIV (7) The Ice Caps are melting

[Robin Landseadel]

On Sep 28, 2009, at 7:27 AM, grladams at teleport.com wrote:

> I think Pynchon has preferences, and they are persuasive, but not fist
> waving protests. Who of us hasn't with misty eyes despite the  
> foreground
> action, noticed in the distance the train moving west, a light burning
> overhead pressing us to stay awake and work, a loss of magic, the  
> loss of
> peace.. His novels prefer subversion of commercial channels, they  
> question
> the status of real estate, prefer earlier forms of light and  
> magnetism.
> They honor the spiritual and bring seeing to the unseen, such as the
> sentience of rock and oil. Maybe it's just my own interpretations, but
> there are some serious beliefs running through his books.
>
>
> Jill

You have company.

I think a lot of those moments relate to LSD. There is and always has  
been the joke inside of the notion of a "Central Intelligence Agency"  
particularly as it applies to Timothy Leary— recall Leary joking about  
it for a news camera, some time back. Fringe types like Tesla and  
Crowley figure in as well—magicians who offer routes of escape from  
the local plane of reality into other worlds that offer different  
potential outcomes. Somewhere in the center of Pynchon's religious  
paranoia is the "Knowledge" flashing in magenta and kelly green neon  
that these  visions have meaning. Pynchon's vision of L.A. drowning to  
the strains of Tiny Tim singing "The Ice Caps Are Melting" has an  
obvious & ominous meaning. Think of this as  a weather report from  
somebody who maybe knows a thing or two about the waste products of  
industry and their relation to climate change.

	"Don't say it," warned Sortilege. "Don't say, 'Let me tell you
	about my trip.'"

	"Makes no sense. Like, we were out in this-"

	"I can either press your lips gently closed with my finger or-"
	She made a fist and positioned it near his face.
	"If your guru Vehi did not just set me up ... " After about a minute,
	she said, "What?" "Huh? What was I talkin about?

What? I think we're withheld from knowing precisely what's going on  
here by design. The narrator can communicate Doc's thoughts, but the  
narrator is not obligated to tell us all of Doc's thoughts.

But you folks can tell me, in what way did Vehi set up Doc? Doc knew  
he was about to have a trip—what was different about this one?