Portola IV: Chapter 19 - page 343

[Bekah]

But Portola California is in the northern part of the state.   I  
considered looking into that but ...

So I figured the name was probably from the expedition of Gaspar de  
Portola.  He touched almost the whole coast.   And then there's the  
"port" in his name which his repeated in Sport and has to do with the  
coast for the Fang and all.

"The expedition started at the Presidio of San Diego on July 14 and  
returned on January 24, 1770 — failing to recognize Monterey Bay."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portola_expedition

Bekah


On Jan 4, 2010, at 4:19 PM, Mark Kohut wrote:

> If the club is named cause of the town, we have these resonances  
> with the rich, threatening, dad:
>
> Gold Rush
>
> Railway----we know about THEM in his work
> Portola is a crew change site on the Western Pacific Railroad (now  
> Union Pacific Railroad) Feather River Route over the Sierra Nevada  
> mountains. The city is also home to the Western Pacific Railroad  
> Museum (formerly Portola Railroad Museum), one of the largest  
> railroad museum in the Western US. The museum is famous for its Run  
> A Locomotive program, where the public can participate in a "fantasy  
> experience" program allowing them to run a railroad locomotive on  
> the museum grounds.
>
> Big Pharma and packaging comnpanies therein.
>
> Republican thru and thru
>
> http://www.ci.portola.ca.us/
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portola,_California
>
>
>
>
>
> --- On Mon, 1/4/10, kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com>  
> wrote:
>
>> From: kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com>
>> Subject: Re: IV: Chapter 19 - page 343
>> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>> Date: Monday, January 4, 2010, 3:16 PM
>> You're probably right, Mark, though
>> I'd prefer to believe Robin's joking explanation - a good
>> Bossa Nova-playing sax is hard to find.
>>
>> Still, though, I think there's got to be some significance
>> in Pynchon's choice of Portola for the name of the
>> club.  It's too close in meaning to Doc's last name, in
>> the sense of "portal," for Pynchon not to have something
>> specific in mind.
>>
>> Laura
>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
>>
>>>
>>> i think Pynchon saves Coy for almost religious, New
>> Testament, JC reasons: "what you do for the least of them,
>> etc. ", or whatever it is.
>>>
>>> I think Coy is 'saved' as one human exemplar of a lost
>> preterite.....Doc's meaning in his life.....
>>>
>>> And for the child, the family---that later-works
>> hopefulness---in TRP's oeuvre.
>>>
>>> --- On Mon, 1/4/10, kelber at mindspring.com
>> <kelber at mindspring.com>
>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> From: kelber at mindspring.com
>> <kelber at mindspring.com>
>>>> Subject: Re: IV: Chapter 19 - page 343
>>>> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>>>> Date: Monday, January 4, 2010, 12:19 PM
>>>> The mention of the obscure ship also
>>>> echoes back to COL49 in the scene where Mike
>> Fallopian's
>>>> describing the origins of the Peter Pinguid
>> Society -- in
>>>> this case a Russian ship was involved.
>>>>
>>>> Wondering if there's any significance between the
>> Portola
>>>> club and Sportello.  By virtue of even sitting in
>> this
>>>> power-bastion, negotiating, is Doc passing through
>> some
>>>> private portal -- in effect becoming an auxiliary
>> member of
>>>> the Golden Fang by doing business with them, even
>> if it's to
>>>> save a life?  Also, I've never understood Doc's
>>>> personal zealotry in protecting Coy and his
>> family.
>>>> Stealing heroin from and negotiating with the GF
>> seems an
>>>> excessively dangerous and risky undertaking to
>> protect
>>>> someone Doc barely knows, and a pretty morally
>> compromised
>>>> person at that.
>>>>
>>>> Laura
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
>>>>>
>>>>> Doc is as struck [in his way] by this painting
>> of the
>>>> commencement of
>>>>> the Portola Expidition as Oedipa was struck by
>> Varo's
>>>> indices of
>>>>> tears. Again and again throughout the story
>> our stony
>>>> hero asks
>>>>> questions about what might have been if only .
>> . .
>>>>>
>>>>> http://tinyurl.com/ydeg347
>>>>>
>>>>>     The Portola expedition, led by
>>>> Gaspar de Portolà from July 14,
>>>>>      1769 to January 24, 1770,
>>>> was the first known recorded
>>>>>     attempt by Spain to explore Alta
>>>> California by land.[1] The
>>>>>     purpose of the expedition was to
>>>> secure bases in Upper
>>>>>     California before the Russians.[2]
>>>> The plan was to establish a
>>>>>     base in the Port of Monterey (now
>>>> Monterey, California) as
>>>>>     described by Sebastián Vizcaíno.
>>>> The expedition consisted of
>>>>>     64 men in all, and approximately 200
>>>> horses and mules. The
>>>>>     expedition started at the Presidio
>>>> of San Diego on July 14 and
>>>>>     returned on January 24, 1770 —
>>>> failing to recognize Monterey
>>>>>     Bay.
>>>>>
>>>>> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portola_expedition
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
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My little reading habit:
http://tiny.cc/gQ72E