Portola IV: Chapter 19 - page 343

Tue Jan 5 06:19:04 CST 2010

Good. 

Guess i should learn to look at a map if I don't know California. 

--- On Mon, 1/4/10, Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> From: Bekah <bekah0176 at sbcglobal.net>
> Subject: Re: Portola IV: Chapter 19 - page 343
> To: "Mark Kohut" <markekohut at yahoo.com>
> Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org, kelber at mindspring.com
> Date: Monday, January 4, 2010, 9:11 PM
> 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
> >>>>> 
> >>>> 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >>> 
> >> 
> >> 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> 
> My little reading habit:
> http://tiny.cc/gQ72E
> 
> 