IVIV20: Moving faster than Doc had ever seen him, 354-357
Michael Bailey
michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com
Sat Jan 16 05:19:08 CST 2010
Laura wrote:
> I'm not sure what to make of Sauncho's lust to own the GF boat. This >being Pynchon, it has that dark, everything's connected connotation -- >in this case, we get from maritime lawyers to drug dealers to dentists >in several easy jumps. Still, it's hard not to take the notion of goofy, >quasi-counter-cultural Sauncho taking ownership of the boat as part of >a formulaically cute, Coy-like happy ending.
I could see where the frequent presence of humorous exaggeration to a
surrealistic pitch could lead a reader to expect that, but I think we
get some clues that Sauncho's outgunned in this desire
- he's out there contending and I give him major points for that, but
the boatload of DAs apparently in an official capacity seem to have an
edge in numbers, firepower, and speed...
they've also co-opted that great Thunderclap Newman tune (there was
this brief flicker of FM airplay for that group and I actually ended
up liking their other songs better - never had the spare change to
actually purchase the album, but maybe on iTunes next payday...
anyway, Wikipedia sez:
"Originally titled "Revolution", but later renamed because the Beatles
released a single of that name, "Something in the Air" captured
post-flower power rebellion, marrying McCulloch's majestic electric
rhythm and lead guitars; Keen's powerful drumming and falsetto,
Newman's legendary frostbite in boxing gloves piano solo and
Townshend's (uncredited) electric bass."
---- isn't that terrific: "frostbite in boxing gloves"!)
but for the DAs to appropriate this music - as I think their ilk also
did with the Who's far inferior song "Won't Get Fooled Again" - is a
theme touched on in _Vineland_ where the principals agree that what
Reagan is doing is a Revolution, in fact, "The" revolution of those
times...
The Madame LaFargean intensity that Dick Tuck and Dick Cheney and Dick
Nixon with his enemies list and Reagan with his Evil Empire and Bush
with his Axis of Evil were able to stick to their knitting with, while
heads rolled in rhythm to their bloody program, is in stark contrast
to the skepticism, fog, woolgathering, heterodox New-Ageism,
sortilege, various -mancies and other thought patterns tending away
from revolutionary (in the sense of organized, violent and mindless)
political action that those who in the 60s seemed poised to enact a
leftist revolution instead embraced in the 70s...
-- for which, at this remove, I for one am somewhat moved to gratitude --
and if the DAs don't get Preserved/GF, the ocean may claim it
but for this private attorney to be in the quest at all is kind of
like reminiscent of guys like Kunstler and so forth who defend
individual liberties and propagate their claim on the state (again
reverting to the metaphor of "ship of state") to submit to limitations
and to serve humanistic goals
> One almost expects a final scene where Doc, Denis, Sauncho and >assorted babes are partying on the GF. Thank god TRP didn't go that >way, opting instead for the lost-in-the-fog sequence.
if anybody could do it convincingly, though, it'd probably be he
>
> I think this issue is indicative of why this book has been so polarizing >for us fan-boys-n-girls. Is the book's dark, chocolatey core of >sufficient quality to justify the effort of getting through the sickeningly->sweet outer candy layer?
>
wait, in this case the core is the banana and the chocolate is on the
surface, right?
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