V-2nd - Chapter 16, Part I: Kilroy Was Here

[Mark Kohut]

That Life article is GREAAATTT!!

More.....from wikipeDIA:
 "Luke the Spook", the nose-art on a B-29 bomber of the same name, resembles the 
doodle and is said to have been created at the Boeing factory in Seattle.[34]]
In popular culture
 This "In popular culture" section may contain minor or trivial references. 
Please reorganize this content to explain the subject's impact on popular 
culture rather than simply listing appearances, and remove trivial 
references. (November 2010) 

“Clap my hands and jump for joy;
I was here before Kilroy.”

“Sorry to spoil your little joke;
I was here, but my pencil broke.”
— Kilroy
Rhyme published in 1955 in A Diller, a Dollar: Rhymes And Sayings For The Ten 
O’clock Scholar, compiled by Lillian Morrison.[4]
In September 1946, Enterprise Records released a song by NBC singer Paul Page 
titled "Kilroy Was Here."[36] In the 1947 film Nightmare Alley, the expression 
"Kilroy was here" is seen scribbled on the wall in back of Tyrone Power during a 
memorable scene. In the 1948 Looney Tunes cartoon Haredevil Hare, whilst 
commenting on being the first one to walk on the surface of the moon Bugs Bunny 
is seen walking right past a large slab of moon rock etched with the words 
"Kilroy was here". In Joseph Heller's Catch-22, Yossarian claims to know Kilroy 
from the army.[11] Isaac Asimov's 1955 short story The Message depicts a 
time-travelling George Kilroy from the thirtieth century as the writer of the 
graffiti.[11]







----- Original Message ----
From: "kelber at mindspring.com" <kelber at mindspring.com>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Sent: Tue, February 22, 2011 2:57:03 PM
Subject: V-2nd - Chapter 16, Part I:  Kilroy Was Here

This section is a tedious story centering on Fat Clyde and Pappy Hod (Paola's 
husband) on shore leave in Valetta.  Does anyone else get the feeling that this 
started out as a self-contained story that Pynchon unsuccessfully peddled to 
various campus and real-world literary periodicals?

The Navy must have been a time of real idea-percolation for a budding writer 
like Pynchon.  Pig Bodine must have been based on one or more of Pynchon's 
shipmates.  But this shore-leave story, while probably true-to-life, doesn't 
make for fascinating reading.  Maybe some of you feel otherwise?

But when all is lost, that Pynchon magic suddenly explodes with the discussion 
of Kilroy, his meaning and electronic origins.  This is definitely one of the 
moments in the book that most enthralled me when I first read it back in 
college.  It's simply ... cool.

1.  On the one hand, Pynchon's talking about something that's not general 
knowledge (I think) to anyone who hasn't read V. 


Here's one possible source:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=iUgEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA23#v=onepage&q&f=false 
(article on Chad starts on p. 17)

more Kilroy info:

http://www.kilroywashere.org/001-Pages/01-0KilroyLegends.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilroy_was_here

There are various ways to design a band pass filter (used to allow a narrower 
frequency to emerge as output, on a radio or loudspeaker, for example - 
resulting in better sound quality).  Here's one:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Band_pass_filter.svg

They no longer use capacitors, inductors (coils) and resistors in this age of 
electronic chips.  Pynchon's likely source for the Kilroy-esque diagram may have 
been one of his electronics teachers, or one of his radioman shipmates.  So the 
bandpass/Kilroy connection was passed down as electronics lore, sort of in the 
oral tradition.  Recalling that GR quote Dave Monroe recently posted about the 
power of graffiti.

2.  Kilroy's a marker, not an observer or participant, of Anglophone (US and/or 
Brit) military presence.  And isn't that really what V. herself is? [p. 428-9]:  
"She was only there.  But being there was enough, even as a symptom."  Kilroy 
looks human, but look deeper and he's made of inanimate parts.  Ditto for V.

Laura