"Maxine, whistling 'Help Me Rhonda' through her teeth" (p. 7)

[Markekohut]

To me, as well, the lyrics only have that catchy all-purpose pop " universality" and I can see no connection in the story. 
When I googled the Britney Spears' song, I learned it is among the most popular songs ever listened to. And here TRP did connect the lyrics to the story.

So, I read them as more direct right-on "cultural" allusions, more pop as life allusions......more the way we live now life-surround ( as some music runs through my mind a lot more than does Proust) 




Sent from my iPad

On Dec 7, 2013, at 4:42 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen <lorentzen at hotmail.de> wrote:

> 
> Why this song? I don't see any relevance of the lyrics for the interaction of Dizzy and Maxine. And when the song appeared in 1965, Maxine was still a toddler. So it cannot be 'her song' in the emphatic sense of the phrase since it wasn't hot when she was a teenager or twen.  Neither is it likely that she associates early family memories with it, because Ernie and Elaine are opera fans. So my guess about this song here in the novel is that it is Pynchon's way to even out the very first musical reference. Earlier on the page we read "Oops, I did it again, as Britney always sez", which refers to a rather trashy smash hit. To me it seems that Pynchon did not want to finish the first chapter without balancing this out with a reference to a song of quality, a song he really likes. In the 1960s Pynchon met Brian Wilson personally and Beach Boys songs do pop up in Vineland as well as in Inherent Vice. The only reason for Maxine, who's not especially fond of Cali culture, to whistle 'Help Me Rhonda' seems to be that the song is, like so many from the Beach Boys, easy to whistle and fun. Or is there something happening on page 7 that I simply do not get?
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Te_lCF69Aw
> 
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