Pynchon in Media: Radiohead song "You and Whose Army?"

[Mark Kohut]

I wrote too impulsively. I have reread the song lyrics and you and your cronies seems to refer to the army that is against one, yes? ...when someone says 'c'mon, I'll take you on" and you respond, " yeah, you and Whose Army?"... This person and all his cronies after one. 

Sent from my iPad

> On Nov 14, 2014, at 4:15 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I like it enough. I am one who believes what Oedipa experiences is real, which doesn't much change your interpretation since the book let's us think other possibilities for much of its length.
> And if " real", then the song is about ( something) in history not just About a practical joke or about Oedipa's mind.
> 
> Your ingenuity about " crony" is interesting but, also, in Pynchon's way, the surface meaning might start with the simple fact that Oedipa is now part of the Trystero communication system by learning of it. 
> 
> Quibble of mine easily changed, if in agreement: I am also one who thinks books end when the author ends them---so the unanswered question ending does not quite mean--to me--that the loose ends might never be tied up but.....something else. I think TRP tried up " the loose ends" earlier......
> 
> Love the ghost horses. TRP has riders in black in ATD as well.
> 
> I hope others jump in w discussion. 
> 
> Great to even do this. 
> 
> Sent from my iPad
> 
>> On Nov 14, 2014, at 12:47 AM, Ricky Han <rickylqhan at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>> This is an original interpretation I just wrote. (I'm on adderall.) Please correct me if I got anything wrong about Pynchon.
>> 
>> 
>> "You And Whose Army?"
>> 
>> Come on, come on
>> You think you drive me crazy
>> Come on, come on
>> You and whose army?
>> You and your cronies
>> Come on, come on
>> Holy roman empire
>> Come on if you think
>> Come on if you think
>> You can take us all on
>> You can take us all on
>> 
>> You and whose army?
>> You and your cronies
>> 
>> You forget so easily
>> We ride tonight
>> We ride tonight
>> Ghost horses
>> Ghost horses
>> Ghost horses
>> We ride tonight
>> We ride tonight
>> Ghost horses
>> Ghost horses
>> Ghost horses..
>> 
>> 
>> Thom Yorke alludes frequently to Thomas Pynchon, and in particular, Lot 49. The name of Radiohead’s official online merchandise outlet, W.A.S.T.E., alludes to Lot 49's underground postal system.
>> Meaning of "You and Whose Army?" Lyrics
>> The line “Holy Roman Empire” in song is an easy giveaway. In Pynchon’s Lot 49, the shortest of Pynchon's novels, the protagonist, Oedipa Maas, possibly unearthing the centuries-old conflict between two mail distribution companies, Thurn und Taxis and the Trystero (or Tristero). The Courier’s Tragedy is a “play within a play” that Pynchon devotes a significant portion of the book to elucidate the history of the conflict.
>> 
>> In the Roman Empire, mail delivery was mostly horseback, having riders on horses traversing a large distance. Mailmen under Trystero, the persecuted underdog, delivered mails during nighttime under black uniforms to avoid detection. Hence the lines “We ride tonight.”
>> “There was no moon, smog covered the stars, all black as a Tristero rider.”
>> Moreover, according to The Courier’s Tragedy, Holy Roman Empire declined as Trystero gained influence, and the rivalry escalated. Many horses were slain and riders murdered. Hence the lines “Ghost horses.”
>> Whatever it is, it has the power to murder their riders, send landslides thundering across their roads, by extension bring into being new local competition and presently even state postal monopolies; disintegrate their Empire. It is their time’s ghost, out to put the Thurn and Taxis ass in a sling.
>> These lines are solid evidence of the song is alluding to The Courier’s Tragedy while the other lines tie into the novel at large.
>> 
>> The central motifs of the novella, paranoia and nostalgia(amnesia) are present in the lines “You think you drive me crazy” and “You forget so easily” respectively. The protagonist of the book, Oedipa Maas, is buffeted back and forth between believing and not believing in it without ever finding firm proof either way. The Trystero may be a conspiracy, it may be a practical joke, or it may simply be that Oedipa is hallucinating all the arcane references to this underground network that she seems to be discovering on bus windows, toilet walls, and everywhere in the Bay Area.
>> 
>> “Come on if you think/You can take us all on” is about the inclusivity of the W.A.S.T.E. postal system. Oedipa had a hard time investigating the underground communication system. Those in the system will never share it with others.
>> 
>> The lines “You and your cronies” are tricky. This may as well be a Pynchonesque combination of wordplay and pun. In the book, many acronyms are open for interpretation. “W.A.S.T.E” itself is an acronym(or is it a backronym?), possibly standing for We Await Silent Trystero’s Empire. “Crony” is “acronym” without the first and last letter. “You and your cronies (acronyms)” not only fits in the context of “army”(Trystero’s Empire) but also poses as a double entendre in the style of Thomas Pynchon.
>> 
>> Like any postmodernist work of art, the book is seen as both an "exemplary postmodern text" and an outright parody of postmodernism. The book closes abruptly. We are unable to see the conclusion which could indicate that the loose ends will never be tied up and the Tristero mystery will keep expanding and producing more unsolvable leads.
>> 
>> The interpretation of this song follows the exact same line of the type of postmodern irony Pynchon created.
>> 
>> 
>> 
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