FINALLY saw Inherent Vice

[Dave Monroe]

I saw it 9 times theatrically (though haven't watched my DVD yet) + I
never got tired of it, only enjoyed it more and more (despite my
quibbles), esp. watching the backgrounds (lots of textual/appropriate
details).  + I agree, the movie (for better or worse, am not sure yet,
but it hasn't hurt yet) actually "explained" @ least aspects of the
novel to me.

On Tue, Mar 24, 2015 at 6:15 PM, alice malice <alicewmalice at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> You can get IV on your tv now. Watch it over and over. Not that it gets any
> better after a couple of viewings.
> On Friday, March 20, 2015, John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Which has only been out here for a week. Figured the 11.50am session
>> at my local cinema would be empty but was pleasantly surprised to
>> share the session with a handful of elderly folks.
>>
>> I'm with Mr Monroe - or, at least, if that isn't Pynchon in the
>> background of the Topanga scene, it's at least a Pynchon figure
>> overseeing the exchange that holds the whole film together for me.
>>
>> It's a much more coherent work than I'd expected and I think I enjoy
>> it more than the novel (which wasn't that much to begin with).
>>
>> The Golden Fang isn't an ambiguous fog of possibility like it is in
>> the novel - it's a very identifiable conspiracy connecting a whole
>> bunch of institutions and individuals and power structures and even
>> though we (and Doc) only see a small corner of it, it's enough to
>> project the larger picture. The players don't even necessarily see
>> their position within it (eg Blatnoyd) but we're given more than
>> enough dots to join.
>>
>> And the Fang is clearly a metonym for the America Coy alludes to in
>> the aforementioned scene, which is a vertically integrated System that
>> hooks its kids with mindless pleasures and then offers them relief
>> through equally mindless promises of redemption. Heroin (and the
>> Chryskolodon Inst) in the film is totally symbolic of that, as well as
>> being an actual part of it.
>>
>> The film makes explicit how Doc's real investment in all the goings-on
>> is to see Amethyst get a parent back. It's the film's emotional payoff
>> and to me only really makes sense if the Golden Fang plays out as a
>> particular metaphor.
>>
>> But that altering of the ending, what a misstep.
>> -
>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l