CoL49 Ch5 third section Weekly Reading

Tue Jul 16 17:40:17 UTC 2024

>>>> How does Hilarius' crimes in Buchenwald move the plot forward or help to
>>>> understand either character?
I think we need more than Hilarius’s face-making activities( more like cover -up lies about the death camps than what nazi scientists were really doing)  at Buchenwald to understand his role in the story.  What was an ex nazi doing conducting a commissioned LSD experiment in a comfortable California college town? The likeliest explanation lies in a range of well documented LSD experiments conducted by the CIA as part of MK Ultra. Here are some notes I wrote earlier :

Hilarius is part of a landscape  we find throughout the novella of activities more sinister than we or Oedipa know- I hear him with the voice of Henry Kissinger. He is conducting an experiment he calls 'the bridge' on housewives using LSD. He scares Oed and she does not trust him or want his drugs( tanquilizers or LSD).  Later it turns out he is an ex Nazi scientist. As soon as WW2 was over, there were numerous Nazis recruited into various endeavors of the US government. One recruiter of ex nazis was  James Jesus Angleton, a senior figure in THE CIA( Duke Angelo?), who specialized in Nazis with anti-communist background or from unique research fields. There is a reasonably high probability  that Hilarius is one of these, willing to do questionable psychological research.  In its early phase(50s-60s) MK Ultra was interested in the possibility of  reconfiguring the human mind by wiping clean previous conditioning and then reconditioning the person( You know, to preserve our freedom). It was well under way under way in the 60s and using LSD and Curare under the direction of Sidney Gottlieb, or Donald Cameron out of Toronto branch of MK ultra. We can only imagine the purpose of his housewife experiments but it is not at all implausible for that secretive government program. Hilarius clearly regards Oedipa as a particular challenge and he is right. How Pynchon knew about these things so early, while they were still wrapped in secrecy is hard to fathom, but quite common for him.

Here are 3 lines from Wikipedia profile of Sydney Gottlieb; 1) Dulles( head of CIA) and Gottlieb both believed there was a way to influence and control the human mind that could lead to global mastery. They also wanted a "truth serum <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth_serum>", something that had been investigated during the days of the OSS <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Strategic_Services> but never fully realized. Gottlieb conducted experiments using THC <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetrahydrocannabinol>, cocaine, heroin, and mescaline <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mescaline> before realizing LSD <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysergic_acid_diethylamide> had not been properly tested or investigated by the agency.
2)Gottlieb was the liaison to the military subcontractor Lockheed <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Corporation>, then working for the CIA on Project AQUATONE <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_AQUATONE>, later known as the U-2 spy plane <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_U-2>. In 1953, he arranged a safe house <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Safe_house> for the Lockheed Aeronautics Services Division (LASD) with an easy and exclusive egress. 3)Gottlieb administered LSD <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LSD> and other hallucinogenic drugs <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hallucinogen> to unwitting subjects and financed psychiatric research and development of "techniques that would crush the human psyche to the point that it would admit anything". He was named as the person who gave Army bacteriologist Frank Olson <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Olson> LSD at an MK-ULTRA retreat, leading to Olson's mental spiral and death a week later. Hilarius is also the name of a saint from Arles who was involved in a power struggle with the pope.

So Hilarius is an extremely conflicted person who seems to be most fascinated and seduced by the power of masks or faces, perhaps best suited for anthropological research into what is called primitive magic, shamanic masks, theater etc. with a Jungian bent.  But he ends up contributing to state projects of interrogation, mental breakdown, and the idea of wiping clean of  the minds and social -conditioning of ordinary people.  It is dubious that his reactions to, or descriptions of the LSD experiments are accurate descriptions of what happens when relatively comfortable stable  people  or probably even "nutty housewives" take the drug in a safe environment. We have clinical data about that from many sources including the wide range of clinical psychologists were send high quality LSD by Sandoz. (Michael Pollan’s book covers some of this) .  The whole episode and conversation between Hilarius and Oed is to my ear, top quality Pynchon writing;  funny, intriguing, active and effective within the plot. It reminds me of ATD. And there is plenty to mine there about both OED and H. She is cool as a cucumber under this potentially  hight stress weirdness, with her “just marv” to the cops, engaging H enough to grab the rifle, etc. .  

I have a dear friend who got out of a very tough social situation where she was achieving fucking remarkable positive results with a severely disabled child, truly amazing, but was not getting paid for that despite the wealth of the child’s mother. She used a feigned mental breakdown to move out of that and went on to a well paid position that honored her abilities. I can see that  kind  of thing as an explanation of Hilarius’s breakdown, where he combined actual fear of a Wiesenthal type exposure with his honest conflicted revulsion at his own past and current work to choose  either death or rehabilitation within the clinical world he knows. 

>>>> Is Oedipa Jewish? How does her response to Hilarius' revelations expand
>>>> her character?
Judaism does not appear as a strong identity for Oed. And Ooedipa ( with the Greek myth baggage) is not a likely name for a Jewish or any other daughter. But when, on page 1, she is informed that she is named as executor of PI’s estate, "Oedipa stood in the living room, stared at by the greenish dead eye of the TV tube, spoke the name of God, tried to feel as drunk as possible. But this did not work.”
The name of God is seen as a powerful invocation in Judaism, even physically impossible to pronounce, guarded by divine barriers. The name of Jesus is the name of power in Christianity, with God referred to as Father( or parent in Aramaic ). Her" I should kill you” remark could also point to Judaism. I feel these hints are intentional but not  a defining aspect of her character  and self identity. There is not a word about her home life or spiritual beliefs. The sentence ”But this did not work.” Could point to every aspect of the preceding sentence : the TV, the name of God, and the attempt at numbness via alcohol.  If so, neither faith, cultural propaganda , or the communion of the tipsy seem to promise any aid toward a decision. 
With this Hilarius episode  we can also eliminate a desire for revenge and the offerings of psychology as guides for her search.  She is Oedipal only in the sense of rejecting the cultural 'adults -in-the-room', the pseudo parental guidelines of the modern soul. She is on her own : a combination  of remarkable tenacity and courage balanced by deeply embedded met-cognitive checks that want more data.  I want to invoke again the name of Dorothy Kilgallen and the many investigative reporters in US history, women among the very best of them, who from Washington Irving to muck rakers to I.F. Stone to Palestinian and Mexican journalists  today have looked into dangerous territory to tell truth that is unwelcome in mainstream media. How many such searches have led to death or undeserved  rejection and obscurity. How much we need them for an open society with open discourse and true information whether it flatters those we think it should flatter or not. 

> On Jul 15, 2024, at 4:08 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> I have a question. This Chapter 5, p. 98...What does this mean?
> 
> 'The dead man, like Maxwell's Demon, was the linking feature in a
> coincidence"
> 
> ??????
> 
> On Sat, Jul 13, 2024 at 4:32 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> JK: How does Hilarius' explanation of LSD and blending of individuals into
>> one compare with Oedipa's efforts to understand W.A.S.T.E.?
>> 
>> No idea....all individuals merging int sounds like another bat-shit
>> idea....
>> 
>> On Fri, Jul 12, 2024 at 12:41 PM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 
>>> Q: Although she learns much about W.A.S.T.E., Oed leaves the Bay area
>>> without finding a source or definitive W.A.S.T.E. facility beyond the bin
>>> and the currier's route.
>>> 
>>> Trystero has no location, definitive or less than. That is part of its
>>> connection to the anarchistic incursion into history....
>>> 
>>> On Fri, Jul 12, 2024 at 11:08 AM J K Van Nort via Pynchon-l <
>>> pynchon-l at waste.org> wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Sorry for the delay. I'm taking up the hosting for the week.
>>>> 
>>>> Summary:After helping the sailor up the stairs and onto his "Viking
>>>> funeral" bed, Oed gives him money and takes his letter to mail. She heads
>>>> down under the freeway where she eventually finds a trash can labeled
>>>> W.A.S.T.E. She hovers and watches until a young man drops in a bundle. She
>>>> puts the letter inside and returns to her observation point until a young
>>>> wino gathers the contents. She follows him and his successor whom he hands
>>>> the bag off. She follows this wino as he delivers around Oakland.
>>>> Eventually she returns to her hotel, where the deaf-mute association is
>>>> having a silent dance where every dancing pair dances to their own music.
>>>> She is waltzed around the room until the synonymous break, when she flees
>>>> to her room. After sleeping she drives the Impala down to Kinneret,
>>>> deciding to visit Dr. Hilarius, who takes pock shots at her as she enters.
>>>> His assistant lets her into the office, where she learns that Hilarius has
>>>> a psychic breakdown, believing the Israeli's are after him. She tries to
>>>> talk him down from the precipice, but he considers her to be an enemy. He
>>>> relates his history as a psychiatrist in the Nazi death camp, Buchenwald.
>>>> He was in charge of 'faces' that would have psychotic effects on the Jewish
>>>> prisoners. He describes one face that can create immediate and irreparable
>>>> psychic damage,  which he used on one Zvi. The sirens of the police can be
>>>> heard, and Hilarius pulls Oed into his office, where he tells her the
>>>> details, including his efforts to pay 'penance' by attempting to become a
>>>> believer of Freud.
>>>> 
>>>> Questions:
>>>> Although she learns much about W.A.S.T.E., Oed leaves the Bay area
>>>> without finding a source or definitive W.A.S.T.E. facility beyond the bin
>>>> and the currier's route. Why does she think that Dr Hilarius will help her?
>>>> 
>>>> How does Hilarius' crimes in Buchenwald move the plot forward or help to
>>>> understand either character?
>>>> 
>>>> Is Oedipa Jewish? How does her response to Hilarius' revelations expand
>>>> her character?
>>>> 
>>>> How does Hilarius' explanation of LSD and blending of individuals into
>>>> one compare with Oedipa's efforts to understand W.A.S.T.E.?
>>>> 
>>>> In solidarity,
>>>> James
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
>>>> --
>>>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>>> 
>>> 
> --
> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l