CoL49 Chapter 4

[Joseph Tracy]

The Links to the IBM company song didn’t work, slightly bummed. As to selling off the stamps, I get the feeling that Metzger and other vulture types who could be managing the businesses are anxious to liquidate the personal stuff. But we also have the whole phenom of the mysterious buyer wanting to see the stamps anonymously. Also it is the one thing directly part of the estate that Oedipa has taken an interest in. 

The muting of the horn is being looked at as a musical enhancement and it can be that. It can also be an instrument for warning or announcement  in which case muting it would limit the effectiveness.  The context here is mostly ruthless competition. Suppressing the competitor to toot your own horn. The waste OM witnesses is more like mutual aid to use Kropotkin’s phrase.



> On Jun 15, 2024, at 4:16 AM, Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> 1) Why does Oedipa connect understanding Tristero to finding Meaning in
> Pierce's testament?
> 
> Good question!
> - what if Pierce didn’t leave enough to cover his debts - like that guy in
> _A Man in Full_ maybe the whole empire was a house of cards
> - maybe they are liquidating (selling the stamp collection, eg)
> - anyway, if that’s the case, maybe she seeks meaning in non-financial
> terms and follows her liberal arts training to pursue the alternative post
> phenomenon
> - or, maybe she sees Tristero as a/the wreaker of Pierce’s downfall, and is
> trying to figure out which of his activities brought on their wrath
> 
> - if Pierce represents JFK - but his shtick is totally different - but if
> he somehow does anyway, maybe her efforts are linked to the idea of trying
> to keep the New Frontier vision alive?
> 
> 
> 2) Why does the Yoyodyne stockholder meeting and location have so much
> mundane military terminology? (quonset, gunboats, platoons, etc.)
> 
> - of all the Pynchon songs, imho, “Glee” is the least clever. It’s not bad,
> but it’s more MAD Magazine than it ought to be. However, it does display
> not just hardware names but company names as well, and positions Yoyodyne
> at the back of the line. Did Pierce bet on the wrong horse in the arms
> race?
> 
> - How about those preparations for the lavish feast, apparently a typical
> lunch for employees, going on in the background (“Around them all, Negroes
> carried gunboats of mashed potatoes, spinach, shrimp, zucchini, pot roast,
> to the long, glittering steam tables, preparing to feed a noontide invasion
> of Yoyodyne workers.”)
> 
> Paternalism?  Another demonstration, like the songs, of company esprit de
> corps?
> 
> Bigcos are still pounding out corporate anthems, but (as you probably know)
> IBM had them going way back, and on a Yoyodyne-tier scale (article first
> lists a bunch of 21st century ones)
> 
> https://blog.kickresume.com/worst-corporate-anthems/
> 
> OK, let's now shake off all you think of contemporary corporate anthems and
> time travel a bit to see what it was originally like to sing a song about
> your company.
> 
> Back in the days — in the first half of the 20th century — corporate songs
> were *meant to be sung on daily basis* and with all solemnity. And that's
> what was happening at the beginnings of IBM:
> 
> *“For 37 years, the gatherings and conventions of our IBM workers have
> expressed in happy songs the fine spirit of loyal cooperation of good
> fellowship which has promoted the signal success of our great IBM
> Corporation in its truly International Service for the betterment of
> business and benefit to mankind.”*
> 
> And then Harry Evans, a man who “loved to sing and enjoyed setting his own
> lyrics to popular songs” took it to another level in 1925. His love for
> singing was so contagious that he literally made the whole IBM sing:
> 
> *“If Watson sang, IBM would sing. As with the dress code, Watson did not
> order IBM to sing. That bit of corporate culture started with Harry Evans.
> Outgoing, attention-seeking, good-natured, wired with energy and shorter
> than every other man in the room, Evans was always the guy with a joke, or
> the guy willing to laugh at a joke. Watson liked him and promoted him.” *
> The IBM songbook
> 
> Evans went on to print a booklet of his IBM songs to make it easier for the
> employees to sing them at company sales conventions and other gatherings. The
> songbook, a thin paperback volume of 54 pages, entitled Songs of the IBM -
> Fellowship Songs of International Business Machines Corporation
> <https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/songs-of-the-ibm.pdf>
> served
> as a bible that packed all company songs.
> 
> The songbook included masterpieces such as “March On With IBM”, “To Our
> I.B.M. Girls” or “Our President's Motto: THINK”. If you want to get a gist
> of what the music sounded like, check out a tinny recording of Ever Onwards
> <https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/music/wav/everonward.wav> and Hail
> to the IBM
> <http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/music/wav/hailtoibm.wav>.
> --
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