Difference between revisions of "Chapter 1"

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'''wasn't that they were fucking, exactly, but it was something like that.'''<br />
 
'''wasn't that they were fucking, exactly, but it was something like that.'''<br />
 
This sentence structure is a Pynchon trademark found throughout his works: "not X, exactly, but Y..." For instance,  ''Gravity's Rainbow'', pg 137: "...you begin to wait for something terrible-- not exactly an air raid but something close to that."; ''Gravity's Rainbow'', pg 580: "Not as an enterprise, exactly, but at least in the dance of things."
 
This sentence structure is a Pynchon trademark found throughout his works: "not X, exactly, but Y..." For instance,  ''Gravity's Rainbow'', pg 137: "...you begin to wait for something terrible-- not exactly an air raid but something close to that."; ''Gravity's Rainbow'', pg 580: "Not as an enterprise, exactly, but at least in the dance of things."
 
==Page 24==
 
'''1968 El Camino'''<br />
 
The Chevrolet El Camino is a coupe utility vehicle produced by the Chevrolet division of General Motors from 1959 through 1960, with production resuming in 1964 and continuing through 1987. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chevrolet_El_Camino Wikipedia]
 
 
[[File:68Elcamino.jpg|thumb|200px|right|1968 Chevrolet El Camino, Creative Commons licensed photo from [http://www.flickr.com/photos/braintoad/2606564964/ here]]]
 
 
==Page 28==
 
'''Donald and Goofy'''<br>
 
The cartoon being discussed here is "No Sail" from 1945. Available on [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hImIbmRnBU8 Youtube] and the Chronological Donald Volume II DVD [http://www.amazon.com/Walt-Disney-Treasures-Chronological-Donald/dp/B000ATQYU6/ Amazon].
 
 
[[File:Donaldstubble.jpg|thumb|200px|right|"...in fact he's always had to go in ''every day and shave his beak.''"]]
 
 
==Page x==
 
 
xxx
 
  
 
{{Inherent Vice PbP}}
 
{{Inherent Vice PbP}}

Revision as of 17:07, 22 July 2009

Please keep these annotations SPOILER-FREE by not revealing information from later pages in the novel.


Title

"Inherent Vice" has a number of meanings. See Inherent Vice Title

Cover

The painting on the cover is titled "Eternal Summer," by the artist Darshan Zenith. Official site. Zenith subtitles the painting "A 'Retired' Caddy Hearse Greets Daybreak at a Beach Surf Shop." Prints of the painting can be purchased here. More info at Thomaspynchon.com

Book jacket description

Pynchon himself wrote the copy to the book jacket description of Against the Day (text here). It is possible that Pynchon did the same for Inherent Vice.

Epigraph

Under the paving-stones, the beach!
"Sous les pavés, la plage" - slogan dating from the 1968 Paris student riots. Wikipedia Literally, it refers to the paving stones thrown at the police. Figuratively, it refers to the ideal life to be found beneath the confines of society.

Dedication

Like Against the Day, Inherent Vice has no dedication. Pynchon dedicated previous novels to friends and family: Mason & Dixon ("For Melanie, and for Jackson"), Vineland ("For my mother and father"), and Gravity's Rainbow ("For Richard Fariña").

Page 1

Country Joe & the Fish T-shirt
A Berkeley-based rock band most widely known for musical protests against the Vietnam War, from 1966 to 1971

Shasta
Shasta is a soft drink brand that reached the peak of its popularity in the 1980s. Wikipedia. Note that Pynchon has named characters after soda before, e.g. Wicks Cherrycoke in Mason & Dixon.

Shasta is also the name of a town in northern California, near Redding. Google Maps

They stood in the street light through the kitchen window there'd never been much point in putting curtains over and listened to the thumping of the surf from down the hill. Some nights, when the wind was right, you could hear the surf all over town.

Like Vineland, and Gravity's Rainbow, here a Pynchon book begins with light coming through a window. Also like Vineland, the sentence structure and rhythm is just slightly jarring - that '...in the street light through the kitchen window...' seeming to echo Vineland: "Later than usual one summer morning in 1984, Zoyd Wheeler drifted awake in sunlight through a creeping fig that hung in the window, with a squadron of blue jays stomping around on the roof." In both cases, it's just a little odd that Pynchon doesn't refer to the light 'that shone' through the window.

Page 5

1959 Cadillac Biarritz
a luxury version of the Eldorado. Wikipedia.

1959 Cadillac Biarritz, Creative Commons licensed photo from here

Page 9

Freak Power
Hunter S. Thompson ran unsuccessfully for mayor and sheriff of Aspen, Colorado in 1969 and 1970. Wikipedia Unsure if "freak power" was a term Thompson coined?

Page 10

Godzilla
Pynchon apparently wrote a letter to his editor, Cork Smith, in the 1960s saying that he was working on two books: one on Mason & Dixon, and one loosely inspired by Godzilla. See Crying of Lot 49 Chapter 3].

Page 12

wasn't that they were fucking, exactly, but it was something like that.
This sentence structure is a Pynchon trademark found throughout his works: "not X, exactly, but Y..." For instance, Gravity's Rainbow, pg 137: "...you begin to wait for something terrible-- not exactly an air raid but something close to that."; Gravity's Rainbow, pg 580: "Not as an enterprise, exactly, but at least in the dance of things."


Chapter 1
pp. 1-18
Chapter 2
pp. 19-45
Chapter 3
pp. 46-49
Chapter 4
pp. 50-54
Chapter 5
pp. 55-67
Chapter 6
pp. 68-88
Chapter 7
pp. 89-110
Chapter 8
pp. 111-123
Chapter 9
pp. 124-153
Chapter 10
pp. 154-162
Chapter 11
pp. 163-185
Chapter 12
pp. 186-206
Chapter 13
pp. 207-234
Chapter 14
pp. 235-255
Chapter 15
pp. 256-274
Chapter 16
pp. 275-295
Chapter 17
pp. 296-314
Chapter 18
pp. 315-342
Chapter 19
pp. 343-350
Chapter 20
pp. 351-363
Chapter 21
pp. 364-369

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