Chapter 12

2009-08-16T16:36:13Z

Tommaso:

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==Page 186==
'''Krotona Hill''' 
A hill in Ojai where an institute run by the Theosophical Society in America is currently located.

==Page 187==
'''Dr. Threeply''' 
The name may refer to three-ply plywood. Basic run-of-the-mill (literally) plywood that's used in quantity for sheathing when building houses is often three-ply. This is, perhaps, consistent with the paragraph describing him, which mentions two other building products (aluminum siding and screen doors) and alludes to some event that has "torqued him out of tolerance," as might happen to plywood that has been misused and become twisted.

==Page 188==
'''J Kirshnamurti''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jiddu_Krishnamurti Jiddu Krishnamurti] was a prominent Indian-born spiritualist who did, in fact, live in Ojai.

==Page 190==
'''Shaggy . . . Scoob''' 
Characters in the cartoon ''Scooby Doo''. An appropriate reference since the cartoon first was aired in 1969 and involved solving mysteries.

==Page 191==
'''edges of cliffs in Hawaii''' 
This passage about suicidal love sick men is strikingly similar to one in ''Vineland'':
:Hawaii is where men from California bring their broken hearts, seeking exotic forms of self-injury not so readily avilable on the mainland. Some specialize in active volcanoes, others in cliff diving, many go for the classier swimming-out-to-sea option. I can put you onto several travel agents who offer Suicide Fantasy packages, if you're interested. (p. 60)

==Page 196==
'''Didn't you see that movie?''' 
Denis is referring here to the 1932 film [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freaks ''Freaks''], a horror film about sideshow performers with a cast of actual sideshow performers.

'''Code of the Freaks''' 
is the "code of ethics" that the sideshow performers in Tod Browning's movie "Freaks" build up among themselves, "to protect them from the barbs of normal people. Their rules are rigidly adhered to and the hurt of one is the hurt of all; the joy of one is the joy of all." [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n2jsX_R25LE]

==Page 199==
'''Tarzana''' 
Completely irrelevant trivia: Tarzana is named after Tarzan because Edgar Rice Burroughs (the author who created Tarzan) was a prominent citizen. More [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarzana here].

==Page 201==
'''Gleichschaltung Model 33 Automatic Bazooka'''

The 'Gleichschaltung' was the term for the complete forcing into line of society in terms of politics, information and culture in Germany during the Hitler regime. It started, unsurprisingly, in '33.
'Schaltung' in German also refers to gears and switches (often, but not exclusively those of cars), so it might also refer to the bazooka's automated mechanism here.

==Page 206==
'''dead people who do and don't come back''' 
Sounds like the Thanatoids in ''Vineland''.

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Chapter 8

2009-08-14T16:33:06Z

Tommaso:

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==Page 111==
'''Arbolada Savings and Loan in Ojai''' 
While the actual bank is apparently fictional, there is a neighborhood in the Ojai Valley named "Arbolada." It is, at least today, one the most expensive and desirable neighborhoods in the area. In Spanish, "arbolada" refers to a woodland.

'''Theosophists''' 
Theosophy is a doctrine of religious philosophy (according to Wikipedia) which holds that all religions are related to a higher truth. The Theosophical Society in America operates an institute called Krotona in Ojai, near the fictional Chryskylodon.

==Page 113==
[[File:1969Oldsmobile.jpg|thumb|right|1969 Oldsmobile, photo by [http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1969_Oldsmobile_Ninety-Eight-3.jpg Stripedtomato]]]
Leo and Elmina Sportello's 1969 Oldsmobile

==Page 116==
'''Cora Smith''' 
Also from the novel [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Postman_Always_Rings_Twice ''The Postman Always Rings Twice'']. This is another detective favorite of Pynchon from [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_M._Cain James M. Cain] (1892-1977), the other being [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Indemnity_(novel) ''Double Indemnity'']. Cora, a ''femme fatale'' figure, is tired of her life, married to an older man she doesn't love and working in a diner that she wishes she could own and improve. She meets a young drifter, Frank Chambers, and they very soon begin a passionate affair and eventually scheme to murder Cora's husband in order to start a new life together without Cora losing the diner.

The 1946 movie version starred John Garfield, making this one of the more oblique of Pynchon's numerous references to Garfield in this book.

==Page 117==
[[File:289_Mustang.jpg|thumb|right|Maroon 289 Mustang]]
'''a maroon 289 Mustang''' 
Sauncho's classic beach-town ride.

==Page 119==
'''Charlie the fucking Tuna''' 
Charlie the Tuna is a cartoon character and mascot for StarKist Tuna. You can see his "designer shades" and "beret" [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_the_Tuna here].

'''single up all lines''' 
A phrase frequently used by Pynchon in all his novels except ''Vineland'', likely because of its multiple meanings, metaphorically.

:"single up all lines" is used in its normal nautical context in [http://v.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_1#single_up_all_lines ''V.'', pp. 11 & 438]; [http://cl49.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_2#single_up_all_lines ''The Crying of Lot 49'', p.31]; [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pages_488-491#single_up_all_lines ''Gravity's Rainbow'', p.489]; [http://masondixon.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=Chapter_26:_257-265#Page_258 ''Mason & Dixon'', pp.258 and 260]; and [http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.php?title=ATD_1-25#Page_3 ''Against the Day'', p.3]. Perhaps we can understand this "line" as a text-string linking Pynchon's novels together (all but [http://vineland.pynchonwiki.com/wiki ''Vineland'']?). Of course, the fact that ''Vineland'' ''doesn't'' include the phrase sort of throws a spanner in the works, as far as assigning ''meaning''!

==Page 121==
'''yet another Hitler documentary''' 
The "another" implies that they had watched other Hitler documentaries - the most famous being Leni Riefenstahl's [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_of_the_will ''Triumph of the Will'']. The description of the Nixon rally that Doc is watching has similarities to ''Triumph''.

One of Pynchon's research materials for writing [http://gravitys-rainbow.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/ ''Gravity's Rainbow''] was a book called ''From Caligari to Hitler'' by Siegfried Kracauer.

Note that [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triumph_of_the_will ''Triumph of the Will''] was a favorite film of [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._Gordon_Liddy G. Gordon Liddy], a main figure in the Watergate scandal that enveloped President Nixon, whose televised rally Penny mistakes for a Hitler documentary.

==Page 122==
'''fuck Spiro, too!''' 
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiro_Agnew Spiro Agnew] was Nixon's Vice President.

'''Anybody know the dog's name?''' 
Yes. Its name was [http://www.infoplease.com/biography/var/checkers.html Checkers].

'''the P-DIDdies''' 
A (deliberately) lame joke. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puff_daddy Sean Combs] is a rapper, producer, and entrepreneur whose stage names include Diddy, Puff Daddy, and P. Diddy.

==Page 123==
'''Rick Doppel''' 

'Doppel' means 'double' in German and might refer here to the 'doppelganger'-motif or shifting identities in a more general way. The theme seems to be prominent in this chapter. The films mentioned on p.115 belong in this context, for example. In ''Black Narcissus'', Kathleen Byron's character, Sister Ruth, can be seen as the dark double of Deborah Kerr's Sister Clodagh. In Robert Wiene's ''Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari'', the somnambulist Cesare commits crimes when he is under the hypnotic spell of the title figure; Caligari himself may be director of a circus attraction or of a psychiatric hospital. In Fritz Lang's ''Metropolis'', a character called Maria is replaced by a robot.

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Chapter 12

Chapter 8