Difference between revisions of "G"

Latest revision as of 17:49, 14 August 2010

Garfield, John (1913-1952)
One of Doc's heroes, Garfield was an American actor especially adept at playing brooding, rebellious, working-class character roles. Garfield is acknowledged as the predecessor of such Method actors as Marlon Brando, James Dean, and Montgomery Clift. He was active in liberal politics, and when called to testify before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, which was empowered to investigate purported communist infiltration in America, Garfield refused to name communist party members or followers, testifying that, indeed, he knew none in the film industry; Out of the Fog, 59; 225; TV Marathon, 254; He Ran All the Way (1951), 254; and Bigfoot, 269; in Burke Stodger film, .45-Caliber Kissoff, 309; his suit purchased by Doc, 344; The Postman Always Rings Twice (1946), 344; The Sea Wolf (1941), 356. Garfield is also name-checked in another contemporary novel, Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay (2000): "Sammy had been in love with men nearly all his life, from his father to Nikola Tesla to John Garfield, whose snarl of derision echoed so clearly in his imagination, taunting Sammy" (372).

Gazzoni, Salvatore "Paper Cut"
183; one of Tito Stavrou's creditors

Getz, Stan (1927-1991)
American jazz saxophone player. Known as "The Sound" because of his warm, lyrical tone, Getz's prime influence was the wispy, mellow tone of his idol, Lester Young. His 1964 album Getz/Gilberto with Tom Jobim, João Gilberto and his wife, Astrud Gilberto. "The Girl from Ipanema" from this album won a Grammy Award; one of Coy Harlingen's influences, 37;

Ghidrah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964)
1964 tokusatsu kaiju (Japanese: film about strange beasts) film, and is the 5th film in Toho's Godzilla series. It's the first of the Godzilla series where Godzilla tries to help Japan instead of destroy it, and also features Mothra and Rodan; 281

Ghostflower Court
219; "collection of bungalos dating from the fifties" where Doc and Trillium Fortnight stay, in Las Vegas

American TV sitcom originally produced by United Artists Television. It aired for three seasons on the CBS network, from September 26, 1964 to September 4, 1967. The show followed the comic adventures of seven castaways (Gilligan, the Skipper, Thurston Howell, III, Eunice "Lovey" Wentworth Howell, Ginger Grant, the Professor, Mary Ann Summers) as they attempted to survive and ultimately escape from a previously uninhabited island where they were shipwrecked; "was that a diamond ring on Ginger last episode?" 89; "What am I, the Skipper?" 133; Godzilligan's Island, 246; Sauncho's boat, 354; Wikipedia entry

Gilroy
See Sportello, Gilroy

Gladys
95; secretary at Gotcha!

Glass House
33; 122; police station in the heart of downtown Los Angeles, named after William H. Parker, a former chief of the LAPD. The eight-story structure is situated between Los Angeles Street, First Street, San Pedro Street, and Market Streets and is one block east of City Hall. The detention facility, officially called the Metropolitan Jail, is also most commonly referred to as "Parker Center Jail" and also known as the "Glass House" because of its features large windows. LA's Blacks and Latinos considered Parker a racist pig who led a force of brutal cops that targeted and terrorized the African-American and Latino communities; 137

GNASH
100; "Global Network of Anecdotal Surfer Horseshit"

Go
A strategic board game for two players. Go is noted for being rich in strategic complexity despite its simple rules. It originated in ancient China over 2,500 years ago; "dollar-a-stone" 81

7; 10; Enormous, mutant dinosaur who first appeared in the 1954 film Gojira (English title Godzilla, King of the Monsters!) Godzilla was conceived as a monster created by nuclear explosions and a metaphor for nuclear weapons in general. Over the years, though, the character has lost all political meaning. Godzilligan's Island, 245; Ghidra, the Three-Headed Monster, in which Godzilla appears, 281. Wikipedia

Godzilligan's Island
245; fictional "movie for TV" Doc watches in Las Vegas

Golden Fang, The
77; big mysterious schooner, aka Preserved; 84; 87; "out of Charlotte Amalie, 90; 92; 109; 119-120; "Indochinese heroin cartel", uses Chick Planet Massage to launder money 159; "six-story-high golden fang!" Corporate HQ, 168; "a syndicate, most of us happen to be dentists, we set it up years ago for tax purposes" 169; Procedures Handbook, dealing with hippies, 170; "if the Golden Fang could get its customers strung out, why not turn around and also sell them a program to help them kick?" 192; 213; in photo in Adrian Prussia's Hall of Justice file, 286; "bunch of honkey dentists" 293; "not only traffick in Enslavement, they peddle the implements of Liberation as well" 294; the person, in Doc's PCP hallucination, 318; dezombified by Zen exorcist (in Doc's dream), 340; put in at San Pedro, 354; abandoned, 358

Golden Triangle
One of the most extensive opium-producing areas of Asia and of the world since the 1950s, it is an area of around 350,000 square kilometres that overlaps the mountains of four countries of Southeast Asia: Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand. There is much evidence that the CIA protected drug lords in the name of national security, and for directly contradicted Drug Enforcement Agency's efforts to interdict major traffickers; Golden Fang "ran CIA heroin" from, 95; 325

Good, the Bad and the Ugly, The
204; a 1966 Italian epic spaghetti western film directed by Sergio Leone, starring Clint Eastwood, Lee Van Cleef, and Eli Wallach in the title roles.

Goofy
28; Walt Disney cartoon character, a dog and one of Mickey Mouse's best friends

Gordita Beach
6; fictional Los Angeles beach town where Doc lives and works; according to the article "Thomas Pynchon and the South Bay": "Pynchon doesn't refer to Manhattan Beach by name. Rather, he uses the name Gordita Beach to refer to his one-time home." On the last two pages of Inherent Vice, Doc Sportello is on the Santa Monica freeway which then merges onto the San Diego, heading south. The series of street names and off-ramps points to Manhattan Beach.

And Gordita Beach is one of Zoyd Wheeler's habitats in Vineland:

Zoyd was living down south then, sharing a house in Gordita Beach with elements of a surf band he’d been playing keyboard in since junior high, the Corvairs, along with friends more and less transient. The house was so old that all of its termite clauses and code violations had been waived, on the theory that the next moderate act of nature would finish it off. But having been put up back during an era of overdesign, it proved to be sturdier than it looked, with its old stucco eaten at to reveal generations of paint jobs in different beach town pastels, corroded by salt and petrochemical fogs that flowed in the summers onshore up the sand slopes, on up past Sepulveda, often across the then undeveloped fields, to wrap the San Diego Freeway too. (p. 22)

The Corvairs surf band figures in Inherent Vice, as well, as the band in which Doc's cousin Scott Oof and Elfmont play.

Built on top of one of the "sacred portals of access to the spirit world" 355

Gotcha! Searches and Settlements
51; collection agency that hires Doc as a skip-tracer (private investigator or private detective who specializes in finding people who have attempted to disappear) to work of his debt

Grande Valse Brillante
220; by Chopin; The Grande Valse brillante in E-flat major (also called Grande Waltz Brillante), Op. 18, was composed by Frédéric Chopin in 1833. It was first published in 1834 and is Chopin's first waltz composition for solo piano. It was often used as incidental music in Brazilian overdubbings of Warner Bros. cartoons such as Bugs Bunny. Have a listen on YouTube...

Gravity's Rainbow
shades of Slothrop's desk, 15; "that" - hardons - lighting, 59

"Great Pretender, The"
55; a popular song recorded by The Platters and released as a single on November 3, 1955. View a 1955 Platters performance of "The Great Pretender" on YouTube...

Magenta is a brilliant, purple-red dye extracted from coal-tar and named after the Battle of Magenta which was fought in 1859 shortly before the dye was discovered. Green and magenta are complementary colors. They're also the two colors of the neon title on the Inherent Vice dustjacket. Pynchon uses these colors frequently in his novels; "psychedelic favorites" 14; kimono, 107; Liberace's necktie sequins, 220; clouds of dust, 336; Read Katherine Hayles' color analysis, in relation to Gravity's Rainbow...

Green Acres
200; American television series starring Eddie Albert and Eva Gabor as a couple who move from New York City to a farm in the country, running from 1965 to 1971.

Gummo Marx Way
Remember Milton "Gummo" Marx? He was the fourth-born of the Marx Brothers comedy act (1893-1977) and chose not to become an actor and entertainer. His nickname derives from his enjoying being sneaky backstage, creeping up on others without them knowing (like a gumshoe); "hard-luck boulevard" in Los Angeles, 283-284; 329

guns
141; listed; "short-barreled Model 27" 149; Heckler & Koch, 149; Smith, 151; Smith & Wesson, 178; modified AK-47 with an oversize banana clip, 184; Smiths, 186; 201; ".44 Magnum, a Ruger Blackhawk" 250;