Difference between revisions of "Chapter 12"

Latest revision as of 22:29, 4 December 2013

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

Page numbers refer to editions with 369 pages, where the story begins on page 1. Not sure if there are other editions with variant pagination. Please let us know otherwise.

Page 186

Doc made a couple of phone calls and took the back route up by way of Burbank and Santa Paula, reaching the Ojai turn-off just before lunchtime.
Doc takes an unusual and very out-of-the-way route. From Gordita Beach (Manhattan Beach) or Rancho Park (end of chapter 11) most drivers would go north on the 405 freeway to the 5 freeway north, exit at the 126 highway, proceed west to Santa Paula, and then take "the Ojai turn-off" (Ojai Road, 150) to Ojai. But for Doc to go to Burbank is quite a roundabout route to take.

were those highways there in the 60s?

yes, at least 5 and 405 were major freeways through LA at that time. I think most drivers would go up 405 and head west on 101 at Sherman Oaks, then north from Ventura to Ojai, though.

Doc's route (5 & 126) isn't *way* out the way, rather it's probably a reasonable alternative if you were determined to completely avoid the roads on the obvious route (405, 101, & 33). Traffic would have been reasonably light in the late morning, so I'm guessing the extra might have only cost him half to one hour at most.

reaching the Ojai turnoff fust before lunchtime.
Morning, Sunday, April 26, 1970.

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

"chakras... concentrations of spiritual energy... grace"
Doc's simple statement (lie?), that he chose Ojai because of the spiritual energies, contains numerous echoes of important Pynchon concepts: energy in ATD, ley lines in M&D, grace in ATD, etc.

J Krishnamurti
Jiddu Krishnamurti was a prominent Indian-born spiritual teacher who did, in fact, live in Ojai.

After lunch, Doc was bustled around
Afternoon, Sunday, April 26, 1970.

Page 190

...the one with Shasta hand-painted on it...
A hand-painted tie with a nude woman also appears in Gravity's Rainbow.

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

a pinner of gold Colombian
A pinner is a thinly-rolled marijuana cigarette, sort of a mini-joint.

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 available 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 192

por vida
For life.

Page 193

the shadows around the place were lengthening.
Afternoon/Evening, Sunday, April 26, 1970. The metaphorical shadows are lengthening, too.

engineering decisions taken long ago at Wolfsburg
Wolfsburg, Germany is the headquarters of Volkswagen AG. The VW microbus was first manufactured "long ago" in 1950.

Something Happened to me Yesterday
from the The Rolling Stones' 1967 album Between the Buttons. Another (loose) WWII connection, from Wikipedia: the song ends with the lyrics "So if you're out tonight, don't forget, if you're on your bike, wear white. Evening all." Jagger has said (plainly facetiously) that this passage is "something I remember hearing on the BBC as the bombs dropped" (ie in the first two years of his life)." ^w

Page 194

the word is not the thing, the map is not the territory
The expression "the map is not the territory" first appeared in print in a paper that Alfred Korzybski (developer of General Semantics) gave at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in New Orleans, Louisiana in 1931. The map is not the territory signifies that individual people in fact do not in general have access to absolute knowledge of reality, but in fact only have access to a set of beliefs they have built up over time, about reality (Wikipedia). The phrase "The symbol is NOT the thing symbolized; the word is NOT the thing; the map is NOT the territory it stands for." also appears in S.I. Hayakawa's Language in Thought and Action, Harcourt, Brace and Company, (New York), 1949, p.31.

Doc got back to the beach just at early evening
Evening, Sunday, April 26, 1970.

Page 196

"...put everything in the Ostracizer and made smoothies..."
Denis means Osterizer, a brand of blender or food processor.

Didn't you see that movie?
Denis is referring here to the 1932 film Freaks, a horror film about sideshow performers with a cast of actual sideshow performers. One of the midgets from Freaks makes a cameo in GR.

The Shasta/Mickey story shows some similarities to the central love story in the film. A "normal" and beautiful woman pretends to love--and marries--one of the "freaks" simply for his money. The freaks revolt against her and maim her, ultimately turning her into freak show exhibit.

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." [1]

Page 197

Next morning Doc threaded in to work
Morning, Monday, April 27, 1970.

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 here.

Page 200

The Beverly Hillbillies rolled along toward Green Acres
Green Acres usually aired at 9:00 P.M on Saturdays, and Beverly Hillbillies on Wednesdays at 8:30 P.M., while this is Monday, April 27, 1970. A check of Los Angeles TV listings confirms that these shows are not on tonight. In fact, there is no time in the spring of 1970 that one followed the other. Given the nature of whom Doc is visiting and the subject matter of the shows, perhaps the rolling along is metaphorical.

Page 201

Gleichschaltung Model 33 Automatic Bazooka
Gleichschaltung, meaning "coordination," "making the same," "bringing into line," is a system the Hitler regime developed for the complete forcing into line of German society in terms of politics, information and culture. Gleichschaltung's system established totalitarian control over the individual, therby forcing the individual/society to follow a specific way of thinking using an oppressive police force. 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 202

...can we improve your life tonight?
Evening, Monday, April 27, 1970.

Page 204

We've been trying to call you all evening.
Evening, Monday, April 27, 1970.

Hermosa Theater...The Good, the Bad and the Ugly...double feature...The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie
That would be a very odd double feature. The Good, the Bad and the Ugly is a blood-drenched spaghetti western, while The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie is a heartwarming feminist fable about a schoolteacher in 1930's Scotland.
The importance of these films to the timeline is that they occur during the "few days" that the Dart is in the body shop. A check of movie listings shows no Hermosa (beautiful) Theater. The same check shows no instance of these films ever appearing together on a double bill. Interestingly, in the spring of 1970, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie was often paired in second-run houses with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It's Doc mentioning that the two movies shared a bill, so you could chalk it up to stoner's memory.

Lee Van Cleef
Actor of many Westerns. Brutal killer in "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly."

Rowdy Yates
Rowdy Yates was the character played by Eastwood in the "Rawhide" television series

Page 205

That night Doc dreamed
The night of Monday, April 27, 1970.

little Larry
Numerous critics have remarked upon the similarity between Inherent Vice and The Big Lebowski. It's probably a stretch, but worth noting that "little Larry" is a character in Lebowski (who stole the Dude's car (or did he?)).

Page 206

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

He walked around well into the morning
Morning, Tuesday, April 28, 1970.