Difference between revisions of "Chapter 7"

Revision as of 07:16, 10 August 2009

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 89

Ginger . . . Skipper . . . Gilligan . . . Thurston Howell III . . . Lovey
All characters from the TV show Gilligan's Island. See below for more references to this iconic show.

Page 90

Charlotte Amalie
The largest city and capital of the US Virgina Islands.

Page 91

Thomas Arnould
A spelling error. Should be "Arnold." He was, as the narrator explains, a nineteenth century educator and writer. Joseph Arnould wrote Law of Marine Insurance (1848).

Theophilus Parsons
There were two men (father and son) named Theopilus Parsons in the nineteenth century.

Page 92

L'll buddy
Another reference to Gilligan's Island. "L'il buddy" was the captain's nickname for Gilligan.

Burke Stodger
This name is likely derived from a 1910 noir-ish murder-mystery novel Paternoster Ruby by Charles Edmonds Walk. Alexander Stilwell Burke and Stodger, a plain-clothes cop, are two main characters. Google Books Perhaps Pynchon's slyly recycling here some unused stuff from his vast research for Against the Day? A excerpt from Walk's novel:

"Nasty case," Stodger was imparting, in queer staccato sentences. "Shouldn't have much difficulty, though; responsibility lies between two men. Here all last night. Nobody else. Callahan and O'Brien holdin' 'em. One 's Page's private secretary; fellow named Burke — Alexander Stilwell Burke. Peach of a monicker, ain't it? Has all three sections on his cards.

[...]

Suddenly she snuggled closer and clasped her hands tightly upon my shoulder. Her hair teased my cheek, and the delicate perfume of it made me light-headed. Twisting her pretty head sideways, she flashed an arch look at me from under her lashes, then glanced quickly away again. Blue eyes and long dark lashes are a potently disturbing combination.

"Well," she sighed, "the Page case may have cost you a fortune, but — it gave you me. And I — for one — am very content and happy, Mr. Swift."

Page 93

a three-hour tour
Yet another reference to Gilligan's Island. This is a quote from the theme song.

Page 97

Philip Marlowe
Raymond Chandler's famous detective, featured in Chandler's many novels set in LA, including The Big Sleep (1939; his first appearance), Farewell My Lovely, and The Long Goodbye. [1] There are many important parallels between Pynchon's Doc and Chandler's Marlowe, especially his world-weariness, his fondness for certain drugs of choice, and a penchant for cracking wise and getting beaten up and worse. (Ross MacDonald's fictional detective Travis McGee is also an important predecessor; see below). Of all Chandler's fiction, Farewell My Lovely (1940), which many think is Chandler's best, may be most relevant for the plot and themes of Inherent Vice. For instance, in that novel Marlowe stays in a hotel in Venice Beach before going out to Laird Brunette's offshore gambling boat, the Montecino. Farewell My Lovely also has "rehab" centers that serve as a front for torture and murder; characters with hidden identities; an impossibly convoluted plot; and a literary style that features striking metaphors, similes, and literary allusions. Marlowe is, like Doc, a dark mixture of cynicism, doggedness, and indifference--yet his goodness and inherent virtues can't be killed. To trace the parallels with Chandler's Marlowe, though, is to see how fully Pynchon has transformed and deepened the generic conventions of 1930s and '40s detective fiction (and film noir inspired by it) even as he pays homage to these.

Sam Spade
Dashiell Hammett's detective in The Maltese Falcon (1930) and other crime fiction; in John Huston's famous film based on the novel, he's played by Humphrey Bogart. [2]

Johnny Staccato
Johnny Staccato is a private detective series which ran for twenty-seven episodes on NBC from 1959-1960. Title character Johnny Staccato, played by John Cassavetes (1929-1989), is a jazz pianist/private detective. [3]

Krazy Kat
Krazy Kat was a popular comic strip that ran in newspapers from 1913 to 1944. Ignatz and Offisa Pupp are characters.

Steve McGarrett
Detective in the TV show Hawaii Five-0, important to both Vineland and Inherent Vice.

"Why not get a houseboat up in the Sacramento Delta--smoke, drink, fish, fuck..."
It's tough not to see this as a nod to Doc's brother shamus Travis McGee (fellow detective, not Irish monk,) the creation of Florida writer John D. MacDonald. McGee lives on a houseboat, taking his "retirement in installments," drinking, lounging on Florida beaches, meeting and inevitably helping beautiful women out of troubles that almost always involve a sinister land broker or two. Along the way Trav usually ends up pontificating about rapacious land developers, the increasingly artificial and isolated American lifestyle, and people's loss of connection with the natural world. [4]

Page 99

riding goofyfoot
This is a surfing/skateboarding term for someone who rides left-footed. So-called regular foot riders keep their left foot at the front of the board, but goofyfoot riders put their right foot at the front. More here.

Page 100

a surfer or two who'd found and ridden other breaks [...] unphotographed and unrecorded
Even though Pynchon's reference to Mavericks would seem an anachronism, as no one other than a couple surfers had even tried Mavericks until Jeff Clark began riding the gigantic break in 1975, alone, until 1990 when he convinced some other surfers to check it out, this description would seem to fit Jeff Clark perfectly, discovering and surfing, alone, some of the largest waves on the planet. Jeff Clark Wikipedia entry...

Page 101

Surfaris laugh . . . "Hooo-oo-oo-oo---Wipeout!"
"Wipe Out" was a 1962 hit originally performed by the Surfaris. You can hear the song, including the insane laugh, here.