Chapter 20

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 351

inherent vice
Here's a good discussion of this phrase.

original sin
a Christian doctrine that says everyone is born sinful [1].

Page 352

Hawaii Five-o was still on.
Late evening Thursday, May 7, 1970. Ordinarily, the show was on Wednesdays from 10 to 11 P.M.

Page 353

that Ada whom I have never trusted since A Summer Place
Not exactly the most meaningful reference, but the same actress - Constance Ford - played both Ada in the soap opera Another World and the unsympathetic character Helen in the movie A Summer Place.

For those inclined to possibilities that require a bit of a stretch, it could also conceivably be construed to be an oblique reference to the Nabakov novel, which was published in 1969. As is fairly well known, Pynchon once took a course from Nabakov, and there are some similarities in their work, though that's a whole 'nother subject.

Page 354

Next morning the fire bell went off,
Morning, Friday, May 8, 1970.

Page 355

like Easter Island in reverse
A beautiful way to describe the surfers. Easter Island is a Pacific island famous for its human stone figures who were placed in a line on land, looking out over the ocean, as seen here.

Page 358

Cortes Bank
Site of a mountain range only a few feet below the surface of the ocean over a hundred miles out from the California coast. Famous for huge waves that just began to be surfed in the mid-90s. Watch Mike Parsons talk about surfing there and catching the biggest wave ever, over 70 feet, documented as having been ridden.

Page 360

Or what if they want Mildred to strangle Veda at the end, like she does in the book?
Refers to the film Mildred Pierce, set in Southern California and much changed from the novel by James M. Cain.

what, helpfully, wasn't yet a quitting time crowd.
Late afternoon, Friday, May 8, 1970.

Page 363

You know what the Indians say. You saved my life, now you've got to-
Recalls the bit in Against the Day between Scarsdale Vibe and Foley Walker: "You know what the Indians out west believe? That if you save the life of another, he becomes your responsibility forever" (p. 101).