Reader's Guide to Vineland

in case of an atomic attack.
DL returns to Berkeley and reunites with the 24fps survivors. They drive off to rescue Frenesi. DL uses
Ninjette techniques to sneak into the camp and break Frenesi out. After dropping the 24fps people in Berkeley,
she and Frenesi drive to Mexico, where Frenesi confesses to DL. DL is disgusted. She drives Frenesi back
across the border and drops her in Las Suegras -- where, presumably, Frenesi is about to meet Zoyd. It was
(says DL, narrating the end of the flashback in present tense at Ditzah's) the last time she ever saw Frenesi.
There's some astrological stuff, the main thrust of which is that bad as things are they're about to get worse.
(Generally a safe prediction.) There's also an alarming message from Zipi (Ditzah's sister) that several of the old
24fps members have recently disappeared. DL searches for (and finds) a bug. Then Ditzah, Prairie, Takeshi and
DL pile in the Ninjamobile and head for cover.
p. 218 "up over the passes and out long desert arterials, out past the seed and feed houses and country
music bars and Mexican joints with Happy Hours featuring 99 cent margaritas out of a hose, under the
smog, the dribbling rain, the toxic lens of sky..." Mr. Pynchon, meet Mr. Chandler.
p. 219 "What an evening" Thanatoid Roast '84 is the "tenth annual get-together" -- which means there
have been thanatoids since '75. So what happened in 1974-1975? Patty Hearst kidnapped by SLA. Nixon is
impeached over Watergate, and resigns. Motion picture ratings system created. US Bicentenial celebration.
Vietnam War ends; last 1,000 Americans evacuated from South Vietnam.
p. 220 "Willis Chunko" Nice name.
p. 221 "Kommandant Karl Bopp" Ditto.
p. 221 "pacified territory" Growers discuss CAMP progress in Vietnam-like terms.
p. 222-223 "All right, you parrots, listen up!" Parrot sale and shared dreams: Magic realism, gorgeous
and surreal; tropical colors and flashy imagery.
p. 223 "can't shit, can't get a hardon" The Thanatoid Roast rendered from Van Meter's POV; his
paranoia is expressed in terms familiar from GR.
p. 225 "old-time Combo-Ork arrangements" There's that lingo again.
p. 225 "rallentando" A typically obscure Pynchon word, this musical term means exactly the same as
ritardando: played with decreasing pace. Perfect for the Thanatoid gig.
p. 226 "Larry Elasmo" Cool name. Plasticman? But what the fuck is he doing at the Thanatoid Roast?
Pynchon is pushing the outside of the coincidence envelope.
p. 226-228 Elasmo sequence. Mr. Pynchon, meet Mr. Kafka. This all seems boosted right out of The
Trial. Here's Weed, another rebellious American child (like Frenesi), submitting to, or fascinated with,
authority. "Because the Doctor says so..." turn your body over to coaches, boys with hardons. Go to the Draft
Board Center and sit on the group W bench. Even rational, mathematical, radical Weed does what the dentist
tells him to, even if it is manifestly senseless.
Among other questions worth asking: Who authorized Elasmo to issue these compulsory forms that require
people to come to his office? And by what mysterious process does Weed's merely waiting around cause him to
become confused and dispirited? Maybe the idea is simply to take Weed out of the picture at intervals, so Vond
and Frenesi can talk and fuck. There's some hint (from Vond if not from Pynchon) that Weed is collaborating
with Vond. If so, we'd expect at least a short scene showing that collaboration. The Elasmo sequence stands in
the right position, and serves the same function -- but there's no hint whatsoever of Vond. Pretty weird.
p. 226 "Dr Elasmo's video image had swept, had pixeldanced in" Image/raster TV techotalk. Pixels =
the tiny dots that make up the Tube image.
p. 227 "Dr. Larry Elasmo, or a person wearing, like a coverall and veil, his ubiquitous screen image
grainy, flickering at the edges..." So not only is the real Elasmo tracking Weed, his TV image is doing it too!
p. 228 "Ilse, the hygienist..." Naturally, the dental hygienist in Larry's World of Discomfort is none other
than Ilse, the high-heeled Nazi heroine of sixties S&M porno flicks, e.g., Ilse, She-Wolf of the SS.
p. 230 "...adjusted the pulsing vacuum to meet his own quickening rhythm..." The scene of Rex
adjusting Bruno's carburetors while masturbating in the intakes clearly harks back to certain intimate moments
involving Rachel and her MG's gearshift lever in V.
p. 230 "Trash the Xanthocroid" (See note, p. 197.)
p. 232 "...smile and relax beneath some single low oak out on an impossible hillside..." Flashsideways