PE Check123 Chapter 33 - Thomas Pynchon Wiki | Bleeding Edge

Chapter 33

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

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Page 354

Jetsons-era spaceport
Not a bad little essay on Mid-21st Century Modern architecture.

cyberflaneurs
"A person who idly surfs the internet." In 2012 the New York Times ran an article on the Death of the Cyberflaneur

Page 355

a strange creepy nimbus like a follow spot in a club
A nimbus is an aura, or a luminous cloud or a halo surrounding a supernatural being or a saint. A follow spot (or followspot) is a moving spot light that tracks a subject, eg a dancing couple on the dance floor.

Battlestar Galactica
The reboot doesn't come out until 2004, so here they are talking about the original show.

requesting her presence on the bridge
Star Trek references start here and continue for another half page or so

posters of Denise Richards and Tia Carrere
Denise Richards for her role in Starship Troopers, no doubt, and Tia Carrere, for Relic Hunter maybe?

Page 356

Regulate
YouTube has it. The song was released in 1994.

More Cowbell
YouTube has a clip from this famous SNL skit, which was first aired, by the way, April 2000.

Deus Ex theme
Youtube to the rescue again. WIKI has more on this 2000 cyberpunk-style video game.

356 - Deus Ex is a cyberpunk-themed action-role playing video game — combining first-person shooter, stealth and role-playing elements — developed by Ion Storm and published by Eidos Interactive in 2000. Wikipedia. Check out the theme:


cyberelves
Not to be confused, surely, with cyberflaneurs or the "little tiny people...from under the radiator..with little brooms, and dustpans" from page 346.

tarball
Slang for a way to distribute code tarball derived from the tar archive format wiki

Page 357

Kabbalistic vessels smashed at the Creation into all these bright drops of light
Recalls Gravity's Rainbow, page 148: "Fallen sparks. Fragments of vessels broken at the Creation."

An Abyss
A reference to the Tree of Life in Hermetic Kabbalah.

From Lon Milo DuQuette's "Understanding Aleister Crowley's Thoth Tarot," page 63:

"The area (or non-area) between the supernal triad (sephiroth 1-2-3) and the rest of the Tree is called the Abyss. It is an inscrutable looking glass that separates the ideal (the abstract concepts of 1-2-3) from the actual (the manifest qualities of the phenomenal universe)."

In other words, it separates the unmanifested from the manifested, or, as Lucas puts it, the codeless from the coded.

Page 358

the edge of the unnavigable, the region of no information
Bleeding edge?

the beginning before the Word
John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

vertigo--lovesick, nauseous
Yet more intimations of Hitchcock's Vertigo. "Lovesick, nauseous" could be the film's subtitle.

Page 359

Munchkinetic effect
A reference to Munchkins from the Wizard of Oz.

Phatic how's Justin, how's Fiona, all fine thanks
"Phatic" means denoting or relating to language used for general purposes of social interaction, rather than to convey information or ask questions, such as hello, how are you? and nice morning, isn't it?

Page 360

Dear Abby, I have this friend with a big problem . . .
Long running advice column started in 1956 by Abigail Van Buren.

IRS-issue stogie
An “IRS-issue stogie” would be an American cigar that came in a box with the IRS stamp on it. Since 1862, when Congress passed a broad taxation law that included taxing cigars — to help finance the Civil War — the IRS has taxed cigars [1]. Since then cigars have come in boxes and those boxes have the IRS stamp (looks sort of like a postage stamp) on them which means they’ve been properly taxed.

Quality cigars, usually from other countries (e.g. Cuba), don’t have the IRS stamp, so the "IRS-issue" — not to mention "stogie" (a cheap cigar) — would imply a cheap cigar.

King Kongs, which are Crown Royal plus banana liqueur
Little odd, no, for the narrative voice to define something like this? I thought that was our job! Anyway, also known as a "Rock Star," this is a real cocktail.

Fernet-Branca... That crazy motherfucker from Voorhees, Krueger!
Cf. p. 70.

Page 361

that crazy motherfucker from Voorhees, Krueger
That would be Ian Longspoon. The name is likely a tip o' the hat to Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees of two classic slasher/horror films "Nightmare on Elm Street" and "Friday the 13th".

what sort of look like giant letter J's, not to mention L's
"It could stand for anything, couldn't it?" This is reminiscent of readers speculating on what the "V" stands for in Pynchon's first novel V..

Oakley M Frames
Somewhat spacey-looking, apparently famous, athletic sunglasses. Oakley site.

Page 362

seldom-heard oldie "Soul Gidget"
Fictional song by from Inherent Vice. Nice touch. Page 155.

"One of the few known attempts at black surf music...by Meatball Flag."
Lyrics:

Who's that strollin down the street,
Hi-heel flip-flops on her feet,
Always got a great big smile
Never gets popped by Juv-o-nile—
Who is it?
Soul Gidget!

Who never worries about her karma?
Who be that signifyin on your mama?
Out there lookin so bad and big,
Like Sandra Dee in some Afro wig—
Who is it?
Soul Gidget!

Surf's up, Soul Gidget’s there,
Got that patchouli all in her hair,
Down in Hermosa she’s runnin wild,
Back in South Central she just a child—
Uh who is it?
Soul Gidget!

Page 363

you've got to believe...that was the '69 Mets
The 1969 New York Mets season was the team's eighth as a Major League Baseball franchise and culminated with them winning the World Series over the Baltimore Orioles. They played their home games at Shea Stadium. The team was managed by Gil Hodges. The team is often referred to as the "Amazin' Mets" (a nickname coined by Casey Stengel, who managed the team from their inaugural season to 1965) or the "Miracle Mets.".

HOWEVER, "You gotta believe!!!" was Mets pitcher Tug McGraw's catchphrase during the 1973 season, and that phrase wasn't used during the 1969 season.

Page 364

Duane Reade
See pp. 107 and 414.

ever try anal?...His specialty I bet?
Little nod to Pynchon's niece, Tristan Taormino, sex educator who wrote The Ultimate Guide to Anal Sex for Women?

Note also that this is set up a bit earlier in their conversation (on page 360) with Vyrva saying "a-little-goes-a-long-way, pain-in-the-ass-unbearable".



Chapter 1
pp. 1-7
Chapter 2
pp. 8-19
Chapter 3
pp. 20-29
Chapter 4
pp. 30-40
Chapter 5
pp. 41-52
Chapter 6
pp. 53-67
Chapter 7
pp. 68-79
Chapter 8
pp. 80-86
Chapter 9
pp. 87-95
Chapter 10
pp. 96-111
Chapter 11
pp. 112-120
Chapter 12
pp. 121-133
Chapter 13
pp. 134-144
Chapter 14
pp. 145-159
Chapter 15
pp. 160-171
Chapter 16
pp. 172-184
Chapter 17
pp. 185-197
Chapter 18
pp. 198-210
Chapter 19
pp. 211-218
Chapter 20
pp. 219-229
Chapter 21
pp. 230-238
Chapter 22
pp. 239-246
Chapter 23
pp. 247-255
Chapter 24
pp. 256-264
Chapter 25
pp. 265-273
Chapter 26
pp. 274-287
Chapter 27
pp. 288-300
Chapter 28
pp. 301-313
Chapter 29
pp. 314-326
Chapter 30
pp. 327-337
Chapter 31
pp. 338-346
Chapter 32
pp. 347-353
Chapter 33
pp. 354-364
Chapter 34
pp. 365-382
Chapter 35
pp. 383-394
Chapter 36
pp. 395-407
Chapter 37
pp. 408-422
Chapter 38
pp. 423-438
Chapter 39
pp. 439-447
Chapter 40
pp. 448-462
Chapter 41
pp. 463-477
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