Re: Pynchon

A few random thoughts on the whole Pynchon/Lot 49 thing.

This may have been discussed in the list a few years ago, since there are a few more Pynchon or possible-Pynchon references in JBC songs. "She's a yo-yo" and "Rachelland" could be related to "V" (a book beyond belief) where one of the characters is a very flighty woman named Rachel, and she has an on-off-going thing with Profane (?), who spends some of his days "yo-yoing", which is riding subways endlessly.

"Waiting for Lot 49" - well the last verse is definitely about the book. A postman keeps appearing and fascinating the singer... in the book Maas is searching for a conspiracy which seems to have something to do with an alternative form of mail delivery and communication.

There's probably a bunch of spoilers for anyone who hasn't read the book here, but to me it seems ironic to be discussing JBC and "The Crying of Lot 49". When I read the book, to me it seemed to be about email and the net in general... there's a conspiracy of an alternative form of messaging people... it's difficult to find and understand at first, but once you've seen it, it takes up more and more of your time and you become obsessed with it... the people who take advantage of it first are the perverts, the people with specific things they want to discuss (like iconcolastic rock performers).

I've rambled a lot, sorry 'bout that. Guess I'm too big a fan of both artists.

George Received on Wed Apr 22 17:59:07 1998