Sir Jackson

"This! Is! Sparta! Ka-chow!"

In my family, the geeking-out starts early.

Can I go on your next trip?

Go here (but only if you're seeking pure delight!)

Trust me, it's way more pleasant than Gravity's Rainbow.

Be sure to watch in High Quality (link just below video window).

Pynching (GR, pt. 2)

Posting tomorrow: chs. 2-3.

Right now, posting (briefly) on Chapter One.

• ChapTER One.
• CHAP-ter-ONE.
• Chap, ter one.

I think that moment signifies my favorite thus far in this excursion into TP's brain. Significantly, it felt like an excursion into mine, at least in that moment. "You never did the Kenosha Kid."* Apparently, this blogger experiences a similar phenomenon, at least in the linguistic vs. the musical sense. I know that an error in the brain's auditory co, along with an inherent desire to find patterns (especially with gaps in the patterns - like hearing only a song's title) leads to the "song stuck in my head" problem. Why, then, do we get words or phrases "stuck"? They seem to run around and around, repeating even after I've shouted them at myself, or used them in a blog. (currently, and fortuitously - - sort of - - "auditory" is stuck in my brain. Lucky, that. :-/ )

Here's a commercial example more relevant to the Kenosha Kid situation. The cable channel A&E formerly used the slogan "Time Well Spent." Regardless of the response of wikipedia posters, I think they retired the slogan due to the ridiculous variations on that phrase that viewers, like me, could make:

• Time, well spent (we use time here at A&E, and we use it well.)
• Time, well, spent. (gotta get used up somehow; might as well be here.)
  
• Time Well, spent. (what the heck is a "time well"? or should I say "who"??)

Even now, typing this out, I can feel the "round-and-round" of Slothrop's brain. (auditory, aggregate, enculcate). Even worse, and even dorkier, the eJ, her husband, and I took a trip to VA two years ago for Halloween and, to stay awake on the road, we played a horrible, wonderful, nerdy game. For hours (and hours) we took turns coming up with words that had specific suffixes. So, for instance, one round was "-ate." With a Spanish lit grad student, a history grad student, and an English lit grad student, you can imagine the length of each of the rounds. The trouble wasn't coming up with words; the trouble was stopping before the point of utter mental exhaustion. Even when the rounds were over, words continued to appear in our poor tired brains. We literally couldn't STOP our brains from pursuing that pattern in our linguistic memories.

Thus, I swing 'round back to my original reactions to Slothrop's dilemma(?). First, hilarity as a result of recognition/empathy, as described in the previous ramblings. Second, academic interest in both the psychology of the pattern and also the physiology of it, as described below in my discussion about the sodium-amytal. Finally, pattern-recognition as a catalyst for a close reading. Scary, and overwhelming, and cool.

Okay, point 2, then. The (psychotropic, tropes, aggregate, enculcate**), barbituate, "10% sodium-amytal, one cc at a time, as needed" (62) obviously indicate a jibe against/about human test subjects during the WWII era. For instance, Slothrop sings (recites? chants?) "Re-enlist-- Snap--to, Slothrop! / ...They just look for someplace else to send...me..." (63) , as if the physicians' only concern is to prep depressed, neurotic, suicidal soldiers for a return to the battlefield (see link in next sentence).

Note that the administration of the so-called -perhaps, anyway- "Blue-88" appears after Slothrop has already begun his linguistic spiral, a word I choose intentionally, for the implication is that of a downward tendency. Okay, so. In my case it may be simple OCD of the neocortex, in Slothrop's we must assume that Pynchon wants to say something, or, better, wants to imply that he wants to say something. Regardless, I'm gonna go with the the desire to say something, at least the desire to show something on a linguistic and a musical level. Thus, I've now moved from my previous point of "linguistic vs. musical" to a new region of "linguistic AND musical." Quite an important distinction.

Here we go: Slothrop gets the sodium-amytal, and the already overstimulated Broca's area (frontal lobe, neocortex) invites the auditory cortex (occipital lobe) along for the ride, and the complex, problem-solving/pattern recognition loop adds a soundtrack. Normally, I might argue that Pynchon was in now way references actual, physiological or psychological processes. The problem with my argument would be - and is - that the entire episode turns on psychological experimentation. Perhaps I go too far if I argue that TP intentionally alludes to the various regions of the brain - but do I? Note Slothrop's own words: "Tap my head and mike my brain, / Stick that needle in my vein" (63), and then "yowzah gwine smoke a little ob dis hyah sheeit gib de wrinkles in mah brain a process! straighten 'em all raht out, sho nuf!" (64, TP ital.) At least, based on the context, the essential physio-psychological processes play a role, even if TP doesn't specifically intend to discuss the regions of the brain.

But I do. So that's why I did a little research on the names here, both of the interviewer, PISCES, and the song, "Cherokee," playing during Slothrop's recital, which I hesitate to call a "flashback." Here's the dish: Pisces is the name a 1961 Art Blakey album, as well as a song on that album and this one, The Freedom Rider, from the following year. Considering the tempo of Slothrop's little ditties, as well as the setting, dialect, and storyline of his bathroom recital. I find it difficult to ignore the possible connections. The weird thing is this: I would destroy my students for making such a leap! It's a terrible fallacy to assume that somehow there's a connection between a 1960's jazz tune and one crazy-drug-induced memory. EXCEPT. We're talking Pynchon. The other snag in my neat little fabrication here? I can find no evidence that Art Blakey recorded the Ray Noble jazz tune "Cherokee," despite it's popularity among other greats.

Suddenly, I find myself playing a weird literary game of Six Stages of Separation, and I feel completely OCD.

I think I shall call it quits for one day, and continue these thoughts on the morrow. I'm caught in a lexical loop.

I'll leave you with Ray Noble's classic lyrics:

Cherokee (Indian Love Song)

Sweet Indian maiden, since first I met you,
I can't forget you, Cherokee sweetheart.

Child of the prairie, your love keeps calling,
my heart enthralling, Cherokee.

Dreams of summertime, of lovertime gone by,
throng my memory so tenderly, and sigh. My

Sweet Indian maiden, one day I'll hold you,
in my arms fold you, Cherokee.


~~~
* - Yes, I noticed they're an Athens-based band. More reviews here.
** - Blogger keeps telling me that I've spelled enculcate incorrectly. I checked, and I'm right. So HAH.
**.2 - Interestingly, arbitrarily repeating the "stuck" words seems to alleviate the cacophony/calliope in my head. Perhaps a new Pynchon theory?

~~~~~

Works Cited (referenced, or pointed to)

"3 Smart Things About Music." Wired. 16 June 2008. 7 July 2008.

"Battle of the Bulge." American Experience. Public Broadcasting Station. Transcript. Online. 7 July 2008.

ConstantSkeptic. "Words Stuck in My Head." [Weblog entry.] The Constant Skeptic: Tech-enabled Hipster Xenophiles Seeking to Question, Rant, and Inform Humanity. 17 December 2007. <http://www.constantskeptic.com/index.php/2007/12/17/quote-of-the-day-oscar-wilde/>7 July 2008.

Wikipedia. . 7 July 2008