Analysis of Gravity's Rainbow, Part 3 - Chapter 6: Slothrop Sick, His Past Meeting with Enzian, Meeting Säure and His Girls, Pig Bodine, His Next Journey
this part, wherein Rocketman is made, is so much fun. The edition I first had had a blurb from some newspaper on the cover that read, "Pynchon writes like an angel and clowns like the very devil." The clowning is world-class
Anybody have any leads what Rif means? Referring to REEFER, when Slothrop smells it in the garden: "Gunshot green of the Rif's slant fields here, vapor-blossoms resinous and summery, charm his snoot on through bushes and matted grass, under the blasted trees and whatever sits on their branches." Is Rif an acronym or shorthand for a place where they grow pot? Looked quickly, no leads.
I had to look up a few words:
dryads -- wood nymph
subdeb-sub-debutante, a younger girl who isn't at debutante age
Just checked through Weisenburger's companion and found this: "a REEFER: Underground slang for a marijuana cigarette. Some say it derives from the verb "reef," to roll up a sail; more likely it originated from a phonetic spelling of Er Rif, the Moroccan hills known for their production of marijuana. Thus Pynchon's comment on 'the Rif 's slant fields' in the next lines."
Slothrop's relative he pines for "wondering if he'll ever see Berkshire again. ... Nalline, the reflection from her Gold Star brightening her chins like a buttercup" Nalline is a brand name for the opioid Nalorphine
Finally finished this chapter; sorry to have to post a million comments on each chapter's post but I'm stealing a few minutes here and there to read a few pages.
As this is the introduction to Seaman Pig Bodine, I should mention that this character pops up in every single book by Thomas Pynchon. It's a thing, and it's fun. He's not always a small character, either.
So Bodine says of the origin of the hash that he buried in Potsdam: "Scored it from my buddy in the CBI, government seals and everything." Fucking google AI bot being useful here tells me that CBI stands for the "China-Burma-India Theater", which is of course where the hash would come from, but the government seals bit is interesting and seems to me to be a reference to the CIA sending heroin back from Vietnam in bodies (however he could be referring to any one of what we now know are hundreds of different drug-dealing-as-policy schemes perpetrated by you-know-who.
Ha I didn't even notice the CBI theater aspect of this chapter but I did mention it again in the currently unposted analysis of the penultimate chapter of Part 3! Again to do with Bodine.
this part, wherein Rocketman is made, is so much fun. The edition I first had had a blurb from some newspaper on the cover that read, "Pynchon writes like an angel and clowns like the very devil." The clowning is world-class
Anybody have any leads what Rif means? Referring to REEFER, when Slothrop smells it in the garden: "Gunshot green of the Rif's slant fields here, vapor-blossoms resinous and summery, charm his snoot on through bushes and matted grass, under the blasted trees and whatever sits on their branches." Is Rif an acronym or shorthand for a place where they grow pot? Looked quickly, no leads.
I had to look up a few words:
dryads -- wood nymph
subdeb-sub-debutante, a younger girl who isn't at debutante age
more later peace
It's such a fun chapter!
Just checked through Weisenburger's companion and found this: "a REEFER: Underground slang for a marijuana cigarette. Some say it derives from the verb "reef," to roll up a sail; more likely it originated from a phonetic spelling of Er Rif, the Moroccan hills known for their production of marijuana. Thus Pynchon's comment on 'the Rif 's slant fields' in the next lines."
nice!
Slothrop's relative he pines for "wondering if he'll ever see Berkshire again. ... Nalline, the reflection from her Gold Star brightening her chins like a buttercup" Nalline is a brand name for the opioid Nalorphine
Finally finished this chapter; sorry to have to post a million comments on each chapter's post but I'm stealing a few minutes here and there to read a few pages.
As this is the introduction to Seaman Pig Bodine, I should mention that this character pops up in every single book by Thomas Pynchon. It's a thing, and it's fun. He's not always a small character, either.
So Bodine says of the origin of the hash that he buried in Potsdam: "Scored it from my buddy in the CBI, government seals and everything." Fucking google AI bot being useful here tells me that CBI stands for the "China-Burma-India Theater", which is of course where the hash would come from, but the government seals bit is interesting and seems to me to be a reference to the CIA sending heroin back from Vietnam in bodies (however he could be referring to any one of what we now know are hundreds of different drug-dealing-as-policy schemes perpetrated by you-know-who.
Ha I didn't even notice the CBI theater aspect of this chapter but I did mention it again in the currently unposted analysis of the penultimate chapter of Part 3! Again to do with Bodine.
outase: "large, newly laid cow turd"