"Emergency" by Denis Johnson Blog

The short story "Emergency" by Denis Johnson was a pretty intense read, filled with violence and drug abuse. The story revolved around the lives of the narrator and his friend, Georgie. They both work at a hospital with what is described as a highly incompetent team. It seems as if the author is trying to send a message about the medical system of today. When a victim (Terrence Weber) comes into the emergency room with a knife stuck in his eye, the doctor on duty has no idea what to do. He replies, "I'm not touching that head. I'm just going to watch this one." The narrator and Georgie are high on drugs for most of the story, so it is hard to tell whether or not the events described actually happened or if they were some hallucination dreamed up when they were high. At one point in the story the narrator gets confused as to whether or not he is recounting the story correctly. He says, "Or maybe that wasn't the time it snowed. Maybe it was the time we slept in the truck and I rolled over on the bunnies and flattened them. It doesn't matter."  When I was first reading the story it seemed to me that Georgie had something mentally wrong with him. Throughout the story he is talking about how he can't see and what not. However, I believe that this is just a result of heavy drug use. Something that I found odd is that although Georgie is portrayed as somewhat reckless and inept, he ends up saving the life of Terrence Weber and preserving the life of the baby rabbits for a little while. Toward the end of the story Georgie and the narrator pick up a hitchhiker. It is revealed that he has been drafted into the war and is trying to flee to Canada. I am assuming that this is referring to the Vietnam War, which took place in the late sixties and seventies. This helped bring the drug use throughout the novel into perspective a little bit. This was time when using drugs was a more common thing.

VOCABULARY:
Orderly: A nursing assistant who ensures the comfort, safety, and general well-being of patients in hospitals. He or she might help a person get out of bed, get dressed, and move around.

The Crying of Lot 49, Chapter 6

It is in Chapter 6 of the novel that Oedipa finally begins to give up hope on the whole Tristero theory. She begins to turn down opportunities to meet with people that might be able to tell her more about the Tristero. Oedipa starts to consider that she could possibly be going insane or that maybe Pierce plotted against her and planned this whole thing. She meets up with Bortz who is able to tell her lots of information on how the Tristero came to be. This doesn't satisfy Oedipa. She is eager to find out why Driblette used the alternate line in his version of The Courier's Tragedy. ("No hallowed skein of stars can ward, I trow, who's once been set his tryst with Trystero.") It turns out that Driblette drowned herself in the ocean, so Oedipa never finds out. When Oedipa goes to see Fallopian at the Scope to talk about all of the updates she has discovered, she realized even he is doubting her. He wants to know if she has considered the possibility that Pierce set the entire thing up. He says, "Has it ever occurred to you, Oedipa, that somebody's putting you on? That this is all a hoax, maybe something Inverarity set up before he died?" This really upsets Oedipa and seems to be one of the last straws. Now even the biggest conspiracy theorist she knows doesn't believe in her. Oedipa also finds out what W.A.S.T.E means ("WE AWAIT SILENT TRISTERO'S EMPIRE") This seems like it would be a big deal, but Oedipa still doesn't really understand what it means. Oedipa is feeling more lost than ever. She's lost her husband, Metzger, and all aspects of her old life because of Pierce's death and her obsession with Tristero. Her last hope is Pierce's stamp set. Genghis tells Oedipa that a mysterious individual is interested in the auctioning off of the stamp collection. They think that this possibly could be a member of Tristero trying to keep the stamps concealed. At the end of the book Oedipa decides to go to the auction out of curiosity to see who the mysterious person could be. However, the book ends before it is revealed. THIS ABSOLUTELY KILLS ME! I wanted to find out if Oedipa ever got any kind of absolution.

DEFINITIONS:
Pony Express:  A system of mail delivery operating from 1860–61 between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento, California, using horse riders.

William of Orange: King of England and Scotland and Ireland; he married the daughter of James II and was invited by opponents of James II to invade England; when James fled, William III and Mary II were declared joint monarchs (1650-1702)

The Crying of Lot of 49, Chapter 3

Chapter three of The Crying of Lot 49 was very odd, and it was also somewhat hard for me to understand. The chapter begins following Oedipa's infidelity with Metzger. She gets a letter in the mail from Mucho. Is this supposed to serve as reminder to Oedipa that she is married woman? Oedipa finds a misprint on the envelope that read, "REPORT ALL OBSCENE MAIL TO YOUR POTSMASTER." The typo of the word postmaster really perturbs Oedipa for some reason, but Metzger just brushes it off. Oedipa and Metzger go to a bar nearby called the Scope where they run into many locals. They meet an eccentric character by the Mike Fallopian who runs a secret society. He proceeds to tell the "couple" about where his club got it name, "The Peter Pinguid Society." Fallopian talks about a lot of politics and history to explain what the group is all about. I became a little lost in this discussion. A mail man comes into the bar with vast amounts of mail, and as it turns out, the town is running a secret mail service. They are going against the government by doing this. At this point, it seems to me that Fallopian is somewhat of a comical conspiracy theorist. The chapter finally got interesting for me when Oedipa went to the ladies room and sees a flyer with a indistinguishable image on it. It looks like some kind of trumpet to me. It is a very vague flyer, and under the picture it says "WASTE only." I have no idea what this means, but it gave me something to look forward to in the novel, sort of like a mystery. The intrigue increases when Oedipa, Metzger, and the Paranoids run into Manny Di Presso while illegally borrowing a yacht. Di Presso is in full scuba gear and informs them that he is running from a client interested in suing Oepida's dead ex-husband over some business related to bones. Towards the end of the chapter Oedipa and Metzger decide to see a play that the Paranoids have mention, "The Couriers Tragedy." Pynchon takes the reader through all of the acts of the play. This portion of the chapter was probably my least favorite. It reminds me of a frame story, which I think is a story within a story. Oedipa hears the word "Trystero," which immediately catches her attention and she becomes paranoid. I am unfamiliar with the word besides the fact that mentions it in the very first sentence of Chapter 3. Chapter 3 left me with numerous questions, which I hope will be answered soon enough in the rest of the novel.

DEFINITIONS:
encapsulation (pg. 31): to be enclosed; to be summarized or condensed
allegory (pg. 31): a representation of an abstract or spiritual meaning through concrete or material forms; figurative treatment of one subject under the guise of another.
Czar Nicholas II (pg. 35) : Russia's last emperor