RAW fans will know that "Keep the lasagna flying" is one of the more famous (and odd) sayings from Robert Anton Wilson. Is there a reference to the phrase in Thomas Pynchon's novel Inherent Vice ?
Spookah has been reading the book, and he writes to say he noticed something:
"On page 229 of my Penguin edition we find lyrics for a made-up song called 'Just the Lasagna'. Here's the first verse:
Izzit som U, FO?
(No, no-no!)
Maybe it's--wait, I know! it's
Just the Lasa-gna! [rythm-guitar fill]
Just the La-sa-hah-gna...
(Just-the-La-sa-gna),
Out of the blue, it came,
(Blue, it came)
Nobody knew, its name, just
"The Lasagna"...
Just—"The La-sagna,"
(Just "Th' La--")
"It goes on for two more verses. I found it funny in itself that Pynchon would invent a song about, of all things, lasagna. But the first line wondering if it's a UFO (I was reminded of Superman, "is it a bird? is it a plane?") strongly suggest not just any lasagna, but a flying lasagna!
"Which in turn brought to my mind a picture on page 175 of the 'RAW Memes' book, where we see Olga inside a flying lasagna in outer space!
"Conversely, this fake song about UFO made me think of Jim Sullivan's actual UFO song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gH0l7nIMfw0
"Jim disappeared in such sudden and mysterious circumstances that some even wondered if he had not, in fact, been abducted by aliens and his song was more of a premonition..."
Rasa comments:
"Nice poem! And I wonder about the lasagna connection. I don’t know of anyone who talks about lasagna, especially flying lasagna, more famously than RAW. In his last message on internet before he died he said,
'I don’t see how to take death seriously. I look forward without dogmatic optimism, but without dread. I love you all and I deeply implore you to keep the lasagna flying.'
"All my lasagna references are related to that, and his earlier references to flying lasagna. I think his first mention of it officially was in his book, Reality Is What You Can Get Away With.
"Paul Krassner was kind enough to write an article for us that we published at Hilaritas Press.
"When German film maker Maximilian Netter was working on a documentary about RAW, he interviewed Christina, Marlis and me. I made this short video about the lasagna reference."
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