Dr. Oyswharf
Revision as of 18:11, 30 November 2006 by Pynchonoid (Talk | contribs)
Osywharf carries an echo of "Owsley" - August Owsley Styanley III, described as the "undisputed king of the illicit LSD trade" in Acid Dreams: The Complete Social History of LSD: The CIA, the Sixties, and Beyond, by Martin A. Lee and Bruce Shlain.
Lew's hallucinations after failing to wash his hands recall the legend of Dr. Albert Hofman's discovery of the effects of LSD, after accidentally absorbing a small dose through his skin, according to Lee and Shlain. The "Beavers of the Brain" episode that follows sounds like something out of an LSD trip, those "ever-more-polycrystalline luminosities of meaning" [183].
Osywharf also recalls Osbie Feel, a doper in Gravity's Rainbow.
