High above the L.A. freeways
And the traffic's whine,
Stands the well-known Galactronics
Home of Yoyodyne;
To the end, we swear undying
Loyalty to you,
Pink pavilions bravely shining,
Palm trees tall and true
Thomas Pynchon, The Crying of Lot 49
In Mac Rauch's book, there are not Black and Red Lectroids; the "Red" Lectroids are Lectroids, and the "Black" Lectroids, although black, are Adders. The Adders, an esthetic, sensitive and kinesthetic race, designed and grew the Lectroids to fight wars of planetary defense, but the Lectroids, led by John Whorfin, seized power in a bloody war on Planet 10 (actually a satellite of the binary star Alpha Centauris B). After a fierce battle, freedom-loving forces, led by Queen John Emdall, managed to defeat the Lectroid army, and banish them to eternity in the 8th dimension. Unfortunately, that prison was breached, first by Emilio Lazardo and Professor Hikita, who freed Lord John Whorfin in their ill-fated experiment in Texas in 1938, which caused the rent in spacetime that allowed John Bigbooté and crew to enter via New Jersey under the cover of Orson Welles' famous 1938 Halloween broadcast of "War of the Worlds," [note: a letter, reprinted under "Author's Note" in the back of the book, purports to be from Shapiro Lichtman, Orson Welles' agent, informing Reno at the Institute that Welles "categorically denies any connection with the outer space creatures mentioned in your book. At no time was he contacted by said aliens, although he does not deny the possibility that he was hypnotized and made to do things he was not aware of. Also, Orson would very much like to see any proof you may have to the contrary"] and then by Buckaroo in the JetCar experiment. The Earth is in the way of a galactic feud....
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Much of the structure of belief and morals of the Lectroids is also given. Vegetarianism, art collecting, bathing, and consorting with the "daughters of men" - all these offenses were grounds for the favorite Lectroid punishment: beheading in reverse order; that is, from the feet up...Mac Rauch does quite a number on the Lectroids, basically equating them with a patriarchal mindset of control and belligerence.His language is amusing and subtle. Their lust for "more power", their only fear being ridiculed, their "extraordinary propensity for inflicting and suffering cruelty", the metaphor of "destruction as a form of possession"; Mac Rauch lampoons our basic societal slant. The final conflict between Bigbooté and Whorfin comes as a result of Bigbooté's desire to continue on as the head of a Fortune 500 company with lucrative defense contracts, rather than return to Planet 10 under Whorfin. Secretly, Bigbooté yearns to eat Lord Whorfin's brain and assume leadership of the Lectroids on this planet; by the Oath of the Flying Fish, he swears it will be so...
Lord John Whorfin - execrable
Lectroid Leader
They Are Among Us - John
Bigbooté, John O'Connor and John Gomez
Lectroid life
Interstellar cops on the trail of dimensionus interruptus, the Honorable John Parker, the unfortunate John Valuk and the ineffective John Gant are sent in a thermal pod to deliver Queen John Emdall's message of import to B Banzai...
The Nova Police
Adders
Thermal Pod [hey, what city is
that? For those of you who guessed, "New Jersey", look again.
It's Los Angeles; in this shot, Griffith Park. Yoyodyne
Propulsion Systems is the vacant Firestone plant on I-5, between
LA and Anaheim; The Banzai Institute is a house in the Santa
Monica Mountains (also in "To Live or Die in LA"); Artie's
Artery was The Record Plant in Los Angeles (featured in Sting's
video "Fortress Around Your Heart"); the Team March at the end
was done at the Sepulveda Dam in the San Fernando Valley (this
was also the gates of NY Maximum Security Prison in "Escape from
New York"]
Wonder what the Lectroids are up to now?
Take a peek at Yoyodyne
Propulsion Systems' home page
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