Vineland

[Sean Klein]

I'm new to this list, so please forgive me if this question has come up in the past...

I just finished Vineland (in eager anticipation of M&D) and had a question about the end... (A spoiler comes across the sky...)










Much of the book involves Prairie's search for Frenesi.  A significant portion of the middle of the book is Prairie viewing old 24fps footage, which fills us in on Frenesi's past.  A huge thematic element of the book is television.  It's everywhere.  Yet, when Prairie finally meets her mother, Pynchon treats it very matter of factly -- they meet, they speak for a few hours, Prairie goes to the woods to sleep.  I expected something more.  Something more cinematic, or tube-ematic if you will - background music (by Billy Barf, 'natch) reaches a creschendo, cinematic elements,  something more akin to a 30 minute or 60 minute tv show ending.

So, anyone have any ideas as to why TP handled the meeting this way and not a bit more dramatically?  Most of the book builds up to this meeting, creating (at least in this reader's mind) great anticipation for it.