Vineland

[Greg Montalbano]

>Date: Tue, 29 Apr 97 12:48:44 PDT
>From: seandkle at sybase.com (Sean Klein)
>To: Greg.Montalbano at ucop.edu
>Subject: Re: Vineland
>
>
>Interesting comments on searchers.  You have swayed my thoughts somewhat.
But Prairie was after something much more, uh... concrete, than the others.
V was some sort of ideal woman (if I remember correctly), Slothrop pursued
rumored rockets, and Oedipa was looking for a conspiracy.  Frenesi was a
person that others knew, had on film, had connections with, and these others
were the people that Prairie spent the book with, notably DL and Zoyd.
>
>Also, the everpresent tube is more present during the end of Vineland.  So
why not some Movie of the Weekness?
>

It's generally agreed that TRP enjoys raising more questions than he (or
anyone) can answer -- one of the great attractions of his style that draws
the folks on this list, and seems diametrically opposed to the standards &
conventions of movies of the week.
As for the "everpresent tube" throughout VINELAND, I see it as mainly COLOR;
a touchstone appropriate to the time, place & characters of that novel
(which wouldn't have worked in any of the others).