Vineland's approach and avoid

[LARSSON at VAX1.Mankato.MSUS.EDU]

Sean Klein inquires:
"Much of the book involves Prairie's search for Frenesi.  A significant portion of the mid
dle 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 Prairi
e finally meets her mother, Pynchon treats it very matter of factly -- they meet, they sp
eak for a few hours, Prairie goes to the woods to sleep.  I expected something more.  Som
ething more cinematic, or tube-ematic if you will - background music (by Billy Barf, 'nat
ch) reaches a creschendo, cinematic elements,  something more akin to a 30 minute or 60 m
inute tv show ending.
 
So, anyone have any ideas as to why TP handled the meeting this way and not a bit more dr
amatically?  Most of the book builds up to this meeting, creating (at least in this reade
r's mind) great anticipation for it."


This is one of the key questions about VINELAND, which in large I believe to
be a thoroughly misunderstood book.  One thing to note about all of TRP's
novels to date is that each has involved a quest--for V., for the Tristero,
for the Rocket--and that in each case the object of the quest is denied.
Stencil never (apparently) finds V., Oedipa awaits the crying of Lot 49--which
may or may not mean anything, Slothrop disbands before finding the Rocket,
etc.  In this case, the quest-object is found, but, Hey!, it's no big deal.
The anticlimax is deliberate, because the real quest for Prairie--as for all
of TRP's other leads--is for something else!

and now to see if that motif mutates in M&D!

Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)