Absences in VL

[Greg Montalbano]

At 05:00 PM 12/4/98 -0500, Sebastian wrote:
>In the PR(cubed) we have a campus in revolt, not over the War, but, as we
>are told repeatedly, over getting laid, listening to the stereo, weed,
>and--did I mention?--getting laid. 
>But, at this ill-formed stage of my thoughts on the subject, I don't see
>VL's take on this phenomenon as the kind of free and liberatory, though
>absurd spectacle of Athene in full hormonal revolt.  He's giving us, I
>think, an empty revolt, disconnected from any Grand
>Politics--self-absorbed and, in the bad sense, childish.  
>

My two cents worth, as someone who was a young person in (southern, central
and northern ) California at the time the novel takes place:

The first couple of times I read the book, I never noticed the absence...
I'm sure there were people who were vitally concerned with the Vietnam
issue (over and above simple, immediate self-interest -- any of you
youngsters ever hear of "the Draft"?), but the majority of the folks I knew
were attending rallies and SDS meetings precisely for the reasons stated
above;   the paragraph below struck me intuitively as an absolutely perfect
summary of the situation at that time:


>"Brock Vond's genius was to have seen in the activities of the sixties 
>left not threats to order but unacknowledged desires for it. While 
>the Tube was proclaiming youth revolution against parents of all 
>kinds and most viewers were accepting this story, Brock saw the 
>deep . . . need only to stay children forever, safe inside some 
>extended national Family."
>