VLVL(6) Ch 11 Commentary

[Peter Petto]

This chapter is where the bad news gets worse as portents of the worst that
is yet to come abound. It's one thing to know that your Mom was pals with a
bad guy. It's another quite grueling thing to witness the gory details.

It starts with a miracle. In the most unlikely place, the multitudes are
awakened. Although the hero is reluctant, he does the right thing and leads
the people to the truth for which they have long hungered. Weed is anointed
with charisma, a divine favor, the ability  to perform miracles. His
central miracle is a kind of protective buble he exerts that magically
allows PR^3 to thrive.

This positive modelling that Prarie gets to see is quickly shattered when
she discovers that her Mom is not only consorting with the enemy, but
headed toward the role of Judas. My grandfather came to the US from
Germany, and I've talked with relatives and friends there about the trauma
they experienced when discovering their parents' WW2 activities. This
revelation seems very similar to that, and in this sense is an extension, a
personalization, of some of Gravity's Rainbow's themes. I know it's a
cliche but there is a lot of the "I have seen the enemy and they is us." to
this book. I think there are stages to letting some of this stuff into your
heart that following this sequence: (1) humans have done what!? (2) my
parents did what?! (3) I am human, my parents made me...I am capable of
this!? (4) I have done what!? Part of it is being able to see the
consequences of one's acts and desires.

I don't understand why, but I want to like Frenesi. I think I want her to
be good, somehow, just as much as Prarie probably does. But as I watch the
films it brings an old question to mind. What do so many women see in
creeps? Here's Frenesi, drawn to Brock, loving him, serving him, knowing
all the time that he's a creep, imagining that her devotion will have a
transformative effect on him. And she's no oddball in this respect. There
are countless titles at the bookstore that extend her "sleeping Brock"
ruminations over thousands of pages. And they sell quite well. But this
conversation she's having with herself, it just baffles me.

It's easy to see that Brock is a creep. But I think Weed is a junior creep
despite all the signs that indicate that he is blessed. To me, Mr. Math is
a public-key algorithm, a one-way function. He enjoys others...at his
whim...and then gives little or nothing in return. What draws all these
women to his Caring and Warmth weekends? It passes my comprehension, and
thinking about it just leaves me frustrated.

I'm a little confused about the surfers at The College of the Surf. They
seem to be a group distinct from the students. Why is the place naming a
plaza and a lab after Dewey Weber and Greg Noll, if it finds surfer culture
to be so seedy?

Brock sending a message to Weed through Frenesi, made me remeber all the
dish about JFK communicating(?) with Sam Giancana through Judith Exner. Of
course that would put Weed in the mob, and that's Ralph Wayvone job here.
Maybe it's a crooked parallel?