VLVL(6) Ch 11 Summary

[Peter Petto]

This chapter is almost entirely a blast from the past. Only once, for a
moment, are we reminded that this is Prarie learning about ground zero,
approaching what more and more is seeming like a moment of great truth and
revelation.

We begin on campus at The College of the Surf, a conservative institution
(almost Neanderthal, it's building a Nixon monument), in the heart of
conservative southern California. But it has been infected. Oh, there have
always been the surfers on the beach, undesirable, but clownish enough to
deflect fear.

The cause isn't clear but suddenly, almost instantly, everyone is enjoying
marijuana. How could this happen so fast? Were these innocents all that
innocent? This event is presented as a true miracle. The original joint
multiplies both in number and potency, and the multitude is awakened.
Others bum out, or view the enchantment as bewitchment. The police are
called in, lots of them, from far and wide -- and the battle lines are drawn.

This chain of events thrusts a certain mathematics professor, named Weed
Atman, center stage. He's something of a cipher: already enjoying a
personality cult among the students despite the fact that he is neither
charismatic nor personable. In the midst of this confusion and turmoil, now
escalated to eager flesh-handling and head-banging by the police, Weed is
one thing more,-- he is tall.

Atman starts spotting for the crowd, and right away everyone is following
him. "Follow this big dude!" He is the chosen one. He leads...to safe haven
in an off-campus apartment where the secret truth behind the war in
Vietnam, Trotskyist thinking to the left of Ho Chi Minh, and other
recondite and possibly forbidden knowledge is available. But once arrived,
Weed is back to milling around absorbed by the beat of rock and roll music,
much to the chagrin of apartment-holder and true believer Rex Snuvvle.

Although the uprising could have been easily squashed in a matter of hours,
this does not occur. (The miracle continues?) An indifferent Weed finds a
junta formed around him. In this new environment the emptiness of ignorance
is discovered and a lust for information arises. There is a tidal wave of
real round-the-clock research. It turns out that The College of the Surf is
not an institution of learning at all, but a land developer's elaborate
scam, soon to become cliffside vacation units. The kids would have it
otherwise, and in the name of the people, a new nation is declared: The
People's Republic of Rock and Roll.

24fps rolls into town to document it all, but subversion is running both
ways. Frenesi's affair with Brock is now full flower. Up front we are told
that Brock is getting copies of all of Frenesi's film footage, although he
is not paying her (only the lab costs). But he's also beginning to direct
the shots....

Frenesi is also attracted to Weed, clear to 24fps, Prarie, and surely
anyone watching the rushes. She was prone to crotch shots of him, synching
her zoom to the throbbing omnipresent music. The faith and joy of the
uprising, and the sense of liberation is also evident to Prarie
invigorating as well -- as is the many evidences of societal opposition.

As Weed receives political charisma we also learn about his many past
personal entanglements suggesting that he has long had sexual charisma. In
his wake is a string of girlfriends, ex-old ladies, an ex-wife, and a
couple of kids. And he is able to magically conduct love-feasts attended
and enjoyed(?) by this ever-growing retinue. The women are shown conversing
at one of these, empathizing/commiserating with each other and their shared
relation with Sorcerer(?) Atman.

Frenesi is shown jet setting to the heart of American for sexual liaison
with Brock Vond. Their trysts occur in the waterbed suite of a hotel by the
Oklahoma City airport. Intertwined with the encounter we witness is a lot
of weather imagery. A big storm is coming, and before long it will be here.
Brock wants to test bomb PR^3 with money, he expects that they will self
destruct as the squabble over it. 

The storm is arriving and the television imagery is confounded with an
evangelical preacher promoting a Federal Department of Jesus with a
Secretary of Jesus, and more. Frenesi wants the TV off and Brock continues
the religious vibe, mocking Weed, comparing him to Christ.

We learn that Frenesi has also written a report for Brock, it's more than
film. And like the storm, it feels like it soon will be much much more.
Brock says he has been using Frenesi as a messenger to send his scent to
Weed tucked in her vagina. Brock says he wants Atman's spirit. And he
continues to goad her until she finally retorts. He has been pushing her
and pushing her to -- well it's not clear *exactly* how -- to take care of
Weed. The result of what he's asking is clear: Weed will be gone and PR^3
will fall apart. (Apparently Brock believes that his money bomb won't work
with Weed around, because he is too innocent, because he lacks ambition.)

The chapter ends on a chilling note. As Brock sleeps, Frenesi is musing
about her uncontrolled river of a life. She imagines a better Brock,
perhaps a Brock that still could be, one who could be redeemed by her love.
As she leans to whisper to him her heart's overflow, he is not asleep.

He is the wicked Brock: watching her every impulse, using them to
manipulate her, and now laughing at her.