VLVL(6) Children of the Revolution

[Paul Mackin]

> Maybe this is the 'absence' we are being shown, these empty and selfish
> posturings at a time when there *was* actually so much to revolt
> against. There are enough hints and allusions to the farmers' struggle
 > and the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War and the logging of
the
> forests (cf. Brock's magnificent log jam analogy 215-6) in _Vineland_,
> and, yes, I get a sense that the characters (like *us*, perhaps?) hardly
> feel a need to reference these things overtly at all. They are givens,
> so familiar, and once committed to film or myth they become so cliche:
> why waste time on the obvious when we can bicker about protocol, right?

Ah, the posturing. Wish I could get the damn book reread so's to be able
to appreciate rj's post of which I've excerpted one paragraph. It's a
painful process for people who lived through it, even in a
far-from-central position as was my own. Ah, the posturing . . .

Matt's post was good too. Love finding these posts from the other side
of the world in my morning mailbox.

I am not blaming P for my unease. Maybe it's that he's TOO good. Maybe
presentation of the story through the bewildered, betrayed and
slighly-dimwitted-though-with-certain-parenting-skills Zoyd was a stroke
of genius.  Just dunno.

			P.