VLVL - Frenesi's Inscrutability

[Doug Millison]

I like David's notion in this post and specifically here,

>For Prarie the questions seek after the formation and reconciliation of
>her own
>identity.

Prairie's search for Frenesi is not unlike the struggle many of us go
through to understand who are parents are; whether they are present or
absent, they remain mysterious and essentially unknowable the more we
search and seek to understand them; growing older and reaching some
tentative understanding of the depths of our own selves can make others
seem even more ineffable. Given VL's dedication, "For my mother and
father", I wouldn't be surprised to learn that a search for an
understanding of and reconciliation with his own parents had something to
do with Pynchon's motives for writing this novel.

Frenesi's choice to do what she does with Brock is impossible to
understand, and it is the motor that drives VL. In this sense, it is not
unlike the action that sets in motion Jose Saramago's novel _The History of
the Siege of Lisbon_, where the main character  acts in a way that is
totally out of character and impossible to understand in the context of his
previous actions -- but out of it Saramago develops a wonderful fiction
that I'm recommending to everybody these days.



D O U G  M I L L I S O N  [http://www.online-journalist.com]
Never get into a stinking match with a skunk.--Cowboy philosophy