VLVL [8] When BV possessed her

[Meg Larson]

Doug offered:


>Many facets of Frenesi, the several ways we see that she looks at the world
>and she seems to become more complex the closer we look. Not a bad reminder
>that Mr. P., despite the frequent rap to the contrary, consistently creates
>wonderfully detailed, substantial characters.  A key to Frenesi, IMHO, is
>that she seeks elevation above this plane of spoiled, compromised existence
>-- she's got to be at the barricades helping to move society to a new and
>higher plane, high on revolutionary daring, danger, and paranoia, as a film
>maker lost in the light that tugs at her mystically (the way it drew her
>father) until she sees a chance to rise above all that -- at the same time
>she comes to see the futility of the Movement and the chaos it's tending
>towards -- in Brock Vond's underground above and beyond the law where she's
>welcome so long as she yields to his will.  Add sex and drugs, which also
>represent ways she can rise above this plane of mundane, preterite toil and
>trouble (she will blame her fall on her own weakness for hot sex with
>Brock, p. 260, , then on the drugs they force on her, p. 260-261), it adds
>up to a powerful web of forces pushing and pulling Frenesi. She chooses the
>feel-good route, chasing the false hope of some kind of escape or
>liberation, life on her terms instead of on life's terms, and leaves her
>past behind. She shows loyalty and allegience only to herself -- she
>abandons her child, after all, a cardinal sin for a female character and
>not so pretty in real life either for any parent to abandon a child even
>when you can see the mitigating factors --  misguided though she may be in
>her choice of means to produce the ends she seeks.
>
Me:
As much as I respect this interpretation of Frenesi, I am very hesitant to
romancticize her to this extent.  I am not so sure that she is looking to
elevate herself above this spoiled, compromised existence, and I don't
really think she really wants to be at the barricades of anything, other
than her own (selfish) desires.  In fact, while she may indeed be more
complex than first glance, she also seems that shallow, to go whichever way
the wind blows; Brock can't "possess" her because she doesn't even "possess"
herself.  For your consideration:

"Doubly frustrating because she [Sasha] was furious as hell wth her
daughter.  Frenesi's involvement with Brock, politically, was appalling
enough, but she'd also once again failed to take care of business, and Sasha
was as angry as she'd ever been at Frenesi's habit, developed early in life,
of repeatedly ankling every situation that it should have been her
responsibility to keep with and set straight.  Far as Sasha could make out,
this eagerness to flee hadn't faded any over the years, with its latest
victim being Zoyd" (58.30-37).

It's kind of hard for me to see this romantic version of Frenesi, for the
simple fact that every time the going gets tough, she splits, or tries to;
there's nothing noble in stirring things up and then splitting before the
shit hits the fan, and there's certainly nothing noble in blaming everyone
and everything else for her "weakness."  She plays the victim, yet fails to
see the extent to which she has victimized others.  She loves being at the
center of the action, but she never wants to see it through, never wants to
deal with the consequences of those actions.  Drugs, sex, Brock--all means
of escape.  F, in my not so humble, seems more interested in the chase, and
being chased, than anything more selfless, more elevated than that.  I think
it was the eloquent Chris K who said that with F., there's less here than
meets the eye--and in spite of Doug's equally eloquent "defense" of F, I
still agree with Chris--Frenesi's a total shit, no matter how we cut and
dissect her.

A while back we were discussing whether or not we'd hang out with Zoyd at a
party, and I'd rather hang out with a lovable loser like Z than a predator
like F, and in one way that's how I see her--predatory, mindlessly devouring
people in her path and mindless to the consequences of the things she sets
in motion.  Early in the novel, Z says "[b]ut what hurts . . . is how
innocent I thought she was . . . I wanted to wise her up, at the same time
protect her from ever knowin' how shitty things could get" (42.5-7).  So, in
this regard, I have to agree with Doug that F is more complex than the
surface, but only because she let Z think it was she who needed protection,
when in fact, it was he who needed protection from her.

> Interesting to
>see Mr. P. put a dentist in this role, working for a character, BV, that
>Pynchon associates with Nazi SS officer, animal predator (raptor),  child
>molester, on top of the normal dose of villainy that comes with the
>prosecutor territory. On the lighter side, Elasmo is such a goofy name,
>plus the "credit dentist" associations that Paul has mentioned -- P's
>having fun with this one.
>
>Olivier in "Marathon Man"--"is it safe yet???"


Not trying to start anything, Doug,
M.