Vineland Questions

[Mark Wright AIA]

Howdy
--- "Tim S." <dedalus204 at mediaone.net> wrote:

> 1.  Throughout (Vineland), Takeshi's dialogue is punctuated by long
> dashes, a'la Emily Dickinson.  Could this be Pynchon's way of trying
> to
> reproduce on the written page the badly synchronized dubbing of
> Japanese
> films (i.e. mouth movements that never match the words that we hear)?

That's how I read it. The Text wears a cosume, sort of... Here it is a
character in absurd all-but-offensive drag, just as the Komical
Kamikazis Takeshi and Ichizo, among others, are presented in GR.  In
Mason & Dixon, the whole text, and perhaps the narrator, is in 18th
century drag.

> 
> 2.  The recurring image of Frenesi's camera / lens is often offset by
> the repeated image of Brock's gun / penis.  Although BV's gun / penis
> are often described in typically "penetrating" and intrusive terms,
> Fresesi's camera (or its lens), in contrast, has a vaginal quality,
> as
> it *receives* the outside images, a "gathering in" (195) of that
> which
> makes up the subject of the 24fps documentaries. (snip)

She and her camera are presented as passive/agressive instruments, and
ultimately as ineffective.  Does this make them Vaginal or Feminine? 
She and her camera are juxtaposed against that Ninja chick, what's her
name, who is presented as an "agressive/passive" agent, and is
ultimately more effective in opposing Vond despite her failure at an
outright assassination.  (That Vond is a Tricky Dick, of sorts, isn't
he?)

> 3.  What are your interpretations of the Dream of the Gentle Flood
> (256)?  Could the Gentle Flood represent the Tube (with Frenesi the
> dreamer soothingly watching the scene before her, aware of the
> time-lapse and "wonderful song" throughout)?  Does it represent the
> American Dream (with it's sense of false security and ultimate loss)?
> It's such an enigmatic passage, like Melville's "Try-Works" chapter
> in
> _Moby-Dick_, that it seems to defy any solid interpretation for this
> reader (of course, it coulda just been the wine I was drinking). What
> do
> you make of it?

I'll have to go back to this passage again!  Now, what wine were you
drinking?  What, where was I, uh, who? what was that perfect
combination (...)?
Mark

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