VLVL 3 Zoyd & Hector

[jbor]

Apart from detailing and exemplifying the symbiotic relationship -- and
friendship -- which has developed between Zoyd and Hector over the years,
the chapter continues to foreground that tension between the way Zoyd thinks
(and has thought) of himself, or the way he would like to think of himself,
and the way he is seen by others and by the narrative agency.

Throughout the chapter narration switches back and forth between Hector's
pov, Zoyd's, and the narrator's. Right up front we get Hector's baseline
judgement of Zoyd's character:

    Not that he credited Zoyd with anything like moral integrity
    in resisting him. He put it down instead to stubbornness, plus
    drug abuse, ongoing mental problems, and a timidity, maybe only
    a lack of imagination, about the scale of any deal in life, drug
    or nondrug. (22.5)

It's not necessarily a reliable assessment, but it's not totally
discountable either, and that last observation seems especially insightful.

Flashback to their first meeting and we are told how Zoyd "stood trying to
understand" (23.2) what was happening, and then he further displays his lack
of understanding or innocence as both Scott Oof and Van Meter do their bits
with Hector. 

Made suddenly aware of the snitch culture operating out of the household
(and it's more likely that "[t]hat fatal five-spot" at 24.12 refers to the
moment when Zoyd first realised what was going on, Van Meter seeming to be
well-acquainted with the system), the narrator notes that

    Zoyd, to be sure, made a point of never pocketing any of Hector's
    PI money personally, though he was content to go on eating the
    groceries, burning the gas, and smoking the pot others obtained
    with it. (24.20)

The point the narrator makes here is that Zoyd certainly lived off the
proceeds of the snitch culture operating out of the house, and that he had
done so knowingly since observing the exchange of that "fatal five-spot"
between Hector and Van Meter.

Switch to the present time (25.8) and Zoyd's still trying to justify
himself, to himself as much as for Hector's benefit I'd say. As they rib one
another about messy food habits the narrator provides us with the
information that the two of them had "shared, maybe not many, but still a
parking lot or two, even some adventures therein." (25.27) So, never a paid
snitch, but .... That "technically" (12.32) is looking more tenuous by the
minute.

Zoyd meditates on Hector's career, how he had resisted moving into a
bureaucratic office job, and the narrator remarks that "[f]or Zoyd, a
creature of attitude himself, this long defiance had been Hector's most
persuasive selling point." (26.2)

Then comes the main subject of conversation; first, Hector's information
that Frenesi was scheduled to be taken off the Witness Protection Program
(26-7). A link is made between the snitch culture, of which both Frenesi and
Zoyd were a part, and the Mafia (linking in also with the Wayvone wedding
gig Zoyd sets up Isaiah with at the end of the previous chapter.) The
question begged here is whether there are any real distinctions between the
way the Mafia operates and the way Zoyd and his cronies operated.

Next comes Hector's request for "help" from Zoyd in keeping tabs on Frenesi
(28-9), which is where Zoyd refers to the deal he struck with Brock, and
comments sarcastically about the "twelve, thirteen years" of Republican
government as "a world record for fascist regimes keepin' their word."
(28.7)

There follows the "Who was saved?" conversation, where Hector notes the fate
of Zoyd's buddies in their "happy household" (29); Hector's self-conception,
his feelings of frustration and regret, and more of Zoyd's deference towards
him; rising argument, and more clues about Frenesi; and then Hector's
complaint that Zoyd never once asked him about his own wife and kids. (31-2)
Hector's point here is that he has shown more of a real human interest in
Zoyd and his family than Zoyd had ever shown him and his.

As the NEVER brigade storms the cafeteria and Hector flees, Zoyd's very
first instinct is, I think, partly to save his own skin but also partly to
protect Hector:

       Dude in a white lab coat over Pendleton shirt and jeans (?)
    now came strolling in between the two doorpeople, heading for Zoyd,
    who beamed insincerely, "Never saw him before." (33.3)

Chapter ends, last sentence oddly undeveloped.

best



on 8/8/03 12:12 PM, Tim Strzechowski at dedalus204 at comcast.net wrote:

> "to be sure, made a point of never pocketing any of Hector's PI money
> personally [...] Each time Zoyd failed to inform on these people, Hector grew
> furious [...]" (24