VLVL 3 Zoyd and Hector

[jbor]

on 9/8/03 3:37 PM, Don Corathers at gumbo at fuse.net wrote:

> 
> Well, Zoyd's not a psychopath, for starters, and he doesn't manipulate
> people into deals that ruin their lives under the color of law enforcement.

Hector's no psychopath either. Point of comparison is, though, that Dr
Deeply *perceives* Hector as a "Tube-addled psychopath" (and so you're
siding with Deeply, are you? mmm), which is pretty much how Zoyd is
perceived also. Of course, one difference would be that Zoyd *deliberately*
acts the part of a psychopath in order to make others believe he is mentally
disturbed and so falsely obtain monthly welfare payments.

> Hector wants Zoyd to be a tripwire to help him find Frenesi. He's
> asking--not explicitly right now, true, but it's the point of his visit--for
> another betrayal.

Nothing in the text to support this speculation, of course. In fact, Hector
states pretty explicitly that Zoyd doesn't have to do *anything* (30.9-12).

And what, by the way, does this terrible "betrayal" turn out to be?

> Hector doesn't credit Zoyd with integrity because the concept is completely
> foreign to his experience.

Please. It's Hector's integrity that Zoyd respects, his "most persuasive
selling point" (25-6).

> He's probably right about the stubbornness, drug
> abuse, mental problems, timiidity, and lack of imagination, but he's blind
> to the possibility that somebody might decline to participate in one of his
> schemes because of basic human decency.

      Man could crush him with just a short tap dance over the
    computer keys -- why was Hector being so unnaturally amiable?
                                                        (27.14)

Despite what Zoyd tells himself about his relationship with Hector (Hector's
in fact his "old buddy", as Van Meter noted back at 10.10), it's actually
Hector doing Zoyd a favour here, providing an early warning about what's
happening with Frenesi, and about the new government policy.

>> Not sure who you're arguing against here.
> 
> With your campaign to portray Zoyd as a character with a deep moral flaw,
> which began with the pigeons on page 3. I can't find it in the book.

No "campaign", no "deep moral flaw". Zoyd's self-deceit and conflicted
conscience *are* made pretty obvious in the text, however.

> It is Hector, not Zoyd, who keeps coming back.

Zoyd is under no obligation to meet with him:

    Did Zoyd have to show up next day at the bowling alley? Technically,
    no. (12.25)

    Why did Zoyd keep going, time after time, for these oily Hectorial
    setups? The best it had ever turned out for him was uncomfortable.
                                                            (11.18)

> Zoyd is Tweety, the "chasee,"
> and it's clear he'd be pleased if he never had to deal with Hector again.

He'd feel more comfortable if he wasn't reminded about his own past and
compromises, sure. In those cartoons Tweety's twee arrogance and
self-satisfaction are grating -- are *meant* to be grating. Likewise the
accumulated pathos of Sylvester's constant and inevitable failures.

> (Is "one of those gotta-shit throbs of fear" (10) a common response to
> meeting an old friend?) At the end of Chapter 1 we see that Zoyd is being
> worn down--"Zoyd knew that one day, just to have some peace, he'd say forget
> it, and go over" (12)--but he never does.

Of course, he already has, and this is Hector's trump card.

> His relationship with Hector is
> complicated and conflicted. I think Zoyd's state of technical virginity has
> to do with the accommodation he's made to keep Hector relatively calm and
> off his case. 

Zoyd has convinced himself that he's still a virgin, "technically", because
he's never taken money directly from Hector's hand, that's all. He did,
however, enjoy all the profits and benefits of the snitch culture without
any compunction whatsoever (24.21-3). And he did so consciously (24.5-12).

> The only time we see Zoyd actually give Hector any
> information, after being framed with a multi-ton monolith of reefer, it's
> useless (302-303) and Zoyd knows it is, although Hector pretends it's not.

    Cf. "No, no my man but that is exactly the sort of corroborating
    detail that we value so highly." (24.5)

> That would be Hector's take on Zoyd's friends. The fundamental difference is
> that the people who lived on Gordita Beach were victims either of their own
> bad habits or somebody else's malice, while the Mafia, like Hector and
> Brock, is in the business of making trouble for other people.

They cheat and snitch on one another, get other dealers and dopers locked
up, even killed. That's the "business" they're in, too. And if that sort of
thing's not "making trouble for other people" I don't know what is.

best