VLVL 3 Zoyd and Hector

[jbor]

on 10/8/03 1:54 PM, Don Corathers at gumbo at fuse.net wrote:

>>> 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).
> 
> Actually it was Hector's "long defiance," which is not really the same thing
> as integrity, that was his most persuasive selling point for Zoyd.

It's a type of integrity, for sure. But the more pertinent revelation is
that Zoyd does respect and like Hector for this quality. And the phrase
"selling point" is an apt one, in the context.

>> Man could crush him with just a short tap dance over the
>> computer keys -- why was Hector being so unnaturally amiable?
> 
> It's an excellent question. Zoyd doesn't trust Hector--nor should he, given
> their history. The fact that Hector is described as "unnaturally" amiable on
> this particular day also suggests that while they have a bantering rapport
> at their bowling alley lunch, their encounters are not always so friendly.

I don't think this is the case, and I don't recall any evidence in the text
to support this supposition. "[U]nnaturally amiable" is Zoyd's pov -- and
some of the things which Zoyd says and thinks about Hector are just
"attitude", put-on, a sort of stereotyped script or ritual, and they don't
really correlate with the relationship and interaction which we see -- and
the salient point is that Hector *is* being quite amiable in giving Zoyd
this information. So "amiable", in fact, that Zoyd deduces it as "kindness"
(27.17). Which, in fact, is exactly what it is.

I think there's quite a deal of mutual trust there. The conversation they
have in this chapter is more than just a "bantering rapport". The argument
gets quite heated, quite personal; they're levelling with one another,
getting right down to tin tacks. They trust and respect one another enough
to have it out like this.

>> 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.
> 
> I believe Van Meter is employing irony here.

Sure, but they're all pretty pally with one another just the same: Van
Meter, Zoyd, Hector, Ralph Wayvone.

> Hector's trump card is his badge and gun, and his amply demonstrated
> willingness to bend the Bill of Rights into a pretzel.

He doesn't use either his badge or gun with Zoyd, doesn't need to. His plays
his trump card when he tells Zoyd to "be yourself". And Zoyd knows exactly
what he's saying (30.11-14), no matter how much he tries to shrug it off.

> In context, it's obvious that Hector is overreaching in the pp 302-303
> exchange, trying to persuade Zoyd that he has crossed the line and
> cooperated, to the point that Zoyd wonders if Hector's "running some
> exercise in narc humor for his own entertainment," and asks: "Why this thing
> about popping my cherry, Hector..." I mention this again because clearly
> we're not going to agree on the question of whether Zoyd ever crossed the
> snitch line, and it's a thematically important question. This scene, which
> happens in about 1971 at the end of Zoyd's Gordita Beach days, is as close
> as he ever came.

Since then they've "shared ... parking lots" and "adventures" (25.7). The
relationship has continued over the years, and they know one another's life
story, family, attitudes, interests et al. really well. They're described as
partners, old buddies; it's framed, by the narrator, as a "romance". The
portrayal of Hector in the novel is nowhere near the psychopathic villain
you've been trying to make him out to be.

> Faced with a terrible choice, Zoyd *does* make a profoundly compromising
> decision in this novel, but it doesn't have anything to do with eating Van
> Meter's snitch-money peanut butter.

Play it down as you like. It's there in the text, and it's the narrator's
observation (24.20-3).

> Maybe I missed it, but I don't find any evidence that Zoyd and his
> housemates were doing any serious dealing at the beach house.

So? It's the snitching that's the issue, and there's no reason to doubt
Hector when he describes what had happened to rest of Zoyd's "happy
household" in Gordita (29.4-10). Point is, and it's the same with Frenesi
too, Zoyd doesn't know that all this bad stuff has happened, doesn't even
seem to have cared.

best