VLVL2 (3) A Finesi Romance #2

[Paul Nightingale]

The flashback runs three pages (22-25) and offers Hector, in Ricardo
Montalban mode, trying to write, ie produce, a narrative that features
Zoyd as snitch. Sylvester's writing efforts involve a narrative
landscape in which his assault on Tweety is no longer transgressive
because 'part of nature' or part of 'the natural order': to 'give in' to
one's 'natural urges' is to invoke a state of affairs in which one
doesn't have to give in and might therefore resist such temptation.
Hector's own narrative landscape, one he can read quite easily, unlike
the Casbah, is one in which Zoyd gives in, or succumbs to his advances;
this in turn will confirm Hector's own status as a cop, as a law
enforcement officer.

In the first paragraph (22) Hector refuses to accord Zoyd any moral
integrity: before taking this judgement at face value, however, we
should juxtapose Hector's response to Van Meter's "corroborating detail"
(24) to his subsequent "frustration" when Zoyd refuses to play ball.
>From his appearance in the doorway (22) to the moment when he takes Van
Meter (24) Hector is shown to be in control of the situation, perhaps
even threatening. This idealised self-image breaks down subsequently
(24-25) as Hector starts to lose control. His "furious" outburst, aimed
at Zoyd's refusal to be a snitch, in fact guarantees Zoyd's integrity
insofar as this, as a personal characteristic, becomes significant
within the narrative. Hence the key point, within the narrative, isn't
that Zoyd "was content to go on eating the groceries" etc; but that he
"failed to inform". In the opening paragraph, remember, Hector is
described as "obsessed": in other words, when Zoyd doesn't snitch,
Hector is the one who has "failed", Sylvester-like.

At this point, the frustration in Hector's voice extends to "everything
about this Gordita assignment": the "Casbah topography" then becomes "an
architectural version of the certainty, the illusion, that must have
overtaken his career for him ever to've been assigned there in the first
place" (25).

>From this one might reasonably infer that Zoyd's refusal to snitch is
central to Hector's self-image, his view of himself as an agent. We
might also conclude that Hector's frequent attempts, over the years, to
turn Zoyd are an attempt to recover (ie represent) the moment (perhaps
imaginary) when he (thought he) was in control of the situation. Just as
Sylvester's assault on Tweety's cage is an attempt to turn back the
clock to a time when cages didn't exist. In the flashback passage Van
Meter appears quite stupid, less aware than Zoyd: is this also part of
Hector's fantasy, that he can easily outwit dopers? Being a cop, with
all the state's resources on his side, he's obviously superior? His
'assault' on Zoyd (28-29) is way over the top, and quite unnecessary if
all "you sixties' people" were as inept and easily taken as Van Meter.
Methinks the Man protests too much.