VLVL 3 Zoyd and Hector

[gumbo at fuse.net]

Says jbor:
 
> 
> I'm sure we can discuss it further when we get to the actual scene in the
> reading,

Right. It's very difficult to stay out of the backstory, though. 


>Pretty thoughtful that.


It's true that Hector is consistently ingratiating. I read it as part of his tradecraft--a technique for working Zoyd and his other marks. He's a Nazi corporal with a heart of gold, but he's still a Nazi corporal.



> And all in all it's a pretty funny scene with that "herbaceous polyhedron"
> (295.25) too.

It is.

> 
> I don't buy this idea that Hector "has changed over the years", or that
> that's the intent of the portrayal. He's gotten older, more rebellious, put
> on a few pounds, watched too much tv, found God, sure, but he's always
> played it straight-up with Zoyd as far as I can see. He's no more able to
> prevent that marijuana obelisk set-up than Zoyd is, and it was probably far
> better for Zoyd and Prairie that he was the one forced to make the arrest
> than some other less sympathetic and potentially more heavy-handed cop.
> 
> Hector sincerely believes that drugs are a blight on society, and that's
> where he has always come from in doing his job as a DEA agent.

This *might* be true, but I'm not sure how you're measuring Hector's sincerety behind that ambiguous menace-and-benevolence pachuco schtick he affects.  

 A
gree or
> disagree with that opinion as you might, the text itself doesn't condemn him
> for holding these beliefs at all. Even in trying to maintain a place for
> himself and a livelihood for his family making anti-drug propaganda in the
> new Reaganite dispensation, or when he was following those "orders from
> above" to try and keep his job under Nixon, he's holding true to his
> scruples. In Chapter 3, which is what we're ostensibly discussing, he's
> actually trying to send a little extra cash Zoyd's way as well.
> 
> I understand why you would like Hector to be an outright bastard and Zoyd a
> totally innocent victim;

Actually, I just don't think they come as close to sharing the same moral territory as you seem to. The fact is Zoyd is a victim and Hector a predator. I also don't think the text is quite as silent on the question of who is on the side of the angels as you suggest it is. But, as you say, we'll have plenty of opportunities to kick this around as the reading progresses.   


the fact that it isn't like this makes the novel
> far more interesting than it would otherwise have been imo.

No argument there.

D.C.