VLVL2 (3) A Finesi Romance #1

[jbor]

on 12/8/03 8:50 PM, Terrance at lycidas2 at earthlink.net wrote:

> There is no reason what so ever to connect this five-spot to a fatal
> glass of beer in a WC Field's movie. Moreover, Fatal doesn't mean first.
> We are told that it wasn't the Last, but we are not told that it was the
> first. What is fatal about it?

It's "fatal" to Zoyd, not to Van Meter, because it's the very first moment
his innocent view of the way of the world was shattered, placed in a
compromising position because of the snitch relationship he witnesses
between Van Meter and Hector (and whether or not it was the first time for
Van Meter -- I think it's pretty clear it wasn't -- isn't really important).
>From that "fatal" moment on Zoyd's had to battle with his own conscience as
well as everything else.

Speaking of ideological bias, Paul N's elaborate critique of those Sylvester
and Tweety cartoons, with all that stuff about Granny and the cage (what
about the bulldog, Buster wasn't it?), well-written and entertaining as it
was, had little to do with Pynchon's text. More often than not Tweety was
out of the cage when the actual chaser and "chasee" stuff was happening,
which is Pynchon's referent in the chapter. And I think Granny only ever
appeared in a handful of episodes.

best