VLVL2(3): Hector's fall

[Dave Monroe]

Good question, depends on just whom you (more or less)
attribute the following to, I suppose ...

"Grinning--a stretched and terrible face.  It was the
closest Hector got to feeling sorry for himself, this
suggestion he liked to put out that among the fallen,
he had fallen further than most, not in distance alone
but also in the quality of descent having begun long
ago concentrated and graceful as a sky diver but--the
tostada procedure was minor evidence--he growing less
professional the longer he fell, while his skills as a
field man depreciated."  (VL, Ch. 3, p. 29)

Of course, Pynchon wrote it, but whether or not it's
an authorial, authoritative comment is another thing
entirely.  I tend to read this as more or less such,
as a comment on Hector, and more How He Is than How
Zoyd Sees Him.  "Put[ting] out that among the fallen,
he had fallen further than most, not in distance alone
but also in the quality of descent" et al.   Which, as
Wm. Loman demonstrtes, need not be very far.  But a
description of how Hector sees himself, rather tahn
Hector seeing himself, which might be another thing
entirely.  Constructed in mythic terms,
self-constructed in mythic terms, even, but not
necessarily mythic himself?  Something like that. 
Seems to me that this whole "Who was saved?" bit is
Important ...

--- Tim Strzechowski <dedalus204 at comcast.net> wrote:
> 
> Is his "fall" "mythologized"?  By whom?  Hector? 
> Pynchon?

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