VLVL2(3): Hector's fall

[jbor]

on 17/8/03 12:35 PM, Tim Strzechowski wrote:

> Since we've noted before how Pynchon's narrative voice shifts from that of
> 3rd person omniscient to 3rd person limited, etc., often in the space of a
> paragraph or two, I think it's possible -- very likely, in fact -- that the
> passage in question is conveying Hector's perception of himself.  For
> example, the paragraph opens with a direct quotation from Hector and, using
> Spanish terms, establishes a conversational intimacy with the speaker.
> Later, the voice states "... and if they were waiting for him one time and
> got in the first move, _ay muere_, too bad" (29.24-5).  Sandwiching the
> passage in question between two sentences that clearly attempt to convey a
> direct Hectorian pov adds to the likelihood that said passage is also part
> of that pov.

Yes, I agree. Additionally, of course, the narrator tells us straight out
that "[i]t was the closest Hector got to feeling sorry for himself, this
suggestion he liked to put out ... " (29.15). The narrator details Hector's
feelings (close-ish to "sorry for himself") as well as the fact that he
deliberately "liked to put out" a certain image of having "fallen". And it's
the horrible grin, not what he says just before, which conveys all this
meaning. 

So, backtracking just a bit, Hector asks, rhetorically I think, 'Who was
saved?' No-one, seems to be the implicit response, or that Zoyd was so busy
looking out for number one so how would he even know. But Zoyd turns it
around and says that Hector was "saved". And I guess that inspires Hector's
retort, and then his coming close to feeling sorry for himself and his
conscious affectation of having "fallen", bringing up the point that over
the years he had willingly betrayed his federal commission.

So, is the point here that Hector is "saved" (as well as "fallen") by virtue
of his show of "defiance" against the DEA and the fact that he has spent
most of his time and energy working on scams which are outside the system?

best