VLVL 4: War, politics and love

[jbor]

RC, like Blood, seems to be a Vietnam vet:

       RC and Moonpie, real names left back along their by now
    erased-enough trail since the war ... (35.25)

    ... RC emerged from the can, with the deep eyes, the mortally
    cautious bearing, that told of where else he'd been. (36.14)

NB also 38.18-20, reiterating Pynchon's antagonism towards *American*
politics (i.e. Democrat *and* Republican) and warmaking, and racism towards
African-Americans.

Zoyd really does miss Frenesi and wants to know where she is and how she's
doing (pp. 39-40), despite the show he put on for Hector in the previous
chapter. And note also how Zoyd defends Hector to Moonpie:

       "Rill unhappy dude, is all." (41.14)

And Moonpie's response to this.

Interestingly, when Blood and Vato speak, they address themselves (eg. 45.2
and 45.11). It's rather odd, and I don't think it quite works as a speech
mannerism. But Pynchon seems to have put some effort into coming up with
these accents and verbal tics: the use, by Zoyd primarily, but other
characters as well, of "didt'n"; Hector's accented participles etc. As a
device of characterisation it does makes them sound a bit cartoonish,
perhaps the opposite of what Pynchon was intending.

best