VLVL 4: War, politics and love (and work)

[jbor]

on 29/12/03 1:36 PM, Terrance wrote:

> There is no evidence in the text that RC went AWOL, deserted his
> platoon, changed his name because he betrayed anyone or anything. None.

No, but they are all possibilities worth considering. And it is stated in
the text that he and his wife or partner changed their names and have
"erased" their "trail" in the period "since the war". It's worth thinking
about why Pynchon might have included these details, what the reason for
this deliberate change of identity and severing of former ties could have
been. You even posed the counter-suggestion that RC had been in gaol --
there's no evidence in the text for that either apart from the possibility
of a pun on "CAN", but it was worthwhile offering it up for consideration
even if on closer reading other of the possibilities are more supportable by
evidence in the text.

While we don't know what "RC and Moonpie" were like before the war, what
"WORK" they did, or even what their names were, we do know that RC served as
a "bush vet" and (thanks to David) we know what that means. We know they
live on a farm, where they have horses, if not also cattle and crops, "RC"
runs "chores" in a nearby town ("Blue Lake" ?), and that they still hang out
at the Lost Nugget (40-41).

So, reading the book, putting the pieces of the characters' story together,
we gather that some time in or around January 1973 -- not long after "RC"
returned from Vietnam with the rest of the U.S. troops -- he and "Moonpie"
met up with Zoyd at the Lost Nugget in Vineland, which was then a "longhairs
saloon". It's reasonable to assume that on that particular night they didn't
know anyone else in the bar (as "Moonpie", who is "young and lovely", is
alone for Zoyd to hit on while "RC" is in the can, and because of the way
they both behave when "RC" does return to the bar -- see 36.14-18), and that
it is thus an unfamiliar venue for them, an example or demonstration of
*how* they had gone about deliberately trying to "erase" their "trail" since
"RC" was discharged.

He's a recently-returned Vietnam vet in a "longhairs saloon". Think about
it: it's subtle, but there's an incongruity there.

We're told that they'd adopted new identities, and it's worth speculating
about whether their whole hippie idyll in the period 1973-1984, even down to
naming their '70s and '80s-born kids "Morning" and "Lotus", is part of a
charade they've been playing, of a conscious effort they have made to
"erase" their "trail" and start afresh. The kids' names are stereotypes
straight out of the '60s, but they're born in the later '70s and '80s, is
the point there: it doesn't quite ring true. And I can sense a bit of an
edge in the narrator's remark about the business deal the two have cooked up
with Zoyd, the way "RC and Moonpie were as happy to see the *money* as the
kids were to be out doing the *work*." (my emph.)

best