VLVL 4: War, politics and love

[jbor]

>> Then he wouldn't be labelled a "bush vet". And the name change and covering
of their tracks wouldn't
>> have occurred "since the war" but "since he went AWOL".

on 30/8/03 12:04 AM, Otto wrote:
 
> I don't see the logic in this. If he went AWOL he has a damn good reason not
> to tell this to anybody.

It's got nothing to do with logic. It's the way it's written in the text. If
he was a draft dodger or a deserter then he wouldn't be described as a "bush
vet", he'd be described as a draft dodger or deserter. The text tells us he
was a "bush vet", that he and "Moonpie" changed their names and actively
"erased" their "trail" over the years since the war", and that he first
appeared on the scene in Vineland on the night of Zoyd's divorce, which
times it somewhere around January '73, which is when the US troops came home
from Vietnam.
 
>> Arguments about the Vietnam War aside (and I probably agree with most of
>> what you say on the subject above), I'm interested in what's going on in
>> Pynchon's text. I think you can read this detail about RC and Moonpie as a
>> sellout in one of two ways. Either RC sold out on the '60s by going to
> fight
>> in Vietnam and not becoming a conscientious objector like many of the
>> anti-War counter-culture boys did,
> 
> Only if he had went to Nam deliberately, or, which is more likely, he'd been
> sent there without thinking too much in advance, then saw what was really
> going on (contrary to the lies spread by the media) and began making up his
> mind.

Possible I guess, though there's nothing in the text to substantiate it.
What I'm interested in is analysing the details which *are* presented in the
text. For some reason he has changed his name and worked to erase his trail
after returning from the war. That's what we're given. No going AWOL, no
being tricked into signing up, no change of heart.

>> or he sells out on the rest of the troops
>> he fought beside by returning and changing his name and trying
>> to hide the fact that he *was* a soldier in Vietnam.
> 
> That's no sell-out but a personal decision not to kill innocent Asian
> villagers anymore, stop being part of a genocide I would accept as very
> honorable.

No, you've misunderstood me. He has returned with the troops he fought
beside but actively dissociated himself from them, tried to pretend he never
fought in Vietnam, that he was never a soldier like they were.

>> The point remains that RC and
>> Moonpie *have* changed their names and "erased" their "trail" since the
> war.
>> One way or another they are trying to cover up their identities, their
> past;
>> they are ashamed of what RC had been. It's the way Pynchon depicts their
>> consciousness of having sold out -- either way -- which is interesting in
> a
>> thematic sense.
>> 
> I still don't see the reason for shame in this.

I think that one of the themes of this novel (and it ties back to the "we
are They" theme of _GR_) is showing the level of complicity which ordinary
people have in perpetuating corrupt power systems and inhuman situations,
how by looking out only for themselves they sell out on others in the
community or society, and the way that those in positions of authority will
manipulate this innate selfishness or instinct for self-preservation. It
seems to me that "RC and Moonpie", like Van Meter, Frenesi, Zoyd and many
other of the characters, provide us with yet another example of this.

> Zoyd's "jobs" are part of the old network that still works in 1984. The
> warning he receives from Blood is a friendly gesture.

Sure, but Blood is yet another example of a sell-out, as Terrance has
already alluded to:

    Zoyd knew that long ago in Saigon, Blood had more than once heard
    this warning from elements of the Vietcong in whose interest it
    was to keep him alive and in business. (45.4)
  
This tells us that during the Vietnam War Blood was working for the
Vietcong, the enemy. His Vietcong connections had warned him when to stay
away from "the base", because they were going to launch a guerilla assault.
The American soldiers there would be killed as they slept. And it tells us
that "*Zoyd knew*" this about Blood.

Van Meter doesn't tell Zoyd it's not Hector but Brock who's out to get him
(41-2), but Blood certainly makes it clear that it isn't Hector (45.1-4).
And Zoyd calls Doc Deeply again (49.30-32) *after* he knows for sure that
Hector isn't the one who's staking out his house.

> Zoyd's call to Doc Deeply is pure self-defense.

Sure it is. He wants Hector out of the way. Hector's been following him
around (with a business deal, info about Frenesi, and to warn him about what
Brock's up to), and Zoyd wants Deeply to lock him up in a cell. Real nice.

The reason Zoyd feels "like shit" (45.13) is because he knows that it's
*not* Hector who's out to get him. But he still snitches on Hector.
 
best