VLVL 4: War, politics and love

[jbor]

Terrance:

>> And, the Vietnam Vets in this Chapter are Vato &  Blood. Remember those
>> guys? What kinda business were they doing in Vietnam and why did the
>> Vietcong support it?
>> 
>> That's the Vietnam connection in this chapter. Not RC.

Not quite. NB also the direct reference to "War in Vietnam" in the
description of Zoyd's wedding:

    Everything in nature, every living being on the hillside
    that day, strange as it sounded later whenever Zoyd tried
    to tell about it, was gentle, at peace -- the visible world
    was a sunlit sheep farm. War in Vietnam, murder as an
    instrument of American politics, black neighborhoods torched
    to ashes and death, all must have been off on some other
    planet. (38.15)

Point being, they weren't.

The Vietnam War is quite prominent throughout the novel. In this chapter the
mentions of both "RC" and "Blood" being in Vietnam, and allusions to their
respective experiences, bookend this narrative interjection.

best