VLVL 4: War, politics and love

[jbor]

>> 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.

on 31/8/03 9:43 AM, Mark Wright wrote:


> There is an incredible book titled "Achilles in Vietnam", by one
> Jonathan Shay MD, about the psychological traumas experienced by many
> vets from many conflicts (but particularly Vietnam) covering the
> phenomenon of the "berserker" at length among other topics. Based on
> what I've seen viz Iraq, our armed forces appear to have absorbed a lot
> from this little book.
> 
> Perhaps RC just can't *talk* about it. Perhaps, at the same time, he
> can *think* of little else. He has become a close mouthed man with a
> "mortally cautious bearing".

It's certainly another possibility. It's true that many returned soldiers,
as well as refugees who have fled from situations of war and persecution,
make a conscious decision never to talk about it, either at all or else to
outsiders, to people who weren't involved in the experience, even though it
is in their conscious thoughts and plagues their dreams every day for the
rest of their lives. And Terrance's point that RC never speaks in the novel
might support such a reading.

But I still get the impression that there's more to it than that, that
they've deliberately tried to conceal their previous identities, to cover up
the fact that RC served in Vietnam, to "erase" their "trail".

There is a surface impression of them as a well-adjusted and happy family, I
agree, and I've always read it that way previously, much as you do below.
But this time around I'm alert to the darker shadows around their situation
which are hinted at in the text. Maybe it's just me.

I think the description of the two of them at the Lost Nugget bar speaks
volumes: RC's "deep eyes" and "mortally cautious bearing that told of where
else he'd been", and the way he "slid back to the bar, dropped a hand on
Moonpie's shoulder that she pressed for a moment with her cheek, and nodded
at Zoyd with a please-don't-piss-me-off look of inquiry." It's a wonderfully
evocative piece of writing.

best
 
> http://endeavor.med.nyu.edu/lit-med/lit-med-db/webdocs/webdescrips/shay942-des
> -.html
> 
> Shay's point of view as a VA clinician gives him extraordinary insight
> into Homer, and Homer gave him insight into the experiences of some of
> his patients. Wonderful book.
> 
> Perhaps the way in which RC and Moonpie, both, have come to a fairly
> healthy functional arrangement with each other and with the world can
> be seen as a personal and even a moral triumph. They are one of those
> rare really hopeful elements in Pynchon, which he seems determined to
> touch upon lightly so he doesn't bruise the fruit for us.