VLVL 4: War, politics and love

[jbor]

on 1/1/04 2:34 AM, Terrance wrote:

> RC may be both. But we know one thing for sure, the text tells us that
> he is a Bush Vet.
> Zoyd goes to his farm.

Nowhere does it state or illustrate that he's a veterinarian, and the phrase
"bush vet" is actually in common usage to describe a soldier who saw combat
duty out in the jungles in Vietnam; David and Keith both provided examples.
The accumulation of details -- "bush vet", "since the war", "mortally
cautious bearing that told of where else he'd been" -- make it the most
likely assumption for what "bush vet" means in the context, and I think the
two translators have got it right.

We're told they live on a "little farm" (35.17). The "cattle guard" and
"horse shed" are there, the bathtub "doubled" as a "watering trough", and
there's a "seed, feed, and fertiliser scale" (40-41). So, yes, I think that
they do do a spot of farming, and that the "money" from the yabbie sideline
supplements their income. But I don't agree that it's as extreme a case of
child labour as you say, only that there's a subtle edge to the description,
a reminder that "money" goes with "work", and a statement that money makes
the two adults "happy".

> The look RC  gives Zoyd in the flash back bar scene doesn't tell me that
> he's been in Vietnam, but to prison.  I think the bathroom humor there,
> "in the Can"  is a typical Pynchon pun. There is an on going, gotta
> shit, bathroom, can, prison, joke that follows Zoyd about. In any event,
> I don't think RC and Moonpie are in a long hair bar because they have
> switched sides and RC is ashamed of having been a Vietnam soldier.

I disagree, and I'd say a lot of Vietnam vets didn't go on a pro-war or
anti-war song and dance once they returned either, and for a range of
reasons and personal circumstances. As well as the fact that "RC" doesn't
speak in the text, it's as if their prior lives never existed at all, that
they've only been around "since the war".

The other thing about the scene in the bar is that as well as the menace in
RC's eyes and gestures, there's an element of guilt or self-consciousness in
the way he "slid" into the bar, and there's also a certain resignation in
that "look" he gives Zoyd as well.

best

> This
> explanation doesn't make sense to me because Vietnam Vets returning from
> Vietnam simply didn't need to hide there having been soldiers to join
> the anti-war people. In fact, Vets against the war was one of the most
> powerful anti-war groups. While I agree with Robert's reading of RC, I
> disagree on the details. RC did something. What? We don't know. But he
> changed his name and erased his past. I think he's an opportunist like
> all the other characters in this book. RC and Moonpie is a business
> name. I agree that they name their kids with those stupid hippie names
> because they are opportunists and their potential clients and customers
> are Vineland people who name their kids Prairie and I-24.