VLVL 4: War, politics and love

[Terrance]

> 
> I don't buy Terrance's claim that "WORK" is the only theme in the novel. 

It's not the only one. 

>I think there are many themes and details in the book worth discussing. 

Me too. And I'm not limiting my posts to Work. 


I do think the later labour stuff from the '30s and the Hollywood
blacklist era
> is interesting, but I think that the description of characters' work in
> these early chapters is a pretty standard way of introducing them, and that
> it's used by Pynchon structurally to get characters from one meeting to
> another and to introduce a range of locales.

I disagree. 




> 
> Another interesting thing in this chapter is the way that just about
> everyone seems to be busy snitching on everyone else. Van Meter manages to
> locate Zoyd yet again, even though he's almost hiding; everywhere Zoyd goes
> people jump for the phone to dob him in to Brock Vond (it's not just his
> paranoia); Zoyd calls Doc Deeply to come and recapture Hector; and then at
> the pizza joint Doc Deeply comes in and high-fives and thanks the owner,
> Baba Havabanada. (Which, by the way, is another really dumb name.)


Everyone is afraid of getting screwed by everyone else. Kinda like they
have to work together but they don't really trust one another. Kinda
like Zoyd and Hector, T & DL and all the other Partners in this book.
hmmmm, wonder why they have to work together anyway?