VLVL Frenesi

[jbor]

> Frenesi dreamed of a mysterious people's oneness, drawing together
> toward the best chances of light, achieved once or twice that she'd seen
> in the street, in short, timeless bursts, all paths, human and
> projectile, true, the people in a single presence, the police likewise
> simple as a moving blade -- and individuals who in meetings might only
> bore or be pains in the ass here suddenly being seen to transcend,
> almost beyond will to move smoothly between baton and victim to take
> the blow instead, to lie down on the tracks as the iron rolled in or
> look into the gun muzzle and maintain the power of speech -- there was no
> telling, in those days, who might unexpectedly change this way, or when.
> Some were in it, in fact, secretly for the possibilities of finding just
> such moments. (118-9)

I seriously doubt that Frenesi's meant to be a student of Lewis Mumford,
though I'm open to persuasion. Her zeal and mystical fascination with
"light" characterises her vision as something akin to religious revelation
(cf. 202.4-10), and it sets her up as some sort of false prophet.

The point here seems to be that her idealistic humanism was both instinctive
and sincere. But, as readers, we also factor in the ease with which she was
turned, how quickly these ideals were overwhelmed by Brock and by her own
sexual instincts, and the treachery and negligence wrought as a result.
She's a bit like Weissmann in _GR_ in this respect, and a cautionary fable
against this style of revolutionary idealism.

best