VLVL Frenesi

[Terrance]

OK. I was a bit confused by what I thought was some sort of
philosophical term I was unfamiliar with-- "idealistic humanism."

Yeah, that certainly part of it. What about her vision, the timeless
bursts? Frenzy has an obsession with timelessness. And what about the
projectiles, the blade? How do they figure in her idealistic and
humanistic vision? In what year does Frenesi  meet DL in the Street? Is
Pynchon simply sketching the 68-69 New Left in that super-girl saves
radical photo-girl scene? 


> > Her idealistic humanism?
> 
> Sure. Her vision of that "mysterious people's oneness", of individuals
> "being seen to transcend" and putting their bodies on the line against the
> forces of oppression. As per the quote. The one from Pynchon's text.
> 
> > 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)
> 
> best
> 
> > 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.