VLVL2 (10) The olden days, 198-199

[Paul Nightingale]

(198.28-32) "... carrying Prairie back to and through an America of the
olden days she'd mostly never seen, except in fast clips on the Tube meant
to suggest the era, or distantly implied in reruns like 'Bewitched' or 'The
Brady Bunch'."

What follows is a summary of the footage Prairie watches, ranging from "the
usual miniskirts, wire-rim glasses and love beads" to a range of conflicts
between workers/demonstrators and police/troopers. The "usual" props are
iconic images "of the olden days": both familiar and unfamiliar to Prairie.
The political conflicts are an alternative history. This passage describes
'flow', a characteristic of television discussed in Ch1.

(199.1) "Troopers evicted the members of a commune in Texas ..."

This passage serves to illustrate Frenesi's speech about selective news
coverage: "But to see injustices happening and ignore them ... that's more
'dangerous' in the long run, isn't it?" (195). The speech and the
illustration sandwich the passage describing 24fps, the personalities
involved, the tensions and squabbling, etc. Hence, the satire is contained
by, or circumscribed within, the account of the group's work.

(199.3-4) "...all of which Prairie, breathing deliberately, made herself
watch."

An education in more ways than one. Earlier in the chapter DL juxtaposed
seeing (ie meeting) Frenesi to watching her (194). This passage confirms
that the individual is inseparable from context (just as the representation
of fictional characters is inseparable from narrative context).