VLVL2 (10) Brock Vond, cute meet, 200

[Paul Nightingale]

(200.31-34) "Brock was more photogenic than cute, with his buffed high
forehead, modish octagonal eyeglass frames, Bobby Kennedy haircut, softly
outdoor skin. He hadn't seen much of Frenesi's face with the Scoopic in
front of it, but he couldn't have missed her legs ..."

Cf: the earlier summary of to-be-expected images, "carrying Prairie back to
and through an America of the olden days" (198).

Given earlier references to "the ability of close-ups to reveal and
devastate" (195), and "a close-up of a farm employer's face that said
everything its subject was trying not to" (199), we should dwell on Brock's
appearance as "more photogenic than cute"; and also Frenesi's hidden
features, replaced by the camera-as-eye (reminding us perhaps of the robot
fridge, 193).

(201.5-7) Brock: "[All the FBI] care about is identifying faces. I'd want
something a little more," trying not to stare too hard at those noteworthy
legs, "entertaining, guess you'd say."

Simply "identifying faces", it seems, doesn't "reveal and devastate" (195).
So track the changing role of the image. Brock has said: "Ya got me". And
then refers to, and desires, a corresponding "shot of you". Frenesi confirms
the FBI already has her on file, which of course isn't what he means by "got
me". The "something a little more", which will "reveal and devastate", might
be called ("guess you'd say") "entertaining".

Cf Frenesi's meeting with DL, 116. The parallels between the two passages
mean that Brock is being superimposed on DL, just as Prairie has
concentrated on imposing herself on Frenesi's image/representation/memory.
Which foreshadows the end of the novel.