VLVL2 The Return of Weed Atman

[Toby G Levy]

Much has been stated about the Toyota in the treetops, but the
surreal-ness of the scene lies not in the fact that the Toyota is up a
tree, since Pynchon clearly states that a car had "gone off a hillside
road and was now in the top of an apple tree in the orchard just below."

The truly surreal part of this episode is the statement made by the
driver of the vehicle.  I haven't noticed anyone talking about his
statement which was:

"I'm a pilgrim...who's taken ten years of your time just to get this far.
 The network has been buzzing, like, 'for a while' with stories about
this karmic adjuster working out of Shade Creek, who actually gets
results? I've come to ask him to take my case."

Unlike the other Thanatoids in the book up to this point,Weed Atman is
clearly dead.  The other Thanatoids might be dead, but could be thought
to be "like dead, only different" in that their lives are over except for
the all consuming desire for revenge on real and assumed wrongs done to
them in the earlier parts of their lives.

But in accepting the character of Weed Atman ten years after his very
certain death, we have to come to a decision here.  Are we to assume that
Pynchon wants us to believe that in the context of the novel people
return from death to seek revenge?  That ghosts exist on the same plane
as the living and interact with them?  Then Vineland becomes a fantasy.

On the other hand, could it not be that the story that Takeshi and DL are
telling to Prairie is the fantasy.  That they are describing the
resurrection of a memory of DL's dead comrade and not the resurrection of
the person himself. This interpretation is much more satisfying to me.

Toby

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