VLVL2 Preliminary: The Epigraph

[pynchonoid]

> "Every dog has his day,
> and a good dog
> just might have two days.
> -- Johnny Copeland"

Who's the dog?  Depends on whether or not you're
talking about good dogs or bad dogs.

The epigraph is also worth reading together with the
Emerson quote in the novel that talks about evening up
the scales of justice.  Quoting some previously-posted
info about this proverb:  "Thus the saying is usually
taken to mean that even the most lowly person will at
some time get revenge on his oppressor, no matter how
powerful the man may be."  Thus Zoyd might be
considered a "good dog" .

Brock Vond is a bad dog in Vineland who doesn't get
"two days" -- second time around, he doesn't get the
neo-hippie chick to yield to his manly neofascist ways
the way the mother did.

Pynchon waxes lyrical (and comedic) about dogs in
_Mason & Dixon_, which he was also, apparently,
working on while he wrote _Vineland_. 

Meanwhile back at the _Slow Learner_ intro (the
reading of which was unfortunately ditched in favor of
a Nabokov novel), P makes it clear he still likes rock
and roll, which may account for his choice of a song
featuring this proverb.

Gives me the shivers just thinking about it...






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