VLVL2 (1): Narrator's Voice

[jbor]

on 16/7/03 5:56 AM, Elainemmbell at aol.com wrote:
> 
> Pynchon's vernacular tone and his hundreds of lowbrow referents read sincerely
> to me and have a more direct narrative function in VL than anything does in
> Pale Fire.

Yes. I think the image which ends the chapter -- Zoyd comparing his
predicament to being a contestant on 'Wheel of Fortune' -- is quite
beautifully done. There's reflexive irony in the way that Pynchon
appropriates these details from a tv game show in such an explicitly poetic
way, and it is certainly a fitting analogy for Zoyd's dilemma: whether or
not he should take the chance, meet up with his "old buddy" Hector, a "DEA
field agent", one more time to hear what the latest "hustle" is, and so risk
being co-opted by him "as a resource". It tells us a bit more about Zoyd,
that he is an avid watcher of lowbrow tv programs, and it ties in with the
image which opens the chapter, his dream of "carrier pigeons ..., landing
and taking off again one by one, each bearing a message for him, but none of
whom ... he could ever get to in time." (And, of course, the danger for Zoyd
is that, if he does take that next spin on Fortune's wheel he might just
land on the "Bankrupt" wedge, and end up having to sacrifice his "virginity"
and become a 'stool pigeon'.)

Pynchon certainly betrays a viewer's familiarity with, and often a truly
celebratory attitude towards, many of the tv programs he references and
parodies throughout the novel.

best