VLVL2 work

[jbor]

> jbor:
>> Taking a dive through a bar window in drag once a
>> year is something *Zoyd*
>> came up with to satisfy the welfare criteria. The
>> government didn't specify
>> this particular manifestation of craziness

on 17/7/03 1:52 AM, pynchonoid wrote:

> But to collect disability payments, the government
> does demand (in _Vineland_ and in the U.S.) that the
> recipient meet the requirements for same.  If the
> claim is that some sort of mental disability prevents
> work (as appears to be Zoyd's disability case), then
> the recipient must show he or she is 'qualified'. If
> you just stop working but appear normal, no payments.

It's pretty much the same here. But are you saying there's something flawed
or immoral in the general welfare principle? That everybody should just be
able to stop work and claim "mental disability" benefits whenever they felt
like it? I don't think that's Pynchon's point, and it's certainly something
I'd argue against.

There are two things which strike me about the scenario Pynchon sets up at
the outset of the novel regarding Zoyd's way of making a living for himself
and Prairie. One is that *in practice* the government welfare system is
corrupt, and Zoyd is exploiting it. The second is that it's Zoyd's reading
of that letter from the Welfare Department which has been presented to us in
the text of the novel: "He understood it to be another deep nudge from
forces unseen, almost surely connected with the letter that had come along
with his latest mental-disability check, reminding him that unless he did
something publicly crazy before a date now less than a week away, he would
no longer qualify for benefits." From this description I do believe that the
disability payments are Zoyd's major source of income, and that he's been
receiving them regularly for quite a number of years, and from the evidence
in the text he's well enough off (owning his own home and car at least) and
scoring a little bit of extra cash with some of his sidelines. But I do
seriously doubt that this is what the letter from the Welfare Department
actually says -- it's the way Zoyd interprets it, it's his realisation of
what he has do ("something publicly crazy") in order to remain eligible for
the benefit -- but the letter itself would, I imagine, be written in
standard bureaucratese telling Zoyd he needs to resubstantiate his
entitlement to the mental-disability claim. Sure, the government agency is
ominously envisaged as "forces unseen", and we do like Zoyd, and he is
portrayed as a sympathetic character in many respects, but there are
anomalies here. As well as wanting to look good on television, he dresses
and coifs himself in a manner "he hoped would register as insane-looking
enough for the mental-health folks" (4.22)

I had the same thought about the 'Zoyd as demented housewife' image,
particularly in the context of the chapter's final analogy where he imagines
himself as a contestant on 'Wheel' (who were usually housewives, certainly
back in the mid-80s at least), and as a "virgin". But it's a little bit
condescending and chauvinistic, either of him or of Pynchon, if that's the
intent behind it, don't you think? And it comes across as more of a
'demented drag queen' act, particularly the way he flaunts his booty up at
the 'Log Jam' (which, even more than the 'Cucumber Lounge', sounds like a
send-up name of a gay bar, much in the manner of the naming of that "More Is
Less" dress shop. In fact, it does seem to have actually turned into a gay
bar, as even fifteen year old Slide knows!)

But, worthwhile thoughts, thanks, and worthwhile thinking about them in the
context of the "deal" which Zoyd had struck with Brock when we come to the
detail of this in the novel.

best

> This is becoming more difficult, of course.  As
> California squeezes its budget, and as so-called
> "normal" behavior becomes freakier (hordes of people
> walking the streets now, for example, talking to
> invisible companions --on cell phones-- makes it
> difficult to distinguish the truly disabled), there's
> less room for the sort of creativity Zoyd displays.
> In California, "circa 2003", Zoyd would likely be
> required to take anti-depressant medication instead,
> one that might dissipate the creative spunk he
> demonstrates here.  (Depression screening at our local
> HMO includes the question, Do you wish to apply for
> disability? )
> 
> Zoyd's dress might also serve as a reminder that, like
> so many men in his generation, he has had to be both
> father and mother to his daughter, integrating both
> male and female aspects.
> 
> Vineland's first chapter also offers a rather more
> disturbing picture of an "unemployed housewife"
> (problematic concept, of course, considering all the
> work that a housewife, or a Mr. Mom, actually does),
> too -- one who periodically unleashes unpredictable,
> violent behavior.  Rather than sublimate those urges
> with passive viewing of a favorite daily soap opera,
> Zoyd shows how a frustrated woman might act them out,
> and become Tube fodder for the rest of the
> viewers/Tube addicts who have, one way or another,
> been rendered incapable of doing anything but
> consuming the images of another's frustrations.