VLVL2 work

[jbor]

on 20/7/03 2:19 PM, Don Corathers wrote:

> Jeez, I thought it was obvious, second time through the book, that if the
> pigeons had had a chance to speak to Zoyd, they intended to tell him about
> the federal task force shitstorm that was about to enter his life. It's a
> little foreshadowing action in the form of a premonitory dream.

Dreams are generally manifestations of the subject's subconscious (unless of
course you're Pirate Prentice and have a "talent" for channelling the
subconscious states of other people). I'm not sure about the "premonitory
dream" idea, but it's a possibility. To me, Zoyd's irritation and uneasiness
in this chapter seem to generate from within himself; he seems to have been
self-involved and distracted lately, which is why he ends up at the wrong
bar, and he is touchy about everything and out of sorts throughout the
chapter.

I've noted the indications in the text that Zoyd is feeling much more uneasy
this year than he ever had before about the "deal" he had struck in order to
keep Prairie. This uneasiness is compounded by off-the-cuff observations
made by other characters, that he "ought to be locked up" (5), that he's on
"governmental business" (8), that he seems to be an "[u]ndercover agent"
(8), and that a DEA field agent is his "old buddy" (10). It's not that he
has suddenly acquired a "guilty conscience", it's that the comments and
assumptions made by those around him, as well as his own conscience, are
starting to bug him.

Perhaps he's just beginning to understand that being a welfare cheat isn't a
particularly noble vocation, and that nor can it really be justified as a
protest or revolt against the government. He's recognising that, under
whatever provocations and threats, he did "sell out" for selfish reasons.
Just like Frenesi.

best

 
> I don't think Zoyd's conscience is troubled at all. Sure he's being
> dishonest with the government, in the same way it is dishonest to try to
> spike your blood pressure before a draft physical or to assure the state
> trooper that there's no reefer in your glove compartment. Less of a lie than
> either of those, really. If Zoyd's disability payment was part of a deal
> with the Justice Department (and I don't remember that it's ever explicitly
> stated that it is--anybody?), it probably came as a surprise to him when he
> got his first notice from the Social Security bureaucracy a year later that
> he was required to demonstrate his continued craziness publicly in order to
> maintain his eligibility. A get-along kind of guy, Zoyd was really just
> doing what the government asked of him.
> 
> It is, just f.y.i., the (federal) Social Security Administration, not the
> (state) Welfare Department, that administers disability assistance. One
> difference is that in order to qualify for a disability check, Zoyd would
> have had to pay into the fund, so it's not quite like being on the dole.
> 
> The Six Rivers Conference would probably be a high school sports league,
> named after the same waterways as the Six Rivers National Forest, which is
> in the neighborhood.