Work

[David Morris]

--- gumbo at fuse.net wrote:
> David Morris:
> 
> > What are "the government's purposes?"
> 
> Sinister, of course. Obviously you haven't been keeping up with Doug's posts.

I assiduously try not to.
 
> > These generalities are not only meaningless and wrong, but they ignore the
specifics of the novel. 
> 
> Sorry, man. I'll try to work harder.

Sorry, too.  But such phrases in the hands of some we'll leave unmentioned
serve to ignore and overpower the book being read.

> Of course they're generalities. I was trying to sketch a system in which the
> government (that would be Hector, Brock, the Vineland School District, the
> Social Security Administration, the U.S. Forest Service, Mr. Ronald Reagan,
> and some other people) might find it useful for the press to concentrate its
> efforts on goofy infotainment instead of examining some of the things its
> various agencies, bureaus, departments, task forces, sewer districts, and
> other appendages are doing. Part of that infotainment is provided by Zoyd,
> who as has been noted, is working for the government when he plunges through
> glass.

Essentailly you're saying that "the government" has coopted the TV for the
purpose of distraction.  I don't buy it, not that in might not be a part of the
schema of the book.  I think more specifically it's Brock's way of displaying
his superiority by yearly forcing Zoyd's (a 60's remnant) public humiliation. 
Although at this point it seems the celebrity status bestowed via the power of
TV has given this humiliation some side-benefits.

David Morris



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