VLVL2 (2) Chapter outline and introductory comments/questions

[Paul Nightingale]

Zoyd arrives home to watch his exploits on television. He watches with
his daughter Prairie. She admires his performance but he doesn't tell
her about the fake window. We are also introduced to Prairie's
boyfriend, Isaiah Two Four, who has been waiting offstage. Isaiah now
tries to persuade Zoyd to help him with a business idea, which
apparently Isaiah has planned in some detail: he wants Zoyd to cosign
for a loan from the Bank of Vineland. Having provided food, Prairie is
sidelined by this discussion. Eventually, catching Zoyd's eye, she
announces that she wants to go camping with Isaiah and his band, Billy
Barf and the Vomitones. Zoyd tells Isaiah that Ralph Wayvone's sister is
getting married at the weekend: perhaps Isaiah's band could provide the
music? Isaiah goes off to find the telephone, which means Zoyd can
discuss the theme-park proposition with Prairie. Returning, Isaiah
announces that his band has got the wedding gig. This takes Zoyd by
surprise, and Isaiah admits they'll have to pretend to be Italian. As
Prairie and Isaiah leave, Zoyd starts thinking of Hector.

The chapter falls into two parts, before and after the appearance of
Isaiah, who has been waiting off-stage. The first part introduces
Prairie and focuses on her relationship with her father. The second part
introduces Isaiah; his attempt to persuade Zoyd to cosign is succeeded
by Zoyd's counter-hustle, sending the boy off to phone Ralph Wayvone
without telling him what kind of gig he's getting involved in.

The first part of the chapter features the TV coverage of Zoyd's
window-jumping; the second part, Isaiah's planned violence center/theme
park. There are references throughout to popular culture, in particular
film and television: the chapter therefore serves as a sustained
introduction to the function of film and television in the novel as a
whole.

Key questions to be addressed might include the following:

1. How does the narrative develop in this second chapter?

2. How does the representation of popular culture develop over the first
two chapters?

3. How might we compare the TV coverage of Zoyd's window-jump to the
'live' event described in Ch1?

4. Zoyd is present throughout: how far does his narrative function as a
character change over the course of the two chapters?

5. How might we compare different characters in terms of their narrative
function?