VLVL2 Zoyd's work

[pynchonoid]

--- Paul Nightingale <isread at btopenworld.com> wrote:
>that does make him,
> inevitably, much as it
> pains us to admit it, a welfare cheat.

Interesting commentary, Paul, thanks.

The concept of a "welfare cheat" is not a judgement
that the novel makes about Zoyd -- it comes out of the
Reagan-Bush Administration  (actually, part of that
Administration's broader effort to malign minorities,
especially black, who were assumed not to making the
right sort of contribution to the Gross National
Product), a government that assumes neofascist
proportions in Vineland. Also recall Pynchon's own
distinction between outlaw and criminal, which he 
details in his Stone Junction Intro.  If anybody is
"cheating" here, it's the government which has broken
the rules (i.e., Bill of Rights) in lending itself to
Brock's abuse vis-a-vis Zoyd.

More generally, the concept of getting something for
nothing, getting paid without doing honest work, and
the attendant negative moral judgements, comes out of
the hard-shell Puritan philosophy that, if not an
absolute evil in Pynchon's work, creates many
problems. 


=====
<http://www.pynchonoid.org/>

__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software
http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com