VLVL2 (2): Isaiah Two-Four (prelude to a better post)

[Tim Strzechowski]

I am intrigued by the character of Isaiah Two-Four, and I don't know why.

Is it the irony of that biblical verse namesake and how it contrasts with his ultimately violent notion of a "business idea"?

Is it the underlying sexual tension that opens his conversation with Zoyd, when the father wonders if this kid is "fucking his daughter"?  Does that in any way fuel the little one-upmanship that Zoyd performs on I-24 in the name of a "getting a gig"?

Is it perhaps the little punk-rock band name gag Pynchon gives the reader during the conversation, mentioning bands like Septic Tank and Fascist Toejam and Billy Barf and the Vomitones?

Personally, I like the snippet of conversation, thus:

[...] "I must've meant 'lunch meat' only in terms of our joint strange fate as mortal sandwich, equally exposed to the jaws of destiny, and from that perspective what's it matter, rilly, that you don't care for the musical statements of Septic Tank and Fascist Toejam?" (p. 18)

Aside from the Pynchon-the-doper references to "joint" (18.19) and, later, "token" (18.24), I find this piece of dialogue curiously parallel to the William S. Burroughs / Jack Kerouac conversation that apparently led to Kerouac's naming of Burrough's cut-and-paste "novel" Naked Lunch.  Also, for as much as I-24 *looks* punk, this piece of dialogue is much more along the lines of hippie philosophy than punk sentiment (the punk philosophy is displayed more in the Violence Theme Park idea).

Don't know about anyone else, but I have a difficult time picturing Isaiah as an "NBA-sized" anything.  His ideas may seem big, but the characterization via his dialogue (fawning toward Zoyd, giddy over getting a gig, etc.) in this chapter doesn't quite jive with the way Pynchon describes his size.  Though this is a moot point, I'm sure.



Sorry that these assertions aren't very fleshed-out, and not at all well-supported.  It's been a long day, I guess . . .

Tim



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