VLVL2 (2) Not-digressions

[Paul Nightingale]

Ch1 ends with Zoyd contemplating Hector's arrival on the scene;
similarly, Ch2 ends with him anticipating their lunch-date the following
day. Ch2 is therefore a digression of sorts, just as the TV movie is a
digression: Zoyd has gone home expecting to see himself on the news, but
has to wait. Thinking of Hector on p12, "Zoyd could feel another hustle
on the way". The scene with Prairie is a prologue to the appearance of
Isaiah and the attempt, by both P and I, to hustle Zoyd. He responds
with a counter-hustle of his own, which briefly raises his spirits
before his thoughts return to Hector. Hence the scene with Prairie is a
digression: one, however, that introduces the (counterfeit) made-for-TV
movie.

When Friday the 13th is cited, it functions as an example of popular
culture; more than that, it introduces what Fisk called "the cultural
economy of fandom", the playful appropriation and transformation of such
cultural artefacts. VL incorporates both that film and associated texts
(eg Psycho): the novel, at the level of narrative, plays with such
references, pretty much as Prairie does, within the narrative. To speak
of fandom is to acknowledge that the film-text is incomplete without its
appropriation and transformation, its reauthoring by fans, beyond the
nominal text itself.

But what is the function of the TV movie? The narrative associates
Prairie with CB, or PZ-as-CB, or both. But the TV movie delays the
moment when Zoyd will watch himself on TV: the text refers explicitly to
this, although they still have to wait "till it was time for the kissoff
story". Hence at the moment when the novel introduces TV, it offers the
possibility of an endless flow of recycled stories: miss it now, catch
it later. Channel-hopping (p15) offers an alternative take on the same
story, even if, by this stage, Zoyd has been gradually distanced, or
alienated, from his own performance, something he now hardly recognises.
Here, ownership, or the authoring of the image, has been appropriated by
TV, the coverage and packaging, and then the 'expert' commentary.

But what is the function of the TV movie when it appears on p14? Well,
the window-jumping act in Ch1 is juxtaposed to the mediated version on
TV: a kind of before-and-after comparison is encouraged by Zoyd's
recollections on p15. The TV movie (as a digression) therefore plays a
similar role to TV commercials: part of the TV-text but separate from
the segments on either side.

And why is it counterfeit? Because the TV movie announces itself as
counterfeit, as not-cinema. Films are transformed when they appear on
TV: scanning, editing to fit the time-slot available, commercial breaks,
voiceovers, etc. Something that 'doesn't belong' has to be made to
'fit': it has to be disciplined. Hence the TV movie attempts to erase
any distinction that might be perceived between TV and cinema.