Children of the Revolution?

[The Great Quail]

Rob writes,

> It's possible to read it either way, as I said. However, if we do read it as
> "The Man", then it's ironically undercut almost immediately when we witness
> the actual relationship which Hector and Zoyd have. As they greet one
> another it's almost affectionate, even comradely ("He and Hector exchanged
> the briefest of thumbgrips." p.11)

Yeah, totally! Zoyd and Hector really seem to...well, *like* each other.
They are both veterans of an old cultural war, comfortable in their roles,
even though they have become a bit weary, and those roles have become eroded
by the soft corrosion of irony. (I remember attending a debate in the
mid-1980s between G. Gordon Liddy and Tim Leary. They really seemed to have
a bizarre affection for each other, too.)

Actually, Hector is my favorite character in Vineland, and he's certainly in
my top five favorite Pynchon characters. (Dixon, Roger Mexico, Hector,
Mason, Benny.)  

I am in agreement with Rob here. One of the reasons I love Vineland so much
is the maturity it shows in its critique of the left and the right: Pynchon
treats both sides to satire and criticism; gentle, compassionate, or
unflinching as needed. It's less "us" vs. "them" and more a farce of
positions. The characters are all aligned in a mutable field of power
dynamics, and "us" and "them" seem more relative than in GR. After all,
Hector is hardly a tyrannical force of evil, and even Brock in the end is
just a player with an inflated sense of importance. And of course, Frenesi
was something of a  traitor, and Prairie reaches out to Brock....

I think in terms of portraying the complex nature of humanity, Pynchon's
work keeps getting better and better. Though in saying all of the above, I
don't mean to imply that Pynchon is not Leftist; of course he is, and his
novels certainly take a moral stand against the abuse of power. I think he
just becomes more understanding about the actual humans who wield it.

--Quail