VLVL2 (9): Summary of pp. 130 - 153 (part 1)

Tim Strzechowski dedalus204 at comcast.net
Sun Nov 2 22:39:02 CST 2003


First, let me dispense with the obligatory link to the "Babies of Wackiness" website in regards to this chapter:

http://www.mindspring.com/~shadow88/chapter9.htm


For the summary of this section, I defer to Doug's fine summary of this section of the chapter, first posted back in November, 1998:


Spiritual seeker, ninjette, lady asskicker Darryl Louise Chastain begins this cascade of nested narratives and  flashbacks at the Sisterhood of Kunoichi Attentives, the Esalen-like retreat in the hills south of San Francisco, on the way to Silicon Valley, as she tells Prairie the story of how she met Takeshi Fumimota.

Ralph Wayvone, a California Mafiosi with deep connections to the Japanese Yakuza, had become a "groupie" (130.8), tracking (he keeps a file on her) DL's development as a budding martial arts star on the low-rent end of the circuit.  The Way V. One (rhymes with Obi Won?)  extends to DL the opportunity to use her Vibrating Palm or Ninja Death Touch -- one of the techniques for preterite assassins she learned from Inoshiro Sensei -- to fulfill her years of revenge fantasies by assassinating Brock Vond, whose
involvement in the war on drugs, following his successful "war against the lefties"(130.31), has by now become an annoyance to "some dear friends of" Ralph's (130.32).

DL resists a transient temptation to accept, realizing that "one unfelt touch to the correct piece of Vond anatomy could commit her to a major redirection of her life", and chooses instead -- she thinks! -- to keep her moral virginity. She flees, leaving "the last of Ralph's tails" (132.33) near but not going down Drain, Oregon. She abandons the heroic "Superman" role for the "Clark Kent" life (133.30) and hides out in Columbus, Ohio, where she haunts shopping centers and works a typing and filing job at a vacuum cleaner parts distributor, until Ralph's has her Shanghai'd to Japan.

On the auction block with other white slaves spanning a Genders and races Rainbow, DL finally yields to her inner exhibitionist until Ralph outbids the rest and purchases her for about the "sticker price of a Lamborghini plus options" (139.18).  To a medly of 50s love songs, the dapper, Cary Grantesque Way V. One woos her with sweet talk, 70s' pop-psychology insight, and an offer she can't refuse -- a job with the corporation
employing her deadly skills once she offs Brock. DL accepts and they seal the deal with a "night and a day of jackhammer sex, amphetamines, champagne, and Chaliapin Steaks ordered up from Les Saisons" (140.1).

Wigged, cosmeticized, miniskirted, and otherwise disguised as Frenesi down to a pair of blue-tinted contact lenses she will later come to suspect were last worn by a dead woman, DL waits at the Haru no Depaato whorehouse for Brock Vond to show up.

Abruptly interrupting DL's recollection of these events, Prairie voices her growing suspicions that there is more to the Frenesi-Brock Vond relationship than Zoyd and Sasha have previously revealed, realizing she's been lied to. DL equivocates -- "I never could figure it out either, kid." (141.11), then continues remembering how she waited to kill Brock, wondering "if this was all supposed to be some penance, to sit, caught
inside the image of one she'd loved, been betrayed by, just sit . . . Was it a koan she was meant to consider in depth, or was she finally lost in a great edge-to-edge delusion." It's unclear if DL speaks of these doubts to Prairie.


continued . . .
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