VLVL2 (9) ruff Looks and rough glances

[Tim Strzechowski]

Good stuff, Sir Terrance.

>
> 1. In every chapter of VL, the characters (Characters can be human,
> human-terminal or human-reverse-terminal, animal, machine,
> inanimate-anthropomorphic) use body language, facial expressions;
> signals voiced and unvoiced intonations, etc., to communicate.
>
>
> Zoyd and Desmond
>
> For example, in Chapter One (page 4) Desmond gives Zoyd "an inquiring
> look."   Zoyd meanwhile, is "shaking his head" and complaining to
> Desmond because he can see the chocolate crumbs on Desmond's face and he
> knows that Prairie fed the dog his Count Chocula breakfast. As Zoyd
> leaves the yard, the dog wags his tail "to show no hard feelings."
>

Absolutely!  And one of the many things that this novel can be said to be
"about" IS communication itself, especially when its 1984 time period can be
associated with the "beginnings" of the Computer Age (maybe not the internet
per se, but definitely the early rumblings of data cards, PCs, etc.).  Ways
in which characters communicate -- notes and phone calls, looks and voice
phrasings, word-of-mouth and business cards, even stories about the past and
vintage films and TV shows -- all contribute to a network of communication
that may (or sometimes may not) reach its desired reader or listener.  Hence
...

>
> 2. In every chapter of VL characters communicate and watch other
> characters or themselves with the use of technology.
>
> In Chapter One Zoyd wakes up and reads a note from his daughter Prairie.
>
>
> "Dad, they changed my shift again, so I rode in with Thapsia. You got a
> call from channel 86, they said urgent, I said, you try waking him up
> some time. Love anyway, Prairie." (VL.3)
>
> We notice several things here.
>
>
> Notice that Prairie uses an ancient communication technology (writing)
> to transcribe communication via modern technology (telephone).
>
> After reading the note, Zoyd picks up the Telephone (a communication
> device) and calls the TV station (producer and transmitter of images). A
> TV Station is produces and transmits  television broadcasts,. Their
> business is the transmission of visual images of moving and stationary
> objects, generally with accompanying sound, as electromagnetic waves and
> the reconversion of received waves into visual images.
>
>

I mentioned earlier in the group reading that "missed communications" is a
big part of this novel, and this chapter is further evidence of that notion.
Mistaken identities (BV/Takeshi and DL) and conspiratorial situations (take
your pick, really) are the result of situations in which characters either
misunderstand or misjudge an event or piece of dialogue, and even the
incidentals within the narrative (references to Clark Kent and Superman,
false appearances as BV and DL, the mystery of the animal footprint, etc. in
some way or other loop back to missed communications and erroneous
interpretations.