VLVL (6) Pynchon's parables

[Paul Nightingale]

Well, jbor calling anyone an ideologue is worth the price of admission
alone!

>From Mike Weaver:
> 
> Describing the left as a failure omits the fact it is a continuing
> struggle
> and defining it as a failure in a particular time period ignores the seeds
> sown which will germinate later, the tales and myths created which will
> inspire later generations.
>
 
Yes, it's important to consider ongoing struggle, rather than 'success' or
'failure' as such, and Rosa Luxembourg's comment is pertinent. The question
of agency has been central to social theory throughout the C20th and with
regard to hegemony one can make interesting connections between, eg,
Gramsci, Weber and Foucault, in spite of their apparent, and sometimes
obvious, differences.

In Ch6 Pynchon does address American democracy in terms of struggle and
concessions by the state, ie the state's pursuit of hegemony. One of the
ways in which the two parts of the chapter are related is through the role
of the state, the crimes of which are necessarily masked. One might easily
describe bourgeois democracy as a sham, but the governed still have
expectations of their governors (insofar as those in office exercise power,
which I agree is debatable).

So let's consider the question of government accountability: "... even
charades one day be enacted in which citizens could pretend to apply for and
if found worthy read edited versions of their own government dossiers" (72).
This reference to freedom of information, imbued perhaps with cynicism on
the part of Frenesi, comes in the midst of the Watergate passage (and the
end of "the gilded age for Flash and Frenesi"). And then: "...the Repression
went on, growing wider, deeper, and less visible, regardless of the names in
power ..."

I find it impossible to read and make sense of any of this without paying
attention to the way the text has been constructed. Simply to label (pass
moral judgement on) this or that character is inadequate as a form of
criticism.

The passage, for example, begs the important question: would Nixon's fate
have been the same if such figurehead politicians really were all that
important within a capitalist state? "Nixon and his gang" are sacrificed,
just as Brock Vond will be subsequently, in the name of democracy. Watergate
is clearly a key event (or series of events); it influences the lives of VL
characters. At the same time, "the Repression went on".

At the same time, citizens are turned into voters identified as consumers
armed with credit cards.

The first (overt) reference to "th' Info Revolution" (74, running throughout
the chapter to the night manager's comments on 91) reminds us of Prairie's
comment, "They love it when you owe money" (20), while also introducing the
flashback to Frenesi's childhood and a different kind of surveillance.