VLVL The Wayvones; drugs

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2003 1:55 AM
Subject: Re: VLVL The Wayvones; drugs


> on 12/10/03 12:17 AM, Otto at ottosell at yahoo.de wrote:
>
> > Prairie doesn't like even beer (101.9-10) and
> > given her critical attitude towards Zoyd's reefer madness I suppose
she's
> > not taking any drugs because of her father's example.
>
> The point the text seems to be making is that though Prairie "didn't even
> like beer" and DL "objected philosophically to all drugs", they both drink
a
> couple of glasses of champagne anyway (102.21). Not quite hypocrisy -- the
> implication is that this meeting has come as a shock to both of them --
but
> certainly ironic. Prairie doesn't bat an eyelid at Isaiah "snorting a
couple
> of lines" with Meathook (104.1-2), and it's obviously not grass he's
> snorting. And Prairie is pretty Tube-addicted, and a bit of a sugar fiend
> too it seems. DL hates Brock, but she is pretty close to Ralph Snr and is
so
> trusted by Ralph and his cronies that she even gets to grab one of the
> security guy's Uzis and belt out a tune at the wedding (104-5). She's not
> worried about what you call "the mafia cancer" at all (where's it say
*that*
> in the text?),

It's my interpretation of the text, how the American society is presented to
us in the novel. A cancerous body.

> and she doesn't care about Ralph's accommodation with the
> "Republican Justice Department" either. Her hatred and persecution of
Brock
> is directed towards him as an individual; it isn't a political stand at
all.

I haven't said a single word about DL.

> And how else is an honest cop like Hector once was going to be able to
find
> and prosecute the main players behind the drug cartels if not via the
> network of junkies and small-time dealers?

As the "Blow"-summary says the former dealers were turned into pushers by
the connections they've made in jail. At the time Hector began chasing Zoyd
there were no big cartels in the marijuana business. No word of Zoyd being
member of any drug cartel. He's neither a junkie nor small-time dealer.

>And what about Hector's
> get-rich-quick "movie scheme":
>
>      ... which th' ultimate message will be that the real threat to
>     America, then and now, is from th' illegal abuse of narcotics? (51-2)
>

That's Hector's opinion, maybe to justify his job, but it's surely not
Pynchon's. The only thing he said about drugs in his own voice I remember is
that he called marijuana a "useful substance" in the SL-Intro.

> Though over-long, the Johnny Depp movie _Blow_, based on a true story,
might
> be tangentially relevant at this point.
>
> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0221027/
>
> Ultimately I agree with Terrance. I really can't see much connection
between
> most of what you've written below and Pynchon's text, however much I might
> personally agree with some of your arguments.
>
> best
>