VLVL The Wayvones; drugs

[jbor]

> She's not
>> worried about what you call "the mafia cancer" at all (where's it say
> *that*
>> in the text?),

on 12/10/03 2:01 PM, Otto wrote:

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

No, you were specifically referring to Ralph Wayvone and his business
operations, making a value judgement against them, a value judgement which
isn't supported by the text. The satire directed against Ralph Sr here is as
"gentle" and "funny", to my reading at least, as the satire everywhere else
in the novel. Neither Ralph and his family nor American society are
presented as a "cancerous body" in the text.

> I haven't said a single word about DL.

So? I did, in the post you were supposedly responding to. She's a major
character in the novel, introduced in this chapter. Why shouldn't she be
discussed?

> 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.

He's certainly a long-time user, of grass mainly, but LSD also I think it's
implied. I'd say he has probably been a small-time dealer at various times
as well. But it's beside the point, and you're again arguing against
something I didn't say.

The question I posed to you was, how else was Hector supposed to do his job
and catch the big guys behind the drug trade?

What you had written was: "Hector's a fool for chasing harmless hippies,
turning fools like Van Meter into snitches and paving the way for the really
dangerous stuff and for organized crime to gain ground." It's absurd: you
were trying to blame Hector for the rise of organised crime!?

>> 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,

Exactly. This is what Hector believes. Just like DL, who "objected
philosophically to all drugs" (101.10).

best