VLVL The Wayvones; drugs

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 12, 2003 7:05 AM
Subject: Re: VLVL The Wayvones; drugs


> > 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.
>

If you can't get that out of the text it's sorry. There's an implicit value
judgement in the text about the way America honors big criminals and
prosecutes those you've called "petty thieves" in some other post.

> > 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?
>

Because her story comes later in the reading.

> > 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.

You've said:

"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?"

Hector was chasing after Zoyd, again and again. So I assumed you meant Zoyd
being part of that "network" you were referring to. Is there any textual
support for the allegation that Zoyd sold dope?

>
> 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!?
>

Yes, I do blame the prohibition and prosecution for the change in the
business from grass to hard drugs. The movie "Blow" seems to indicate that
too, and it's the reality I've seen too. It is precisely what happened after
the end of the Vietnam War. The fairytale of the gateway drug, erasing the
difference between grass and hallucinogens on one side and hard drugs on the
other paved the way for the latter. Small dealers go to jail and get out as
junkies.

> >> 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

But DL doesn't prosecute other people who have another opinion. And Hector
doesn't object philosophically. There are far more differences than
similarities between them. He's a cop and she's an outlaw.

Otto