VLVL Prairie

[Terrance]

> 
> I think your argument with some reader's desire for realism is a straw man.
> The "cartoonish" complaint has less to do with realism and more to do with
> depth, which is not the same thing.  VL's characters aren't compelling or
> even very interesting.  They are more symbols than characters, thus their
> "cartoonishness."  Gravity's Rainbow is by no means realistic, but it is very
> compelling with characters that have complexity and depth.  VL just aint no
> GR.
> 
> BTW, I think jbor's observation of the "flippant" tone of the book
> throughout is apt, and probably its real problem.

Pynchon novels are full of "cartoonish" characters. His first Novel, V.,
opens in the sailor's grave on Christmas Eve. Who can object to  Ploy?
But Ploy is catoonish. Ploy sits in his bunk filing his false teeth into
sharp points with a bastard file and then bites people in the ass. In
GR  characters flash in and out of films and paintings and mirrors and
songs. We're not sure if a child was born or if she only exists on film.
And the characters aren't sure if she was conceived on film or off. Weed
as a Thanatoid might have been Prairie. His dream of rolling on steel
rails, supine on a block of ice,  while two figures (some think Takeshi
and DL) keep vigil is no less real than his dead-in-life existence as a
Thanatoid or his haunting Frenesi and stirring up domestic disputes. The
real reason I object to Zoyd's going to the Log Jam is a dress is
because I can't believe he's that stupid. But he is. I can't believe
that Slide is that smart or that I-24 is that smart, but they are. Or
that Prairie would, after DL explains to her that BV can keep chasing
Frenesi forever, say, what, taxpayer's money, not enough real criminals
about. She wouldn't say this and it doesn't even make sense given the
plot thus far. Or when Prairies teen girl friend jokes about Elvis
covering Patsy Kline's I fall to pieces. How old is this kid? Oh come
on. But there it is. So what the hell is Pynchon up to? We know it
doesn't work. But what's wrong with this novel? 
For starters, the flashing in and out of TV land, the curtain flapping
as the little doggy pulls on the curtain while Prairie is still off to
see the wizard and find out what he can and can not do, doesn't work.
When Zoyd is snuffling around Hawaii and the bell hop asks if he's going
to jump off the roof, he says the only thing that has prevented him from
doing a Deleuze is that Dano will show up and book him for suicide one.
Ha!  Ha! Tom. That was a good one. Now take that fucking bag off you
head and put your almost main character Zoyd in it and get out of here.
One guy trying too hard to be funny is enough. And Ralph Jr. ain't
funny. Rilly. 

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