VLVL(7) one more thing

[Terrance]

dedalus204 at comcast.net wrote:
> 
> Of course the violence theme park is silly.
> 
> It may be a great idea, and Isaiah 2:4 may argue its plans convincingly, and it may even strike readers as being quite plausible, but plausible only in a fictional world.


It's a fictional world we're talking about. 

Zoyd doesn't  understand I-24's plan. I-24 is a pretty smart kid, good
with words, tolerant, savvy, street smart and sensitive.  Take a look at
his job description on page 97. 

"I'm a precessions person, my job..." 

Person! 

Notice that I-24 is not the son of Jacob that Paul Nightingale depicts
in his gendered post-realist reading. And. although he is a musician 
now working for Ralph he is clearly not the son of Job (Zoyd,
schlemiel/schlimazel--he's both-- figure in this book) either. 

He's a sensitive kid, like Prairie (a good match these kids make), I-24
is real smart. 
Notice that on Page 75 I-24 is the linguist on the band. That's a big
plus in this Vineland world. 

If there is any hope at all in this world of Vineland the Good it is to
be found in Prairie and I-24. But the grown-ups keep fucking things up.
The best introduction to VL is Pynchon's best and most important short
story,  "The Secret Integration." 

One more thing, in My Left Foot, Christy Brown says, 
"For Da,  life was a soft-shoe shuffle tap dancing in the dark looking
down at my left foot like an amateur."