VLVL Prairie and DL

[Terrance]

jbor wrote:
> 
> 
> >> 113-4. Not sure. Pynchon's reference to Frenesi's "legal history with the
> >> DMV, letterhead memoranda" recalls a couple of the items which eager critics
> >> have acquired to try and find out more about Pynchon's own personal life.
> 
> on 28/10/03 1:15 PM, Terrance wrote:
> 
> > At one point Prairie thinks that it's kinda like a scrapbook that
> > someone's eccentric hippie uncle might keep, but she discovers that its
> > more than a mere scrapbook. Is it an obsession? Whose? Kinda like
> > Hector's obsession with Frenesi and film? Is it an addiction? When  DL
> > was younger she was in it for the action, the ass kicking, kinda like
> > her father ... she drank ... took drugs ... was street wise ... Maybe
> > The Hunchback can tell us more.
> 
> I don't think that DL has been amassing the computer file on Frenesi because
> she seems genuinely shocked when she first meets Prairie (100.10), so I
> think it's safe to assume that she hasn't been keeping tabs on Frenesi "over
> the years". After Prairie logs off the info in the computer which becomes
> the narrative pertains to "the two women ... of this photo" (115.24-6), and
> we end up finding out more about DL than we do about Frenesi anyway. It's
> too early for the Internet. Dunno ... Sister Rochelle certainly seems to
> know that the info on Frenesi is there ... what "Hunchback"?


I don't think DL has been collecting the material on Frenesi. The
Sisterhood has. Why? Business purposes. Their collection, like the files
that Frenesi's former 24fps pals maintain and store, are valuable. They
maintain them for the same reason that Hector wants to make a film
starring Frenesi (Herstory). 

WORK is a political and personal mesh. 

Notice that Prairie thinks or imagines, "IT WASN'T POLITICS" top 115 


The characters define each other: master and slave / slave and master. 

DL is as hung up on Frenesi as are Zoyd, Brock Vond, Hector ...so on. 
Of course, all these obsessed '60s people looking for Frenesi are made
to look obsessed next to Prairie's Quest. Her quest springs from
something young and healthy and their quests are old, tired, sick,
decadent. 

The entire Sisterhood thing strikes me as far more insidious than some
run down self-help resort. I don't agree that the satire here is gentle.
It's harsh. Prairie can deal with it like she can deal with the trees,
she's a California kid and she digs vegetation. 

Sister Rochelle and DL are not able to take control of Prairie. And
that's what they want to do. They want to bring her inside the daisy
chain, into the business, and put her to WORK for them.  

As you have noticed, the young girl is very smart, together, not in need
of a master, not oppressed by the Patriarchs in her life ... and not
looking for enlightenment. She's simply looking for her Mother. 

These old ladies are out of touch. Hell, how are they going to run a
business if they can't relate to their clientele?  Cooking? Yeah, a
financial disaster for a French Kingdom in Hugo's novel, but that's
Mildred Pierce. This is the 80's, girl,  we don't do lunch in Betty
Crocker's kitchen. Prairie can run circles around these older folks.
Hell, she works for a phony running a Zen Pizza palace where they sell
sewer caps covered with grass and call it healthy pizza. She's a working
class teen and she knows how to WORK. Yeah, you gotta love this kid. She
can see right through all the fakes ... Moonpie and RC ... and still dig
the kids who have to carry those silly names around. 

Prairie may not be able to see Sister R in the shadows, but she sees the
middle class attitude, the business coffee cup, hears the suppressed
country accent, the cigarettes and alcohol  in the voice box straining.
Sister Rochelle is another fake, a phony. 

Prairie ain't goin for it (112). 

And they know it.