VLVL Prairie and DL

[jbor]

on 29/10/03 5:10 AM, Terrance wrote:

> 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. 

I don't disagree. It strikes me as having the same tone (whether you want to
call it harsh or gentle or funny or critical or whatever), or combination of
tones, as the rest of the satire (i.e. pretty much the entire narrative)
we've seen so far. Cartoony-sarcastic.

It's a bit like Jess Traverse getting his own legs turned into splinters by
a falling tree after spending his working life lobbying to get more money
for men who chopped down trees for a living (75). Harsh. Ironic. Poignant.
All at once.

And I agree that the little details about Sister Rochelle do add up, though
I don't get the significance of the line about "some distant country notes
that Rochelle was suppressing on purpose, in favor of something more
invisible." (112.4-5) Does it mean that Prairie can detect a foreign accent,
or that she can detect a Tennessee accent? And, whichever it is, why? Or is
it just another piece of information confirming Rochelle as a phony?

I think that Prairie still trusts people (like Zoyd, Isaiah, DL, Sr
Rochelle, the "Zen folks" 112 where she works etc), which is something else
which sets her apart from most of the rest of the characters. And I guess
the reason she trusts people is because she is honest herself, while all the
others (all the adults, anyway) are dishonest and deceitful, and so they end
up mistrusting everyone else on their own example. Prairie's on the verge of
adulthood -- she's street-wise, fresh-mouthed and innocent -- it's her fate
which is the key, and which is left up in the air at novel's close.

best


>>>> 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.