VLVL2 (4) Erasing the past (still a Finesi romance)

[Terrance]

Just because children appear to be or are in fact happy doing a job
doesn't mean that the adults (even when the adults are their parents)
who employ them aren't exploiting them. That's what the Law that
protects children says. 

Child Labor Laws make use if the Interstate Commerce Laws. 

States make their own law. 

In the State of California, children under 12 are not permitted to work. 

Children under 12 may work on the family farm provided they work only
for their family. 

If, however, a parent for which a child
works is deemed to be an employee of another entity, then the minor is
likewise an employee of that entity and subject to normal child labor
limits. 

Every owner or operator of a farm in California who employs any parent
or guardian with minor children in immediate custody is required to post
a notice, in English and Spanish, stating that minors are not allowed to
work on the premises. 


Baba Havabananda is night manager of the Bodhi Dharma Pizza. 
Is Prairie working the night shift? 
Or is she working the day shift and the night shift? 
Why has BH, the saintly manager, changed his name?  
Business purposes? 


The novel opens in the summer. Lots kids get summer jobs. 
The novel opens with Prairie note to Zoyd telling Zoyd that her  Shift
has been changed Again. Notice that the first Frenesi Chapter opens with
her between shifts thinking about Prairie. In her fantasy Prairie is not
working. Well, not for money. 

Follow the prostitutes in this novel. They work for cash, off the books. 

Restaurant workers need to be flexible, Shifts changing all the time,
never knowing what next week's schedule will be. 

When Zoyd gets to the Pizza place, Prairie is on a
meditation break so it looks like her employers are letting her take the
break the law provides her. Will be interesting to compare her work
conditions at the Pizza place with the work conditions at the the
Retreat. 

Regarding the protagonist Zoyd,  I tend to read P's novels as Quest
novels.  Prairie is the Quester who picks up other questers along the
way. The objective of her quest keeps multiplying and shifting. Of
course this is what happens to Slothrop. To Stencil and Oedipa, to Mason
and Dixon. Ultimately, like Dorothy, she is looking for home.