VLVL2 (4) Off-stage

[Paul Nightingale]

As in Ch1 Zoyd's pov is both emphasised and, simultaneously, challenged
by important action happening off-stage in Ch4. The function of other
characters, then, is to tell him what he's missing. Moonpie tells him of
Hector at the Lost Nugget (41). He's excluded by the "funny looks" (42)
that (seem to) know more than he does. Then Blood's warning (45) is
followed by the business at the bank (46) and news from Elvissa, via
Blodwen, that cops have taken his pickup (expecting to find him in it -
47). Trent provides more information (48-49) before Zoyd arrives at
Bodhi Dharma Pizza.

The reader must still identify Zoyd as protagonist (although, whether
they identify with him, is another matter). In this, the central section
of Ch4 (40-49), Zoyd is himself turned into a reader gaining information
from a text (ie, the detail he accumulates from what he sees and hears).
Hence, the reader is gradually being educated to accept his removal from
the narrative (at the very least, at this stage, his marginalisation).

Zoyd has been on-stage throughout. In this chapter the action finally
moves elsewhere. In this chapter, as we have seen, his recollection of
past events 'holds up' the narrative, which begins again on 40, and then
again on 42, after the flashback to his scene with Van Meter. In this
section, then, the point of his interaction with other characters is to
emphasise the break with routine, as signalled by the note following
Moonpie's comment about Hector: "Zoyd had only missed him that night by
not showing up at the Lost Nugget, his usual hangout ..." (41).