VLVL2 (4) Off-stage

[Tim Strzechowski]

Good post, Paul.

Likewise, as the focus in the novel now begins to shift from Zoyd to other
characters, the entire notion of "Zoyd as protagonist" will be called into
question.  This is seen most notably in _Gravity's Rainbow_, I would say,
where the focus shifts repeatedly throughout the narrative, but we will also
see it here.

And it's an important shift, too.  In a narrative that deals with
double-crossings and snitching and paranoid situations with the gov't, etc.,
one never knows if one can really trust anyone, least of all a narrator.

Tim


Quoth the 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).
>
>
>