VLVL2 (4) Off-stage

[Paul Nightingale]

>From Tim:
> 
> 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.
>  
 
In some respects the narrative in GR is quite conventional (if elevated
to the nth degree). Characters and plot-lines take turns, so to speak,
much as they would in a C19th novel. A travesty, yes: but is it so
surprising that, all those years later, Pynchon is actually a better
writer in VL? Arguably, the
narratives-within-narratives-within-narratives structure of the latter
novel makes it, in some respects, more sophisticated than its admittedly
more ambitious predecessor.

The writing in VL, in these opening chapters, is quite beguiling. The
storying of Zoyd's 'adventures' does seem pretty straightforward; what's
interesting, therefore, is the way the narrative undermines itself.

Ch1: Zoyd is out-of-synch and almost misses out on the set-piece action
that has him billed as star performer. Then, Ch2: he fails to recognise
aspects of his televised performance.

Ch3: Hector introduces Frenesi and offers Zoyd a role as player in his
scheme. Zoyd resists but the introduction of Frenesi opens up the text,
in Ch4, to the flashbacks that are informative, certainly, but also
intrusive. By the end of Ch4 there is just no room for Zoyd. Prairie
(the 'next generation') will become the key to history.