VLVL(5) Why Hawaii?

[jbor]

on 16/9/03 1:11 PM, Toby G Levy wrote:

> I've racked my brains and cannot come up with any reason why Pynchon
> would choose to place one chapter of hid "California" novel in Hawaii.
> Anyone have any ideas?

I don't think there's all that much to it, just a setting. It's a pretext
for Pynchon to use some Hawaii 5-0 and "big kahuna" material, and to get in
his interpretation of "the old Hawaiian favourite 'Wacky Coconuts'" (66) and
that "Little grass skirt" number Zoyd tries to woo Gretchen with, his
"original material" (63).

I guess one thing is that it is the halfway stopover between California,
where we've been introduced to Zoyd's present and past misdemeanours over
the first few chapters, and Japan, which is where a substantial portion of
the upcoming Takeshi and DL subplot will take place. Zoyd coincidentally
meets up with Takeshi as the latter makes his way (it can be assumed) from
Tokyo to LA, and this fortuitous meeting and the business card/"amulet" (56)
he gives to Zoyd on the flight tie the plot and sub-plot together a bit, and
will eventually lead us on into that phase of the narrative.

There's also the fact that Hawaii is, precisely, "someplace far across the
ocean" (3), which is where those carrier pigeons in Zoyd's dream at the
outset were bringing their messages from. As we've followed his progress
over the couple of days of the present time of the narrative each of the
flashbacks which current circumstances have generated has been a reminder to
Zoyd of how he sold out, in one way and another, over the years -- though,
of course, he won't or can't bring himself to admit it. He's been receiving
welfare payments under false pretences for 13 or so years, he's been in
partnership for as long or longer with guys like Van Meter who are in
cahoots with the Mafia and on the take from just about everyone and anyone,
he's a hopeless jerk with women and he dates schoolgirls (54), and he does
business with shady characters like "RC", Blood and Vato, at least one of
whom was working for the Vietcong while serving in Vietnam. At the meeting
with Hector in the bowling alley his memory zooms in -- instantly,
defensively -- on that exact moment when he became an accomplice in the
snitch culture at Gordita Beach.

Now in the Hawaii flashback we get a glimpse of how he stalked Frenesi,
acting like some pathetic creep, "vile-minded", wanking off alone in his
hotel room (60). We also see how quick he is to sell out on his music as
well, going from surf rock with the Corvairs to a "lounge-piano" gig playing
cheesy "Hawaiian tunes" on a Japanese synthesiser (61-2) in under a year.

These are the messages those carrier pigeons were trying to bring to him --
just like Buster and Prairie and Isaiah and Hector and even random kids on
the street have been telling him -- trying to get him to wake up to himself
and accept his share of responsibility for his life as it is. They are the
messages everyone but Zoyd is able to read, and they are messages that come
from those encounters which, in fact, are playing over and over in his mind
every single day.

best