VLVL: What troubles Zoyd's sleep?

[Don Corathers]

> If Pynchon's novels have bad guys like BV in them doesn't it follow that
> they must also have some kind of moral yard stick by which such
> characters are said to be bad?
>

Sure. I agree at least in part with Rob that the moral and ethical standards
are brought to the work by the reader. I say "in part" because clearly the
text has some influence over how those standards are applied. That's kind of
the point of the exercise. There is the moral universe that we live in and
there's the moral universe of the novel, and the tension between them is one
of the things that makes fiction interesting.

What I was objecting to was the application of standards to Zoyd's choices
and circumstances that seem to me to be outside the orbit of the text. To
look at Zoyd through a suburban middle class lens and declare him a welfare
cheat and a late sleeper an unfit parent--well, that may be what you see,
but in my view it's not the most important thing the novel wants us to
understand about Zoyd's character.

Don


----- Original Message -----
From: "Terrance" <lycidas2 at earthlink.net>
Cc: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Sunday, September 21, 2003 5:57 PM
Subject: Re: VLVL: What troubles Zoyd's sleep?


>
> >
> > I agree. I guess the only thing I'd contest is the idea that the "moral
> > yardstick is in the text". I'd argue that judgements, "moral" and
otherwise,
> > are (invariably) brought to Pynchon's texts by the reader.
>
> An example:
>
> What reader,  after reading VL,  would not judge Brock Vond's raid on
> Zoyd's house unethical, dishonorable, amoral, and illegal?
>
> Few, if any.
> If the vast majority of readers agree that Brock is a very bad guy,
> isn't it likely that Pynchon created a bad guy in Brock Vond?
>
> I think so.
>
> I think so.
>
>
>
> I think Pynchon
> > pushes the envelope, certainly, and more often than not in his texts
what we
> > instinctively or stereotypically want to feel towards a character or
> > situation is undermined, chipped away piece by piece, as events are
viewed
> > from different perspectives, and as the characters' attitudes and
behaviours
> > are revealed.
>
>
> I agree with this. And we will see, as we read on, that things are not
> what they "should be" or what we would "expect them to be"   if we
> weren't reading this novel for the third or fourth or umpteen time.
> However, I'm not sure that this "pretzelization" (to take s~Z's term
> again) of characters and themes, and the moral ambiguities that are
> created by them,  need become the mirror held up to the reader.
>
>
>
> But the SL 'Intro' is pretty clear in its criticisms of the
> > "hippie resurgence", and it's pretty clear in the way that Pynchon,
> > classifying himself as "post-Beat", distances his own attitudes and
> > experience from it ("the hippie resurgence came along ten years later"
p.9).
>
> And, he also says,  the success of the "new left" was limited by the
> failure of two classes (the college kids & the blue-collar workers) to
> WORK together and communicate. SL.7
>
> Obviously,  I think this is what Vineland is about.
>
>
> >
> > > Why does Zoyd plan to mess  with hard working men at the Log Jam? What
> > > did they do to him?
> >
> > He tells Slide that "window jumping's in my past" (5.1-3); he still
wants
> > those regular disability cheques, of course, and he's still going to
fulfil
> > his part of the deal (i.e. doing "something publicly crazy" each year:
3.11)
> > to keep on getting them. But "this year" he has decided to change his
act
> > for some reason (it's probably tied in with those carrier pigeons in his
> > dream and his general feelings of uneasiness), and so he's going up to
the
> > Log Jam with his chain saw on spec. to try to cause a scene there. He
even
> > called the "local TV station to recite to them this year's press
release"
> > (3.21) and tell them about the change in the schedule. But even fifteen
year
> > old Slide knows he has misjudged the venue and clientele (5.4-9).
>
> Right, all the gin-mills in town have gone new age and yuppie. Zoyd
> thinks that the Log Jam, being far away from the center of town,  will
> still be full of blue collar working class guys. You know,  guys who
> drive pick-up trucks, listen to country music, wear Red Wing work boots
> and Carhart bibs, risk life and limb everyday doing dangerous work and
> go to the bar after the day's work  to relax.
>
> So why does he want to get in a dress and mess with these guys?
>
> These working class guys  are going to be a bit amused,  but pretty
> pissed off too,  by some left-over hippie in drag cutting up their bar
> with a lady's  imported looking chain saw.
>
> That's what Zoyd expects.
>
> But why does he want to piss these guys off?
>
> Why not go to one of the yuppified joints? Hell, he's doing business
> with them. With friends like Van Meter and Ralph Jr., why in world would
> Zoyd go pickin a fight with blue collar lumberjacks?
>
>
> If the Japanese weren't buying up raw lumber, the Cutters and Choke
> Setters wouldn't be driving Lexus and Mercedes Trucks and wearing
> fancy-ass blue suede shoes and Land's End chammy shirts. Their brother
> mill-workers wouldn't be working for Hobbes Tree Service. They work for
> Hobbes because he pays in cash (off the books) and they all have more
> Shylock's on their backs than Venetian dock workers so they need cash.
>
> Zoyd simply doesn't see any of this.
>
> Pynchon sees it. It's Lardass and the Class angle. Loyalties, and where
> to put them.
>
> Zoyd isn't sure what he is, who he belongs too.
>
> VL is a bout a man who can't make up his mind?
>
> He's a walking contradiction. He too works for Hobbes. And he goes to
> Hobbes to get cash.
>
> NO Japanese tree deal, not yuppified Log Jam. So why does Zoyd want to
> mess with the blue collar guys?
>
> Guys would be in no mood to see some left over long hair in a dress
> parading the media around their stomping grounds?
>
> Zoyd sort of understands this but he doesn't really.
>
> But we can't blame this pot head. Can we? He's not college educated guy.
> He's not political. He's not a feminist. He's just another outlaw who
> came riding into town and became a local business man.
>
> Zoyd is sooooo confused. No discipline. No moral heart.
>
> But we don't want Zoyd to grow up. He won't be any fun. Hell, how many
> grown men jump through windows in colorful party dresses?
>