VLVL Father of the year

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 23, 2003 3:26 PM
Subject: Re: VLVL Father of the year


> Still not sure about those moral yardsticks, but:
>
>        At first it had seemed like a terrific idea, a perfect break
>     for them both, at a critical time. Sasha had been there too, to
>     see her off on the flight, she and Zoyd handing the half-asleep
>     Prairie back and forth, arms to arms, like a rehearsal of
>     arrangements to come. (56.22-25)
>
> This description of how Prairie gets handed back and forth between Zoyd
and
> Sasha at the airport relates pretty explicitly to Zoyd's sudden change of
> heart and his decision to dump Prairie on Sasha and chase after Frenesi on
> that dodgy red-eye flight to Honolulu. And there is an implication in that
> last clause that this was a common occurrence as Prairie was growing up.
>
> best
>

It has been "one more desperate attempt (...) to save the relationship."
(56.9-10)

It is nothing unusual that a baby goes from one arm to the other, especially
if the persons involved are at the airport, one of the adults is going on a
vacation. It seems very normal to me that Zoyd includes Prairie's
grandmother into her life. The text doesn't say that Zoyd "dumps" the girl.
He's not throwing her on a dump. Of course Prairie has spent time at Sasha's
house, for example when Zoyd was having a gig or doing some other business.
That's the "arrangement" between Sasha and Zoyd and it's a good thing they
both could "work" together, get over their mutual lack of understanding for
each other on behalf of the baby.

Otto