Vineland Page 74

[Terrance]

> 
> Perhaps if you actually engaged with something in the text, or some of the
> reviews, there might be something worth discussing.




                    Eula Becker/--------Jess Traverse
                          /
                          /
                          /
                    Sasha Traverse-------Hub Gates
                          /
                          /
                          /
                     Frenesi Gates-------Zoyd Wheeler
                          /
                          /
                          /
                     Prairie 

Frenesi was not exactly a red diaper baby, but grew up on the fringes of
the political struggle in Hollywood in the 1950s. 

Fights at school. Phone taps. Cars across the street.    Dreamlike turns
of blacklist, graylist, secrets kept and Betrayed, grown-ups acting like
the worst kind of kids, kids acting like they knew what was going on.
Lists of fake names. 

Not exactly the Brady Bunch. 

And Frenesi hated it. What kid wouldn't? Seems a very normal reaction,
all these grown-ups fighting bitterly against one another, words and
names she didn't understand, kids pretending they know what's going on,
fights at school, Frenesi hated it, feared it. 

P doesn't show us Frenesi growing up.  We get a few snap shots and these
are superimposed and shuffled with snap shots of Prairie. P makes
extensive use of doubling. Those unfamiliar with the critical essays on
P's use of doubles might want to check them out. I believe that Gary's
Web page is still available. I'll gladly provide a brief bibliography. 

In any event (and "The Secret Integration" is an excellent Introduction
to TRP generally and some of these parent/child/political/communication
failure conflicts), shit roles down hill and while the the blacklist
headliners posed for the Press, shot celluloid and staged witch trials
... workers like Frenesi's parents sat in their bleak houses and looked
at each other a lot, but didn't communicate. And Frenesi? She knew, she
Learned to keep out of the way. Lesson One. 

See you next time, 

Jane