VLVL(6) POV shift

[jbor]

on 27/9/03 2:34 AM, Toby G Levy wrote:

> Could someone please explain the following, from 69.4-10:
> 
> He might have been crazy enough to think she was somehow trying to
> rewrite all their history, being known to say things like, "Aw, it was
> just a judgement call, hon. Say you'd've tried to stay away, could've
> been even worse, [...] old Brock come after you then no matter where you
> took her, and --" a sour grin, "ka-pow!"
> 
> I understand that in general Frenesi is thinking that she doesn't want to
> verbalize her fantasies about having Prarie with her because Flash will
> take it too literally, but what the heck is Flash talking about?  Stay
> away from what? Shoot Frenesi for what?

Frenesi's regret focuses on a "what if" -- What if she'd just taken Prairie
and run (69.36-7); this is what she means by "tried to stay away". When she
gets all mopey like this Flash tries to ease her conscience by telling her
it wouldn't have worked out, that she had no choice, that the spur of the
moment decision, or "judgement call", to dump Prairie, had to be made (but
Frenesi knows better). The "ka-pow" is just his way of coming up with a
scenario to make her feel better, telling her what would've happened had she
tried to run. He's saying that Brock would have caught up with her anyway,
and that when he caught up with her he would have shot her. But Frenesi
realises that that's not what would have happened at all:

    "Oh, come on," she objected [....]

> And how about starting with 70.29, beginning with "All those guys --"
> Does this mean that Frenesi is or has been employed by various government
> agencies as an agent of some sort?

Yes. She's been employed by the DOJ as a mole, to rat out corrupt men by
sleeping with them (I think that's why she envisages the Watergate era as
"her Woodstock", why it became the "gilded age" for the couple 71-2). Flash
has likewise been a snitch or government informant, infiltrating criminal
networks I take it.

Frenesi feels guilt for sleeping with "[a]ll those guys", but that has been
part of her job, part of the deal, and it seems to have continued right up
to the present. Flash, on the other hand, sleeps around by choice, and
Frenesi knows it (70.12, 70.23). But Frenesi gives the U.S. Marshal who
delivers her cheque the come-on as well (84.16).

> If so, why isn't she compensated for
> this work, rather than working at a mall and receiving witness-protection
> program stipends?

They have been compensated for the work, but their wages and expense
accounts have dwindled over the years, as the "minor sting operations"
they've been involved with have become "increasingly squalid" as the years
have gone by (72.15-32).

best