VLVL2 (6) Between shifts

[Paul Nightingale]

Frenesi works shifts. However, rather than simply saying her
introduction in Ch6 echoes/replicates that of Prairie, which of course
it doesn't, one might observe that, in the post-Fordist
(low-wage/flexible) economy of the 1980s, mother and daughter are
sisters, exploited in the same way by capitalism. Sasha reminds us of
the way, during WW2, the traditional gendering of employment was
problematised (destabilised) by the entry of female workers into male
occupations (leading to the production of ideologically compromised
texts like Mildred Pierce, of course). Similarly, the casual employment
of teenagers that has characterised pretty much the entire post-1945
era, while exploitative, has also fuelled the pop-cultural challenge to
traditional cultural values. Note the late passage, in which the
"Reaganomic ax" becomes "a real ax ... Jasonic" (90). Frenesi remains a
scholar of film. The horror film's indestructible villain, like, the
Repression, just goes on and on.

So Ch6 begins with Frenesi dislocated "between shifts": this might refer
to paid employment, it might also refer to domestic duties in the
service of partner and son. This dislocation ('at a loose end') invokes
the flashbacks that take up half the chapter. But the chapter also ties
Frenesi to Zoyd: each indulges in masturbatory fantasy (83).
Furthermore, Frenesi, like Zoyd in Ch1, goes in search of payment: the
cheque, like the window-jumping routine, has an exchange-value that
locates her within the economic nexus.