VLVL (6) Brock

[jbor]

on 28/9/03 2:56 PM, Don Corathers at gumbo at fuse.net wrote:

> Wait, wait, stop. "Hippiedom" = "a failure of public will" that was
> responsible for the Vietnam War?

Not for causing it, of course, but do see Quail's site:

http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays.html

Hippiedom and "the Vietnam era" are synonymous in the context, and the
"hippie resurgence" is overtly critiqued in both the _SL_ Intro and in
_Vineland_. (Paul M. makes a valid point about Brock's understanding of the
student "revolutionaries" reflecting Pynchon's own.) Point is, after all the
fanfare and flower-weaving were over, the U.S. war in Vietnam went on, the
Repression continued. The bottom line in a democracy, according to Pynchon
at least it would seem, is that this equates to "a failure of public will".

It's pretty straightforward.

But are you really claiming that "vile-minded" means "raunchy", and that it
is a positive way of characterising someone's sexual fantasies?! Or is it
just another bait?

best


> I don't have the Sloth or Watts essays, do
> have Slow Learner, where the one reference to the post-Beat "hippie
> resurgence" is oblique and benign.
> 
> I'm just a little bit dubious that Pynchon put together the chain of
> causation quite the way you have it. For one thing, the sequence is
> backwards--the war, which had roots running back to the Eisenhower
> administration, had been going pretty good for two full years before the
> Summer of Love rolled around in 1967. I can imagine Pynchon blaming "a
> failure of public will" for allowing the war to happen, although Cold War
> containment policies, certain economic interests, and unbridled military
> adventurism seem to me to be the proximate American influences. I don't
> think he would have attributed that failure to "hippiedom," which was still
> in utero when the first ten thousand or so body bags came home. Please
> illuminate.
> 
> As for "vile-minded"--in context, I think this is more a humorous
> characterization of Zoyd as a vividly imaginative wanker than it is a value
> judgment: "As sex fantasies go, this one, especially for the vile-minded
> Zoyd, was pretty bland." We're being told that Zoyd is capable of a raunchy
> fantasy life, not that he's morally flawed. Unless, I guess, you consider
> thinking about sex to be evidence of a moral flaw.
> 
> Don
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
> To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Saturday, September 27, 2003 9:06 PM
> Subject: Re: VLVL (6) Brock
> 
> 
>> on 28/9/03 1:33 AM, Terrance wrote:
>> 
>>> You've got to identify the implied author of the text. Not too hard to
>>> do. Robert gave us two example.  Vietnam and the burning of American
>>> Cities.  We know what P said about these.
>> 
>> Yes. In the 'Sloth' essay he states how "a failure of public will"
> permitted
>> "the introduction of evil policies" in the American 60s, JFK's and LBJ's
> war
>> in Vietnam being the example given. And the 'Watts' article provides a
>> pretty clear picture of where he stood on the issue of
> officially-sanctioned
>> racism against black communities under the same political regime. Both the
>> _SL_ Intro and _Vineland_ confirm these negative assessments of that
>> "failure of public will" which was hippiedom.
>> 
>> And, in terms of identifying implied authorial judgements in the novel,
>> don't forget that description of Zoyd as "vile-minded" (60.7).
>> 
>> More often than not, however, Pynchon's narrative agency in the fiction
>> stands aloof from the competing perspectives and interpretations which are
>> provided, as with the description of Brock's anger and despair after
> Frenesi
>> left him:
>> 
>> But it was to be a while yet before reports stopped coming in
>> from lunch counters and saloons, often known to have strictly
>> enforced attitude codes, in unlikely West Coast locales, of
>> disruptions by a, some said "wild-eyed," others "terminally
>> depressed," Brock Vond. (69.25-30)
>> 
>> His emotional reaction seems to have been little different from Zoyd's.
>> 
>> best
>> 
>> 
> 
>