VLVL Count Drugula, or Mucho the Munificent

[jbor]

> the "beer and tobacco headache" which isn't typical for a dope smoker.

Unless it's a case of too much tobacco in the mix. I don't think you can
realistically argue against the fact that there are drugs and wild parties
at the commune, and it's also clear that Zoyd scores pretty soon after being
released from gaol and picking up Prairie, whether it's in the VW Kombi or
at the commune, and that it's a high priority for him. NB also that he's
pretty tight with his dope, is Zoyd.

I don't think that the text presents a wholehearted endorsement of marijuana
and LSD -- as some glorious pathway to divinity or as miracle cures, for
example -- however, I agree that the use of these drugs, and those who use
them, are not totally vilified (though users are ridiculed at several points
in the text). But by the same token I don't see the recap of Mucho's career
and life as some Puritanical rant against cocaine usage either. Pynchon
doesn't set up a binary opposition of "bad" drugs vs "good" drugs in this
text, as you're trying to suggest, and I think there's somewhat more
ambivalence (on this issue as on most other aspects of the text as well)
than you allow.

best