VLVL Count Drugula, or Mucho the Munificent

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 07, 2004 2:07 PM
Subject: Re: VLVL Count Drugula, or Mucho the Munificent


> We've been over Zoyd's self-asserted "virginity" as a snitch, which the
text
> states is only "technically" true anyway (12),

We haven't discussed yet what this "technically" means. To me it seems as if
Zoyd hasn't given any names, but of course all people visiting him and Van
Meter are logically suspects.

> the genuine consideration
> Hector shows towards Zoyd and Prairie during the drug set-up,

Yes!

> and Frenesi's
> pivotal role in facilitating Weed's murder and the collapse of PR3, and in
> provoking the deal Brock forces on Zoyd.

Frenesi's role within the deal isn't that clear as you try to make it.

> All the dopeheads in the novel are
> presented as fools or snitches, or both.

Is Zoyd really presented as a fool? I don't think so. Mucho's only a fool
because he'd turned to cocaine.

> No-one here has tried to "turn a
> blind eye" to Brock's abuse of power or to the antipathy towards American
> government evident in the text

So why do you neglect it continually and focus on the weaknesses of the
movement instead?

> -- that's a typical straw man attack -- but
> there has been a constant attempt to gloss over or evade the obvious
> criticisms of the 60s counterculture which the novel *also* presents.
>
> best

I deny that I've been glossing over that critique. I remind you that in one
of my first posts of the reading I've called Zoyd's attitude towards his
annual jump ridiculous.

Otto