VLVL2 (14): Brock and Zoyd (pp. 298 - 302) -- Part 2

[Tim Strzechowski]

"Baby's all right?  Hm?"

Here Zoyd is convinced Brock has tipped his hand and revealed the true reason for trying to get him put away.  In typical Pynchon scatology (a device he borrowed from Orwell, I believe), he points out that "[h]ere at last came those rectal spasms of fear" (299) but, almost trying to convince himself, he follows by asking himself "what else could it be?"

The subsequent "spaceship" portion of their conversation is an interesting exchange between the notions of Fate (Brock) vs. Free Will (Zoyd) as the former becomes frustrated not only with Zoyd but with "you people" (i.e., hippies) with whom he cannot relate.  "Not everyone's fate is to produce and bring up children," Brock contends (300.8). Within this exchange Brock and Zoyd invent a rhetorical "domestic arrangement" similar to that of Zoyd-Frenesi-Prairie, and Zoyd (Free Will) envisions them in an "escape" to a planet Earth "where folks are allowed to behave the way they want, even have a baby [...] if that happens to be their trip" (300.16).  Reasserting Fate, Brock adds that this rhetorical Earth would have police who "are sworn to protect [...] people" and cannot allow them "to escape what everyone else must accept" (300.20).  Conversationally, Free Will is bullied into submission by the Fate of the powerful, and this is underscored by Brock's revelation that he has Frenesi's power of attorney (301) and that "Ron" will "do something about [Zoyd's] tone of voice."

(BTW, there is a biker bar named Knucklehead Jack's.  Some day, when I have the time and energy, I'm a-gonna make a formal list of all these goofy bar/pub/tavern names throughout the Pynchon canon!)

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