VLVL2 (13) 3: Round wire rims with ND-I filters for lenses

[Vincent A. Maeder]

On p. 239, we zoom in to Mr. Vond and Ms. Gates in a clifftop suite,
apparently still in California, but with an un-Californian, subtropical
light streaming in through half moon windows.  As we'll see in later pages
of this same chapter, this narration is a flashback mediated by DL, and
others, for Prairie's point of view.  In a setting of remembrance, the
opening of this scene establishes a slight warping alerting us to less than
perfect reliability of the narration since it is mediated by DL's memory
within Prairie's viewpoint.

The narration brings a curious item into metaphor, ND filters.  Neutral
Density (ND) filters are use by photographers when they need to control the
exposure or depth of field without affecting the color or contrast of the
shot.  It appears that Ms. Gates is wearing handmade glasses and has
replaced the usual glass with camera filters.  Perhaps as metaphor for her
character or her belief that she is an objective recorder, like a camera.
But even cameras exhibit the bias of the operator, depending on angle, depth
of field, lighting, sound, etc.

>From p. 7 of the Schneider-Kreuznach brochure: "Sometimes the sensitivity of
the film is too high, for instance if the effects of motion are to be made
visible or when the use of the largest possible aperture is needed to
achieve a shallow depth of field.  This can be corrected with . . . neutral
density (gray) filters in various strengths."
http://www.schneiderkreuznach.com/pdf/filter/bw_filter_programm_e.pdf

According to http://videoexpert.home.att.net/artic1/glosbold.htm, an ND
filter is a "gray glass lens attachment that diminishes light coming through
the lens, thus reducing picture brightness"

How else is this small yet astonishing detail symbolic of Ms. Gates'
character?  What of the fact that ND filters do not affect colors yet reduce
brightness?  What of the fact that the normal limitations of the lens (here
Ms. Gates' vision) in achieving certain depths of field are overcome by the
very same filters she is wearing?  And in the context of her liaison with
Mr. Vond?

In any event, it is this warped perspective that we approach this section of
_Vineland_, Ms. Gates, presumably the objective observer, with Mr. Vond the
agent.  This scene also portrays the government's co-opting of the media
(whether underground or mainstream) in its campaign against civil liberties
and drugs.  It also portrays the media's perversion from recorder and
reporter to actor and agent; a slippage from behind the camera, from behind
the autonomous mask of robotic reportage, to the front of the camera acting
out the government's most perverted fantasies.  

This section as a whole will also lay out the argument that government has
not only increasingly co-opted the media as actor and agent, but sanctioned
the media's activity by allowing safe harbor, by allowing the media to hide
behind the objective light of truth as symbolized by Ms. Gates holding the
bright spot on Rex as some statue of liberty; after all, video does not lie,
does it?

V.