VLVL Rex Snuvvle

[Terrance]

> 
> > We agree that Rex is easily manipulated.
> 
> Yes, no question about it. And he's an idealist. But like all the characters
> he has redeeming qualities, and he is allowed authentic moments of insight,
> such as his recognition that the version of the war in Vietnam which he'd
> been "indoctrinated in" -- like everyone else -- by the American government,
> was not "the truth" (207.20-3), and when he rebuffs Weed for his "racist
> bullshit" (229.27), and when he realises that Frenesi is an "infiltrator"
> (232.2), and when he warns Weed about the "closed ideological minds passing
> on the Christian Capitalist Faith" and advises him to "bail out" because of
> the fanaticism of these zealots and the danger they pose (232.5-14). And,
> there *is* nobility (amidst the burlesque) when Rex sacrifices his beloved
> Porsche to BAAD.

He an idealist *and* he's a fanatic. He does have some good insights.
All the examples you provided support your claim that Rex has good
insights. For example, he does recognize that Weed's objection to his
plan is racist bullshit, but his fanatical idealism prevents him from
seeing that Eliot X's ploy, an objection to his ideal of revolutionary
brotherhood ("Give it to us." VL 231) is also racist bullshit. 

Where is the nobility? 

The scene when gives Bruno to Eliot X casts Rex as a fanatic and Eliot X
a rock star. 

Rex simply produced from the depths of his fringe bag the pink slip and
keys to the 911 and handed them on up to the podium, where Eliot X, mike
in hand, a class act, want to one knee, like a performer to a fan, to
receive them. The citizens of PR3 cheered and sang and voted
magnanimously to make the Porsche a gift of the community, while the
brothers began to negotiate internally about which of them was going to
drive it away. 

VL.231

Rex Turns with fanatical zeal from one ideological extreme to another.
He's an extremist. Pynchon subjects him to the harshest satire. Rex has
sex with automobile and he kills a man. 


> 
> I don't see Pynchon's characters or his work as a black and white neo-con
> job at all. 

Good for you. I can't imagine anyone reading his books and arriving at
such a silly and shallow conclusion. 



I agree that _Vineland_ recognizes and lampoons the failures of
> the Left, but the upshot or residue of the satire and pessimism is not an
> endorsement of American Conservatism and American capitalism in the
> slightest. 

Right. That's easy. 


I think that through his fiction Pynchon is constantly seeking
> after or yearning for a better way to put the principles of tolerance and
> community into practice.

I can't think of an example of this from VL. Can you? Where do we see
tolerance and community in practice in VL? We hear a lot of talk,
ideological talk, idealistic and fanatical talk, but what we see is
betrayal and deception and intolerance in action. It's a rather
pessimistic view. There seems to be no middle ground between the turning
extremes. P's characters in VL are still caught on the karmic wheel of
GR, still being beaten by the karmic hammers. Communism is the agent of
violence and repression in the post war labor red scare and the
polarizing agent in the new left after 1965. I don't think we can read
the end of the novel and argue that P is seeking or yearning for a
better way or a way out of  karmic adjustments. 

Maybe the only way out is Ralph Wayvone Jr.,  Kinda like what 80~N's
father, the junk man told him, in the future they won't need any of us,
robots will do all the work, but people will still need to laugh.