VLVL Rex Snuvvle

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2004 10:12 PM
Subject: Re: VLVL Rex Snuvvle


> >>> , becomes desperate, picks up a gun, kills his brother.
> >>
> >> Rex shoots Weed because Frenesi has convinced him that Weed is working
for
> >> the FBI.
> >
> > Rex picks up a gun and kills his protégé, Weed Atman.
> > I don't think its the FBI's fault. That's the lame excuse Rex gives in
> > the fantasy scene with the girl, but I don't buy it.
>
> Who said anything about it being the FBI's fault? Frenesi plants the gun;
> she's the agent provocateur. And I think you'll find that the speech at
the
> bottom of p. 230 and top of p. 231 is subjunctive-Weed talking, not
> subjunctive-Rex.
>
> best
>

Me, it is the FBI's fault because it enables criminal minds like Brock to do
the things they do. Frenesi did not buy the gun, she's got it from Brock
(240-41). If you judge this by a theory of essential preconditions Brock
sets the initial first step without Rex couldn't/wouldn't have killed Weed.
Frenesi could have decided not to pass it to Rex, and Rex could have decided
not to use it. So in reacting the way Brock had intended they surely share
their part of the karma but it's Brock who is the evil spirit behind the
scene.

This is kind of the Manson-murders turned upside down. To claim that the
FBI, that Brock isn't responsible here would mean to say that Charlie Manson
wasn't responsible for the death of Sharon Tate and the other victims
because he didn't shoot himself there.

Frenesi isn't fully responsible because she isn't in a "clear" state of
mind. She's sexually obsessed by Brock like his hippie-chicks were obsessed
by Charlie. This is what she says to DL later :

"(...) you know what happens when my pussy's runnin' the show (...)." (260)

It's Brock who first makes the gun-camera comparison on p. 241, a thought
Frenesi repeats on p. 259 talking to DL.

Rex obviously is a highly neurotic character who easily can be put under
pressure and influenced. Giving away Bruno hasn't been helpful at all but
had deepened his disease.

I agree that his political fanaticism bears signs of a religious obsession
(232). Christianity and Marxism can be compared in many ways. They both
postpone the utopia. Remember the Tchitcherine-Wimpe discussion at GR p.
701.

American reality - Smith&Wesson:
http://www.swfirearms.vista.com/

Otto