VLVL the collapse of the Youth Movement

[Paul Mackin]

On Sun, 2004-02-22 at 14:57, Terrance wrote:
> > >
> > > Brock is a United States Attorney, a federal prosecutor with
> > > almost unimagineable power and resources compared with
> > > Frenesi. He, or people like him, have made the the life of the
> > > Gates family miserable for as long as Frenesi can recall, and
> > > still have Sasha under surveillance. They can pop her anytime
> > > they want to, like Zoyd gets popped.
> > >
> > 
> > I agree, but of course especially because of her family history I cannot
> > understand fully her fondness of men in uniforms.
> 
> Frenesi never figures it out. Her Mother never does. DL gets close, but 
> can't quite bring her self to say it. Of course, she has "Uniform" 
> issues of her own, Moody--the key to her relationship with Frenesi. 
> 
> But why focus on Frenesi's attraction to men in uniform? 
> 
> Zoyd is attracted to Men in Uniform too. 
> 
> In fact, lots of the characters in VL are attracted to "uniforms" or men
> or women wearing them or Brandishing weapons, driving powerful machines
> (DL & Isaiah 2:4). 
> 
> Why do the Pisks, Eliot X, Vietnamese Bitch, etc.,   wear Uniforms? 
> 
> The desperate attempt by the young in this novel to Regain a sense of
> Rightness in this world by means inimical to both the young and those
> close to them (the Life force) exposes a mechanism--namely, the
> compulsive identification of a people, whose "tribal" integrity has been
> destroyed, with the destroyer and his methods of destruction.


Surely, "attracted to men in uniform" is a metonymy for "the revolution
will fail."

If Proust hadn't already said something so similar sounding, Pynchon
might have said "the only revolutions are failed revolutions."

19 and 20th C revolutions, we're talking about. 18 C revolutions had a
completely different dynamic.

Pynchon not only has sympathy for failed revolutions he eggs them on and
enjoys the spectacle.

The phrase "failed revolution" is very problematic for the simple reason
that if one should actually succeed (miracle of miracles) its very
success would mark its failure. The faction gaining power would
immediately set about to turn itself into the preceding regime.

What was it Brock said?

Brock's genius was to have seen in the activities of the sixties left
not a threat to order but unacknowledged  desire for it.

Trying to assign "blame" for the failed youth revolution isn't a
productive activity. Frenesi didn't do it. Brock didn't do it.

Frenesi is a bad girl. Or at least she is no better than she should be
(as the saying goes). Perhaps she should be in jail.

Pynchon doesn't need to critique revolutions. It would be fiddling work
for a genius writer. Nothing to critique. 

I keep repeating myself.