VLVL the collapse of the Youth Movement

[jbor]

on 25/2/04 2:09 PM, Joseph Tracy wrote:
> 
> I was involved with the site for awhile, but left because the structure is
> annoying. So I came back a few days ago to see what was under discussion and
> have been reading through some of the VL threads. I hope the discussion
> continues awhile, so I can reread the novel. So far I am a bit surprised at
> the emphasis on the undermining of the variously described youth/ anti war /
> progressive/ democratic reform/ anti- imperialist/ anti-corporate/ ...
> movement. 

Thanks for your post. It will be interesting to hear your thoughts as you
reread the text. I don't think you'll find any explicit references to
anti-war protests in the novel -- and certainly none of the *characters* are
presented as being ecologically-aware, though I agree with you that there is
an anti-logging theme running through the text as an undercurrent -- and the
motivations behind the student demonstrations and revolts which are actually
described are cloudy, or, in the case of PR3, quite petty and short-sighted.
By the end of the novel nothing has been achieved, and the organisations
within the Youth Movement which Pynchon focuses on have self-destructed.

In the current chapter Frenesi starts visiting her mother more often,
"making it as easy as she could" for Brock to find her (282.16), and she
envisions how she might be able to use her baby as the "perfect cover":

    [I]t made her something else, a mom, that was all, just another
    mom in the nation of moms, and all she'd ever have to do to be safe
    was stay inside that particular fate, bring up the kid, grow into
    some version of Sasha, deal with Zoyd and his footloose band and
    all the drawbacks there, forget Brock, the siege, Weed Atman's
    blood ... [etc] (292)

But she also realises how pretending to be just this would be her "worst
lie, the basest betrayal" (292).

At this point we also see how Zoyd became more and more belligerent and
abusive towards Frenesi as he discovered the true story of her past and how
she was merely using him ("bullying" 282.9, 284.15, 285.3). In terms of plot
chronology this section fits with the earlier interlude where Frenesi goes
to Hawaii to take a break from the relationship and Zoyd stalks her and
verbally abuses her (56-61: note that Sasha by this time is also fully aware
of Frenesi's involvement with Brock). Even though it fits in here the
Hawaiian interlude seems to have been written separately and inserted into
the text, almost as an afterthought, in order for Pynchon to be able to
incorporate his previously-written Tokyo and Godzilla scenes, and as a way
to connect Takeshi into the main plot. There is a real "patched-together"
feel to this novel.

best

> I see the novel as a marked introduction of a more benignly humorous and
> hopeful tone to Pynchon’s writing. If there is this thread of hope it is
> obviously a fragile and vulnerable hope, Pynchon is no sentimentalist, but I
> just wanted to make a modest case for my notion.
> 
> First, to anyone who has lived in the region as I did for 8 years, the story
> clearly begins and ends in Arcata, California. Arcata was the first town in
> America to elect a Green party mayor and city council. The eco -folk there
> aren't just dreamers either, they successfully turned a dump area into a bio
> marsh wetlands/ waste processing plant which locals resort to for its beauty
> and profusion of birds; it coincidentally saved the city millions over the
> costs of a chemical processing plant. It is one of the few places where the
> eco-warriors are as plentiful and powerful as the clear-cutting industry I
> think there is a sense in which Pynchon is delineating a thread of hope in a
> very traditional notion of human connection to the local community and
> earthscape. Betrayed , but not destroyed Zoyd moves over the course of the
> novel from a dysfunctional hiding to a deeper and less illusional connection
> to his life, his past, his daughter and the place he lives. It may be
> impossible to bring down the imperialist, Info- police-state, science as
> warfare, capitalist juggernaut via a student revolution, but don't Arcata,
> Taos, Brazil, Costa Rica,Venezuela, Vermont, and similar places show it
> possible for one town, and even a state or country to keep its head on
> straight while living in a culture of lies and war mania. And isn’t that love
> for an actual place a more reasonable, appealing and possible grounds for
> resisting empire than a youth movement or a one world communist utopia?
> 
> I see the thanatoids as the unruly ghosts of the earth forces and earth
> cultures which the imperial, fascist, religion and science as war culture has
> sought to demonize, kill, bury and forget. In V these subterranean forces were
> cold, dreamy, hard, intoxicants and opiates, but in Vineland they appear with
> a show of power and a flourish of dark humor to defend an outpost of sanity
> and usher the fascist agents into the dark bony bowels of their domain.
> 
> I too had the Free&Easy interpretation of Frenesi Gates’ name but found her
> character quite credible. The trouble being that free isn't easy and easy
> isn't free. The name shows the all too human dilemma.. Struggling for freedom
> is dangerous and doesn’t pay well. Fascism offers comforts , but destroys the
> conscience and fragile beauty of the humanity it proposes to defend. The
> choices are too stark for most of us, and in the confusion of the resulting
> culture wars, Wal Mart, Microsoft, and a club of fascist terrorists posing as
> pro freedom anti-terrorists have taken temporary control of the planet. But a
> planet is a hard thing to control, worse than a teenager.
> 
> The crying of Lot 49 looks back to medieval wars over the control of the
> written word , presages the modern media wars and offers an uncontrollable
> human urge to know and share the truth as tonic. Vineland looks back to the
> cultural warfare of the 60's, presages the war between global mono-culture and
> natural diversity and offers as a breath of hope the human love for children
> and place, and the living planet’s defense mechanisms.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Joseph Tracy
> brook7 at earthlink.net
> Why Wait? Move to EarthLink.
> 
> 
>