VLVL2 (10) Realists and dreamers, 198

[Terrance]

> 
> The question then becomes, what is Pynchon's text attempting to
> say regarding the hugely asymmetric relationship between the status
> quo and the "ippy bums"? and, what should have been the responsible
> actions of those otherwise typical American kids in dealing with that
> asymmetry of power and the cognitive dissonance engendered by the
> immoral actions of their own government and its corporate underwriters?

Why must the text attempt to say anything regarding such matters? The
answer to your question is implicit, so what do you need Pynchon's book
for? 

The 60s crew in VL is sick. Like the whole sick crew in the novel V., we
have a sick crew in Vineland.  In 1984, when the novel opens,  they are
still sick. I doubt that we can extrapolate from this fact of the novel
and discover Pynchon's politics. Not that the obvious answers to
questions like the one you pose above can not be discovered by reading
his messays.