VLVL(11) The Mathematics of Rebellion

[Toby G Levy]

Continuing the summary of chapter 11...

The youth rebellion at College of the Surf really takes off when it is
discovered that the owners of the school had never intended to create a
real college but instead had planned to turn the place into vacation
condos after five years of depreciation.  The students react by seceding
from the state of California and calling their new nation The People's
Republic of Rock and Roll, which quickly gets nicknamed PR3 (written as
PR "cubed"). This "cubed" symbol is one more mathematical reference,
another nod toward the vocation of Weed Atman, math professor.
Mathematics supposedly will be at the center of Pynchon's eagerly
anticipated next novel. Anyone looked up "Pynchon" on Wikipedia lately?

This rebellion gets the attention of the 24fps film collective and their
"convoy" rolls in to record the events.  Frenesi is shown as a by this
time being completely under the thumb of Brock Vond even if she is not
quite admitting it to herself yet. At first she was just giving him
extra copies of the film she shot, but then he began to see the out
takes and finally to make suggestions on what he would like her to
shoot next.

Prairie, watching the films that her mother shot, could tell that Frenesi
had an attraction to Weed Atman. Prairie is entranced by the feelings of
freedom expressed by the film, and it is clear that the focal point of
all the positive energy was Weed Atman, who is described as looking like
a kind of uber-hippie.

In yet another mathematical reference, Weed is described internally as
one who has "spent as much time as he did with objects so abstract that
most people went their whole lives without even hearing about them."  He
was separated from his wife Jinx and shared custody with his kids Moe
and Penny.  He kept close contact with old girlfriends and their
relatives, inviting one and all to weekend get-togethers, in which no
doubt Weed was able to get new ideas for mathematical group theories.


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