VLVL Ditzah

[jbor]

on 10/1/04 6:30 AM, Terrance wrote:

> All the characters in this novel are portrayed comically.
> 
> Are the Mouth Sisters satirized to the same degree as the other members
> of the 24fps (i.e., Sledge, Howie, Mirage)?
> 
> 
> I don't think so.  P's satire regarding the violent "smash the state"
> and "power to the people" bomb making wing of the collective is quite
> harsh. Sledge, Mirage, Howie are not subjected to the same harsh satire.

Yes, there's a difference between satirical and comical which it pays not to
gloss over. As well as playing dress-ups and kvetching about comfort foods
and shopping, getting really stoned and laying around on the beach, the Pisk
sisters' graffiti reads "SMASH THE STATE" (194), not "End the War". They
think of themselves as "anarchist bombers". They're very silly.

NB also that the PR3 posters and spray-painted slogans read "CUBA WEST" and
"WE'RE RIGHT UP THEIR ASS AND THEY DON"T EVEN KNOW IT" (209). Again, there's
nothing whatsoever to suggest that either they or 24fps ever had anything to
do with anti-war or civil rights (or free speech, for that matter) groups.

I'm not sure that it's a question of degrees of harshness as it is the fact
that there's more text about Ditzah especially, and Zipi, than there is
about Howie, Mirage and Sledge. In comparison with Ditzah and Zipi, Frenesi
doesn't come off too badly in the 24fps chapter either, likewise DL.

The 24fps crew includes "impatient apprentices, old-movie freex,
infiltrators and provocateurs of more than one political stripe" (196). It's
possible that none of them are actually enrolled in a college, though DL
does meet up with Ditzah at Berkeley. Note also that Pynchon doesn't mention
what the protest was about when DL rescues Frenesi, as if to imply that the
cause itself wasn't nearly as important as the confrontation (116-7).

best