VLVL Frenesi and Brock

[jbor]

Frenesi again fails to give "[t]he politically correct answer" (274.6) when
she's watching Brock's cock and flirting with him through the wire, which is
the way Pynchon has nuanced her characterisation on a couple of occasions
previously (eg. when they first meet the narrator notes that "Frenesi should
have just zinged him one" p. 201). In both cases it could be an aspect of
hindsight or regret on Frenesi's part, or it could even be a narrator
reprimanding her for not responding as she "should have" -- I think it more
likely that these moments are intended to imply that Frenesi all along knows
that what she is doing is the wrong thing, but that she suppresses this
instinct and goes ahead and does it anyway.

It's made clear here that Brock doesn't have legitimate access to Frenesi
while she's in the PREP camp, though Roscoe realises that the morning visit
is not really official DOJ business at all but one of "young Vond's
confusing power-and-sex games" (270). When they see one another and she
comes over to talk to him Brock tells Frenesi: "The commandant here has my
number" (274 -- NB the deliberate Nazi concentration camp parallel). And,
tracking back to where DL rescues her in the previous chapter we see that
she had been moved to "the Office" of the camp, she isn't wearing pants, and
she tells DL that Brock "left here hours ago" (256). So, filling in the
gaps, Frenesi must indeed have spoken to "the commandant" that day and
provided some pretext for Brock to come calling so that they could get off
with one another once more.

The other link in terms of plot chronology is between Brock going "right
around the bend" when he hears of Frenesi's escape (277), and the
description of a "wild-eyed" or "terminally depressed" Brock back on p. 69,
when Flash and Frenesi are talking. It certainly casts a different light on
Frenesi saying "Well, what a wacko!" about Brock, because she was the one
whoset it up for him to come to the PREP camp to be with her in the first
place: and thus, from Frenesi's point of view, DL's daring rescue is both
unexpected and, quite possibly, unwanted, which accounts for Frenesi's
confusion and hesitations when DL wakes her (256-7).

best