VLVL2 (14) Pausing history, 287-293

[Paul Nightingale]

Hub takes over from Zoyd--takes the baton, so to speak (287). Unwanted--they
haven't bothered to tell him of Prairie's birth--he arrives to receive "an
uncustomary embrace" (288): this indicates that his arrival, given the
circumstances, isn't entirely unwelcome to Sasha. Sasha's dismissal of Zoyd
("probably off on one of the lesser-known planets by now") is unfair, given
the way the chapter has represented Zoyd thus far; perhaps she hears
criticism/irritation in Hub's voice ("Where's 'at Zoyd at?") and recognises
an opportunity to build bridges. Exhausted, she's in no state to be choosy.
Either way, this tentative reconciliation prepares the way for Hub's role in
the rest of the chapter, to help Frenesi recover, to record his "shameful
peace" (291, before recognising Frenesi's own "secret", one he "knew he
wouldn't be asked to share").

Zoyd's role in this chapter, then, replicates his role in the novel as a
whole: central to the narrative, then marginalised, handing on protagonist
status to Hub as he had earlier to Prairie. Zoyd has worked behind the
scenes here, going so far as to track down Hub, occasionally appearing
on-stage to question Frenesi; and now he stands to one side for Hub, who
goes on to recall his own working life behind the Hollywood scenes ... in
the process recounting the film-studio politics that, post-1945, betrayed
the youthful idealism of "such happy-go-lucky kids" (290-291: cf earlier
flashbacks to the "blacklist period" in Ch6, 80-82).

Subsequently, when Hub addresses his daughter as "Young Gaffer", the text
recalls Frenesi's professionalism as a film-maker, and the dispute within
24fps over light (201-202) in Ch10--this, preceding the PR3 sequence and her
involvement with Brock, signals her own youthful idealism, of course. When
Hub attempts to waken her--the name sending her (him also) back into the
past in the way I've described--there is the added irony that her features
(the "darkness of expression") betray her as she had earlier insisted the
politician/employer would be betrayed by their close-up (195, 199).

At this moment, Frenesi might or might not be awake; she ain't telling. At
the start of this phase, Hub walks away from his job to return home: "Heck
with it, history can go on pause for a little while" (287). His relationship
with Frenesi in this chapter is built on the pausing of history to take
stock, or--as the closing lines have it--a juxtaposition of "game time" to
"the time the world observed" (293, the juxtaposition of cyclical and linear
times with which the novel began). As the chapter ends, Frenesi also wants
to pause history: she "wanted ... a chance to go back to when she and Sasha
talked ..." etc (292). Prairie becomes the "perfect cover" because the child
would make her "just another mom in the nation of moms". Life with Flash and
Justin (as outlined in Ch6) will be living with the consequences; what
Frenesi dreams of here is the impossible, going back and starting over.
Brock will represent the difference, her renewed relationship with him
marked by Sasha's ignorance, just half a page down from Frenesi's
recollection of the way they "talked ... with no restraints". Frenesi's
"secret" excludes both parents, if not her husband.