VLVL The deal

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 18, 2004 10:48 PM
Subject: Re: VLVL The deal

> > Yes, but this "Bad Cop" scenario is by no means new or unusual.
> > It's as old as can be. Cops are easy villains simply because of their
> > power.
>
> It's not even your typical 'bad cop' scenario either. Brock's motives are
> sexual rather than political or criminal,

The previous chapter tells something different (Brock's "genius," Lombroso).
He surely got political reasons and, like Joseph has pointed out in his
post, is also driven by personal greed to gain an "elect"-status.

> and Frenesi and he are together
> again when he forces Zoyd to make the deal.
>

That maybe the case but we got no evidence that she's involved here.

> The set-up which Hector is sent
> to implement is in reality an "estupidass marriage-counselor errand", one
> which Hector's doing as "a favor for a friend" (295), and I get the
> impression that the emphasis he puts on the word "*friend*" could suggest
> that it's Frenesi he's actually referring to, not Brock.
>

Now this is hopelessly strained given the text. The narrator says positively
that it's his decision:

"(...) because later, in what could only be crippled judgment, Brock was to
turn and go after the baby and, noticing Zoyd in the way, arrange for his
removal too."
(294)

And Hector and Zoyd are obviously referring to Brock:

"Somebody over in Westwood really hates your ass, pardner."
(...)
"Know this dude from justice name of Brock Vond?"
Shrugging, "Maybe seen the name on some DEA 6?"
"I know about him and my ex-old lady, Hector, so don't be embarrassed."
"None of my business, and my policy is, is that I have never went into areas
like that, ever, with a subject, Zoyd."
"(...) but where is this li'l gentleman, and why'd he send you out to do the
shitwork, huh? (...)"
(294)

Do you really believe that Frenesi's got the power to kick Hector out of his
job? No, but Brock can do that:

"Hey man, this ain't even my ticket, all's I'm doin, is a favor, for a
friend." And he gave that injured cadence a peculiar emphasis, as if leaving
open the meaning of *friend*.
"Uh-huh, just following orders from above."
"Don't know if you've been keepin up, but with Nixon and shit there's been a
couple years of reorganization where I work, lot of old FBN doorkickers done
got the blade, colleagues of mine, and I'm lucky I still have any job, OK,
even runnin estupidass marriage-counselor errands like this."
"(...) I -- I know what you're goin' through, Keemosobby."
"Knew you'd understand."
(295)

The emphasis he's giving to the word "friend" only makes clear what has been
going on between Brock and Hector, that Hector had no choice but to obey the
order he's been given by Brock if he wanted to keep his job. It's Zoyd who
says that Hector is just obeying orders and Hector doesn't deny it.

In my humble opinion this says clearly that Hector's indeed doing Brock's
shitwork, and not at all Frenesi's. We don't even have any information at
all if she knows at this moment what Brock is doing to Zoyd and her child.

> Why else does Brock wait until "a year after Frenesi had moved out" before
> going after Zoyd (294), unless it's Frenesi who is pulling his strings too
> by dropping the bombshell about Prairie's existence? Attempted comparisons
> to _1984_ are hopelessly strained imho.
>
> best

Well, there's even another orwellian point, even if it is only for fun:

"Oh Captain, can I at least, please, call up my mother-in-law to help me
with the baby?"
"That is called a favor." Grotesquely kittenish. "Favors have to be paid
back."
"Inform on my friends. Sure would put me in a squeeze."
"Your child's well-bein against your own virginity as a snitch, oh yes,
quite a close decision indeed, I should say."
(295)

Doesn't every suspect hasn't got the right to do one phonecall? We've seen
it a thousand times. Pynchon is referring here to this standard feature of
crime movies, and Hector would have violated this law massively if he hadn't
informed Sasha himself before. And I'm sure that this hasn't been Brock's
order.

At the beginning of the discussion there was someone (Quail?) who said that
he mostly liked Hector as a character. At this point of the novel Hector has
deserved this judgment because he doesn't abuse the set-up for his own
purposes in turning Zoyd into a snitch like he could.

The information Zoyd gives about Shorty (302-03) later hardly can be called
snitching. Zoyd only admits that he knows a "Shorty" which by the way is a
very common nickname, but claims at the same time that the person he knows
isn't in the drug business (but is suffering from a posttraumatic
stress-disorder) before he realizes that Hector's just making another joke.

Otto