VLVL The deal

[jbor]

on 20/3/04 8:35 AM, jbor wrote:

>> Brock's motives are
>> sexual rather than political or criminal, and Frenesi and he are together
>> again when he forces Zoyd to make the deal. 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.
>> 
>> 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.
> 
> The chapter opens with a report of how Frenesi told Brock about Prairie, and
> Brock's knee-jerk response to that news (294.1-8). The events described from
> there on in are a direct result of this conversation, with Frenesi the one
> who is manipulating things -- NB that the whole episode takes place "nearly
> a year after Frenesi had moved out", so Prairie is something like 16-18
> months old at least. If it's all and only Brock's doing then how come he
> hadn't harassed Zoyd before this?
> 
> Hector doesn't answer to Brock; he is worried about losing his job in the
> Nixonian restructure (295.11-15), and that is why he agrees to run this
> "estupidass marriage-councelor errand". And, as we saw earlier, Hector does
> go out of his way to look out for Zoyd's best interests. He calls Sasha to
> come and look after Prairie. This unexpected act of kindness goes a long way
> to explaining the sort of grudging mutual trust and respect which has built
> up between the two men over the years.
> 
> Finally, NB also the final touch in Brock's sexual powerplay -- the S&M
> overtones which Zoyd projects onto what he witnesses in particular -- where
> Brock forces Zoyd to watch as he escorts a "steadfastly smiling Frenesi"
> into the car which will take them both away to be together. Zoyd is made to
> confront the fact that "she'd been somewhere inside all along, in Brock's
> custody" (304.11-25). There's a deliberate pun on that word "custody" here.

To Zoyd, it appears that Frenesi is in Brock's "custody", which goes back to
the question of possession, sexual ownership ("When had Brock ever possessed
her?" 268). Years later Brock of course realises that he only ever really
"possessed" her -- "though he was no longer sure" of even that -- while she
was at the PREP camp, back when she flirted with him through the wire and
then arranged with the camp "commandant" for Brock to come and have sex with
her, just before DL rescued her and spoilt both their plans.

The way I read it, Frenesi realises that Zoyd and Sasha will look after
Prairie, and the Honolulu excursion is a dry run, "a rehearsal of
arrangements to come" (56); again, it's a situation which is manipulated by
Frenesi, one where she understands full well that Sasha and Zoyd will have
to reach some type of rapprochement in order to care for the baby. After she
gets back with Brock she further ensures the well-being of the daughter she
has abandoned by goading Brock into seeking out Zoyd and then forcing the
hapless hippy to make "the deal" which will keep him away from Frenesi for
good. She knows by now that Brock is totally obsessed with her and
hopelessly jealous of any other man's claim on her (that claim being
Prairie, her last card), and she is certainly aware also that something like
the "mental-disability checks that arrived as faithfully as the moon" (321)
will help Zoyd to provide for Prairie. These are her maternal contributions
to Prairie's upbringing, though in later years she still rues the fact that
she has never known her child as a mother should, and Prairie yearns for
that personal relationship with her mother too. This is the part that
Frenesi did not foresee, and it is what is motivating Prairie, Frenesi and
Brock in the 1984 section of the narrative.

Frenesi is quite a complex character -- much more complex and intelligent
than she is being given credit for -- and she doesn't often let on her true
motivations to the other characters, nor does Pynchon explicitly reveal them
to the reader. "[S]teadfastly smiling" as she's led away by Brock after
orchestrating the deal he makes with Zoyd, she is content in the knowledge
that she's done as much as she can do for her daughter in the present
circumstances (304).

Btw, it's the cop, Ron, who stands "unobserved in the afternoon shade" --
not Zoyd (304).

best