VLVL The deal

[jbor]

on 21/3/04 9:17 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 (68-70), 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).

Not that it matters one way or another whether Frenesi sees Zoyd outside the
gaol or not -- if she didn't know that Brock had kept Zoyd in a cell
overnight then you'd think Brock would have made sure she *did* see him
there next day, and her unwavering "smile" signifies (to me, anyway) that
she's in control of the situation and satisfied with the outcome -- the
English syntax definitively identifies Ron, singly, as the one who is
"unobserved in the afternoon shade" (304). He's there as extra muscle, a
reminder to Zoyd to behave himself. (If it was intended to apply to Zoyd
only, or to Zoyd *and* the two cops, then the subordinate clause should have
gone after either the word "Zoyd" or the word "marshals" -- if that's the
case then it's sloppy writing.)

Zoyd, still holding a candle for Frenesi (306.6-9), kids himself that Brock
alone is behind the deal. We know better, of course, and Sasha understands
that Brock wants to keep *Frenesi*, not Zoyd, away from Prairie (304-5), and
she is also quietly confident that Frenesi will eventually come to her
senses and leave Brock (306.1-2).

It's not important in the larger scheme of things whether just Ron, or Zoyd
and the two marshals, are "unobserved in the afternoon shade": it's just
another quibbling sideshow. Brock wants to humiliate Zoyd and demonstrate
his "custody" of Frenesi, and her willing subservience to him. Frenesi, for
her part, is aloof and inscrutable, seemingly quite happy to be escorted
away by Brock, and quite happy also with the deal which has been made and
which will prevent her from ever being able to see Prairie again. She
certainly appears much more in control of herself and the situation than
we've seen previously, ever since she met up with Brock back in the days of
24fps in fact.

best