VLVL Pynchon's filtered narration

[jbor]

    [...] Here came some sentimental pitch, delivered deadpan --
    cop solidarity, his problems with racism in the Agency, her
    59 ¢ on the male dollar, maybe a little "Hill Street Blues"
    thrown in, plus who knew what other licks from all that Tube,
    though she thought she recognized Raymond Burr's "Robert
    Ironside" character and a little of "The Captain" from "Mod
    Squad." It was disheartening to see how much he depended on
    these Tubal fantasies about his profession, relentlessly pushing
    their propaganda message of cops-are-only-human-got-to-do-their-
    job, turning agents of government repression into sympathetic
    heroes. Nobody thought it was peculiar anymore, no more than the
    routine violations of constitutional rights these characters
    performed week after week, now absorbed into the vernacular of
    American expectations. Cop shows were in a genre right-wing
    weekly _TV Guide_ called Crime Drama, and numbered among their
    zealous fans working cops like Hector who should have known
    better. And now he was asking her to direct, maybe write,
    basically yet another one? Her life "underground," with a heavy
    antidrug spiel. Wonderful. (345)

Note the way this passage is filtered through Frenesi's viewpoint: these are
her intuitions and attitudes, her biases, exaggerated seemingly to the point
of self-conscious parody on her part, and they ultimately reflect on her as
much they do on "working cops" or the _TV Guide_, if not more so. We've seen
other sides to Hector -- his kindness towards Zoyd, his insights into the
politics of the DEA -- and we also know about Frenesi's CHiPs-masturbation
routine and her affair with Brock.

best