VLVL Pynchon's filtered narration

[jbor]

>> I think Terrance is spot on in noting that it's
>> Frenesi's own absorption of and obsession with the
>> nuances of tv cop actors like Raymond Burr and Tige
>> Andrews which is ironically on display here. Note
>> also that 'Ironside' and 'Hill Street Blues' are
>> both highpoints of the genre, and that all three
>> shows tackled issues of police and government
>> corruption and provided gritty and reasonably even-
>> handed representations of their respective times and
>> settings, as well as of the inter-relationships
>> between crime and crime enforcement therein.
> 
> So you've seen a lot of either, then?

Not especially. But the point would be that Frenesi has (Hector, too,
undoubtedly, and the astuteness here is in Frenesi being able to locate the
sources of Hector's mannerisms and pitch so readily, and the way that
Pynchon is using these references in a collusive way with the reader to
build up the characterisations and the relationship between the two
characters in this scene). And, necessarily, of course, Pynchon must himself
also have been an avid viewer of the three programs in order to construct
the bit (and note the 'Star Trek' allusion Frenesi makes just beforehand,
obviously a show which rates near the top of Pynchon's viewing list.)

I don't think it's accurate to describe _TV Guide_ as a "right-wing weekly",
and I don't believe that Pynchon thinks it's an accurate or reasonable
assessment either. About all there is left to say is that "I pity the fool"
with the proven inability to detect irony.

best