VL: the Deal

[pynchonoid]

The question remains, if Hector is, as jbor says,
"just doing Brock's 'shitwork'", how does that make
Hector a nice guy? He's still doing the dirty deeds
and enjoying it, a corrupt cop -- with his funny
moments, no doubt --working for a neofascist
government. 

jbor:
> In the flashback to when he was first busted, Zoyd
> recognises that Hector is
> just doing Brock's "shitwork" and that the marijuana
> obelisk has been the
> doing of Brock and his "ex-old lady": and he even
> accuses Hector of "working
> for the two o' them" (294-5).
> 
> In the current time of the novel it's again "Brock
> Vond and his army" who
> have confiscated Zoyd's house (50-1); Hector's
> trying to get Zoyd to
> co-operate in the anti-drug movie scheme he has
> cooked up, so's they'll
> "both be rich forever off of this, man" (51). And at
> the end of the novel it
> looks as if Hector has pulled off his movie deal
> (355), and his fortunes are
> definitely on the up and up. 

That's how it works in the movies, but not necessarily
in Hollywood.  And especially not with a certifiably
insane operator like Hector. A lot of people talk
about a lot of movie deals that never get out of the
daydream phase; that's default mode in Hollywood. 

>By contrast, the
> Becker-Traverse gathering,
> where Prairie is so disillusioned by the
> anticlimactic reunion with both her
> parents (374-5) that she goes off into the woods by
> herself and cries out
> for Brock to "come back" and "[t]ake me anyplace you
> want" (384),

Only as soon as she knows there's no chance Brock can
do this - she's teasing him:  "But suspecting already
that he was no longer available, that the midnight
summoning would go safely unanswered, even if she
couldn't let go."  Her call to Brock here is more on
the order of a ritual exorcism, acknowledging a
weakness (an urge to yield to the neofascist) that she
has overcome.  If she had gone with Vond when she had
the chance, she would have been doing the same thing
her mother did, but Prairie manages to break that
chain:  a sign of hope, that the next generation may
be able to resist neofascist ambitions and schemes. 
When it mattered, when Brock was in her face, she
speaks truth to power:  " 'But you can't be my father,
Mr. Vond,' she objected, 'my blood is type A. Yours is
Preparation H.' " (376)   

> is
> anything but a happy ending.

It's a mixed ending, no doubt. 

> It's no accident that
> Pynchon closes the
> narrative in the midst of an ineffectual
> Wobbly-style picnic right at the
> moment that Reagan is about to be elected for his
> second term.

No accident that Pynchon writes the book the way he
writes it -- except for the mysterious workings of the
creative process that lie outside of any artist's
conscious control -- that's for sure.

Reagan may be on the verge of being re-elected, but
Pynchon doesn't mention that at the novel's close --
you just can't seem to  make your points without
adding to or suppressing parts of Pynchon's text, can
you? 

Instead, Pynchon adds a note of hope, above and beyond
Prairie's victory over Brock, and the larger scene of
family and community forgiveness, reconciliation, and
love that he creates at the "Traverse-Becker wingding"
( p.367).

For the "heart of the gathering" (VL 369) Pynchon
chooses "[...] Jess's annual reading of a passage from
Emerson he'd found and memorized years ago [...] Jess
reminded them, 'Secret retributions are always
restoring the level, when disturbed, of the divine
justice. It is impossible to tilt the beam. All the
tyrants and proprietors and monopolists of the world
in vain set their shoulders to heave the bar. Settles
forever more the ponderous equator to its line, and
man and mote, and star and sun, must range to it, or
be pulverized by the recoil.' "[...]  

Far from "ineffectual", that's the kind of wisdom that
inspires faith to carry on, resist as and when
possible, pass anti-fascist values along to the next
generation, and, eventually, prevail. Meanwhile, they
reunite as a loving, extended family, taking strength
from one another even in the "prefascist twilight"
(371) or "darkness" (371), whichever it may be. 


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