FW: VLVL Hector

[jbor]

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From: jbor <jbor at bigpond.com>
Date: Tue, 01 Jun 2004 08:06:34 +1000
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Subject: VLVL Hector

I think it was Quail who at the outset of the current group read mentioned
that Hector was his favourite character in the novel. I'm inclined to agree.

The scene where Hector dances with Frenesi is a nice one. It's noteworthy
that Hector gets a hard-on for Debbi (350) and that he isn't seduced by
Frenesi's charms like most of the other men in the novel (quite the reverse
in fact, because it appears that Frenesi does sign up to do the movie
project after all). There's a lot in the scene -- the reference to the
Casino as "a ritzy parable of the world" for example -- but the way their
dance morphs into a memory of Hector's "last time" with Debbi is poignant. I
think that what is being highlighted here is Hector's fidelity to his
(ex-)wife. And, reading between the lines of the story that he tells Frenesi
about Debbi's "drug-taking longhair crank attorney", the ridiculous claim
and counter-claim and "simple no-fault divorce" (348) which ensued, there's
a distinct chance that that they will get back together. It certainly seems
as if that it is what Hector is angling for anyway.

One other point to note: the description of his divorce and the "condition
that Hector immediately enter a Tubal Detoxification program" (348) refers
us back to the meeting between Zoyd and Hector at the bowling alley at the
beginning of the novel. Hector has recently broken out of Dr Deeply's
Tubaldetox centre (33), so this episode has to have taken place *after*
Hector's divorce from Debbi. But in the conversation on pp. 31-2, where
Hector chides Zoyd for never sending a Christmas Card or asking about Debbi
and the kids there's no mention of the divorce. Zoyd does ask, sarcastically
or ironically, about Hector's family, but Hector doesn't let on. He does
tell Frenesi later, however (348).

Rereading the earlier discussion between Zoyd and Hector with the recent
divorce in mind puts Hector's behaviour and conversation there in a new
light. And it reaffirms Zoyd's self-centredness.

best


> Hector, on the other hand, who really is a likeable, considerate, and
> essentially good-hearted kook, doesn't seem to be faring too badly at novel's
> end.