A Pussy of Her Own- a Vineland coda

[Bandwraith at aol.com]

Pairie, I imagine, would be about 34 or 35 now- 
a decade or so older than Chelsea, and near her 
physical, emotional and  intellectual prime- all 
things considered. And while it was uncertain 
when we saw her last- slipping back into the glade 
to masturbate- whether Prairie was a virgin or not-
surely, by now, she has realized her potential; be 
it as a mom, a professional of some sort, or,  just 
an ordinary American woman. It would be interesting 
to project her consciousness from that memorable 
awakening to the present- given that abortion will 
probably be illegal in America, at least from a federal 
perspective, in  about a year.
 
There is no doubt that she was sexually aroused
as she made her way back  into the forest, and,
that she had chosen Brock Vond as the theme for
her  masturbatory bliss. Coming as it does at such 
a significant point in  the novel, what can we say 
about the thematic significance of this scene?
 
At first blush, cliches, e.g., Like mother- Like
daughter, come to  mind, and certainly Prairie
has a good deal of Frenesi in her- but she  is
Zoyd's daughter, too. And if Frenesi in some
sense functions as an  allegory for "the media"
swooney for men in uniform, and Zoyd is a  stand
in for the fate of the collective hippie fantasy of 
becoming a "rock star," then Prairie, in some way, 
functions as the  perfect audience and critic of them 
both- almost, but not quite, out here with us in the 
orchestra seats,  or living room, as the case may be.
 
There are parallels, of course, to provide us with
some perspective in  making sense of all this. Again,
Frenesi's own masturbatory trajectory-  interrupted as 
it is by the incarnation of the very object of her fantasy- 
a handsome cop- at first seems the closest to Prairie's, 
but we should not forget Zoyd's performance in the 
Hawaiian hotel room, convinced that the object of his 
desires is only a dry wall away, when, in fact, Frenesi 
has long since departed.
 
While the choice of Brock as "object" makes us see 
Prairie as the heir  to Frenesi's fatal flaw, in fact, 
by the time Prairie makes her way back to  the grotto 
and finally has got the chance to slide her fingers 
down her  belly and coo for her madman, Brock is 
probably well on his way to being  de-boned.
 
Furthermore, Frenesi was aroused by the tube, while
Prairie is out in  the middle of the woods underneath 
the "real" stars.
 
There may be something especially parody-like about 
American  masturbation, and maybe that's what Pynchon 
is getting at by showing us how  these familial styles 
of Onan become manifest in coming generations.  One 
thing does seem clear, however- Prairie does not suffer 
from Slothrop's dilemma- her pussy is very much her own. 
 
 
Bandwraith
 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20050723/e5db36d1/attachment.html>