Vineland

[Michael Bailey]

On 3/3/06, jbor at bigpond.com wrote:
 Frenesi's
> enthusiasm for violence and martyrdom here is a little bit creepy,
> reducing the conduct and whole idea of social protest to an
> abstraction. It's almost a fascist vision in itself (think Italian
> Futurism).
>

I want to link it more to the history of religious martyrdom; the acts
" to move smoothly between baton and
 victim, to take the blow instead, to lie down on the tracks as the
iron rolled in or look into the gun muzzle and maintain the power of
 speech" are all non-violent heroisms, things that make a picture and
"a song for men to come" - one part of M&D that relates to this social
movement built around transcendence is the Christian revival...- "to
look into the gun muzzle and maintain the power of speech" has
antecedents at least as far back as Moses in Pharoah's court worrying
that his tongue will cleave to the roof of his mouth; to absorb
violence without offering any; to evince physical bravery tantamount
to a soldier's but use it to sacrifice oneself -  rather than fascism,
nonsense, or mere adrenaline rush, I want to see a legitimate
apotheosis of non-violence in action (which is a keynote of any
enjoyable future)

> and then DL goes on to admit that she's only really into it for "the
> asskicking", which seems a much more honest and self-aware response in
> the context than either Frenesi's visionary nonsense or the "some" who
> were "secretly" in it for the adrenaline rush.

 It's ok for her motivation to be different than Frenesi's, and her
devotion to physical culture is admirable, but I don't see that the
comparison justifies dismissing Frenesi's perceptions.  Frenesi is
lights and camera, she's there to get the message - DL is the
bodyguard, so her motivation is good for her role, 's the way I think
Mr Pynchon is laying it out

While readers might not
> be sure whether or not they "like" Frenesi, I think it's certain enough
> that we do like DL. And it's Pynchon who's engineering these responses
> to his central characters.
>

but DL's development is through failure in her assassination (ie, the
asskicking that is supposed to be her strong suit) and by terms of
bondage to a character who merely looks like BV, as together they are
introduced to the Thanatoid realm, where the shortcomings of
asskicking (yes, for a moment it looks like you've solved the problem
by violence, but there is all this leftover karma resonating around
and even the dead are apt to keep on showing up) are made clear

> I think Frenesi's character is developed enough: the chapter where
> she's living off a government protection handout with Flash, and the
> chapters dealing with her time in 24fps and affair with Brock, leading
> up to her facilitating Weed's murder, and then the birth of Prairie,
> and finally her escape from the reeducation camp and her break with
> Brock, show us a very complex personality. There's no "Stockholm
> Syndrome" about it -- along every step of the way she's fully aware of
> what she's doing.

but the awareness is shaped by Brock's actions, his ability to haul
her and her friends into court, his vendetta, his dynamism (as opposed
to Zoyd's somewhat passive and sleepy tendencies);
and I don't think Stockholm Syndrome entails a lack of awareness, but
more of an adoption of the usurping party's mode of awareness, due to
an overpowering thumb constantly pressing down on the scales of
judgement till the wrong seems right -- though as you mention, Pynchon
distances himself to some extent from the struggle in the streets, and
I tend to find against much of the "PR3" revolution myself.  I would
not say that Weed et al are "right" - the campus takeover is
disorderly, and doesn't embody the ideals they espouse...
in fact, Frenesi's acceptance of morally dubious acts in the cause of
24fps, such as stealing power, shows an ethical weakness that lowers
her resistance to BV's brand of evil

She's entirely a free agent when she decides to run
> with her sexual instincts with Brock, later trying to rationalise it
> away to herself as some hereditary uniform fetish (note that Brock
> doesn't even wear a uniform).

Good point; it'd be quibbling to think of his undoubtedly Yuppie
clothes and Reichian "body armor" as a uniform, but it was in the back
of my mind...
But Brock's persistence and power have a lot more to do with it than
an attraction (if I may place myself in the mind of a fictional lady
for a moment) - all she has to do is stop resisting, and in fact he is
prone to override resistance anyway -- in a way she is like one of
those street heroes lying down in front of the train...he treats her
like crap most of the time, so in a way she is offering a sacrifice
Same thing with the gun.  You know he's going to get the gun to the
shooter whether by her or somebody else, so -in a way - her guilt,
which she knows he will enjoy, but is real for her, is a gift to him
as it is a torture to her -- but it's all like a bad dream.  She could
refuse him, but what's the point? He holds the power and she might as
well go along.  She and her friends aren't perfect anyway.  Maybe
Brock has a point.  That's what I mean by Stockholm Syndrome.

But I think it's precisely because of
> this depth of characterisation that we do feel sympathy towards
> Frenesi, as being human, conflicted, unable to resist her sexual urges,
> her post-partum depression, racked by guilt and self-loathing and yet
> still carrying on with the betrayals of everyone around her. She's at
> least as sympathetic as Zoyd, probably more so in parts (especially
> when he stalks her all the way to Hawaii, and actually makes up her
> mind for her to go back to Brock one more time.)
>

Yes! this is a big part of what brings her to life.  I get the
strongest sense of her when she's falling asleep listening to Webb's
problems...




--
"Acceptance, forgiveness, love - now that's a philosophy of life!"
-Woody Allen, as Broadway Danny Rose