Vineland

[jbor at bigpond.com]

On 06/03/2006:

> 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

Actually, DL is the one who thinks that Frenesi's perception of the 
street violence is a bit skewiff; she's like "a little kid alone at a 
dangerous time of day, not yet aware of her mom's absence" (117). This 
is just after DL recognises Frenesi's sudden lesbian attraction to her 
as "[b]iker rapture for sure." DL is portrayed as much more grounded in 
these passages. Pynchon has DL show up the immaturity of Frenesi's pov, 
her self-involvement. And that's a big part of why she gets it on with 
Brock. Like Zoyd, like all the 24fps twerps, she's totally 
self-centred. The show of concern for the rights of others is just that 
-- all show, or mostly. When she gets interviewed by the local TV 
reporter, it's her own image on the screen which is as important to 
her, if not more so, than the social justice ideals she espouses (195).

Not sure how you establish the connection to religious martyrs; 
certainly not from the text itself.

But all in all, the novel doesn't hold up well against the rest of 
Pynchon's work, or even against that of his peers. A lot if it is 
slapped together from outtakes, and reads like it: a bit from the old 
Godzilla book he was working on in the '60s, a reprise of Mucho Maas 
from _Lot 49_, some space alien stuff here, satire on alternative 
therapies and astrology and vegetarianism there. It's mediocre, on a 
par with Tom Robbins.

best