Vineland

[Michael Bailey]

On 3/5/06, jbor at bigpond.com wrote:
> On 06/03/2006:
>
> 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.

but is her point of view any less unreliable?  after all, she's not
even a real Ninja - her teacher explained that what he was teaching
her was for tankers and feebs: the nosepicking of death?  and she
tells the guard at the internment camp wanting to learn the pleasure
grip "takes years of practice, and by the time you can do it, it's not
fun anymore" - certainly not the true ninja gospel. and a real
buzz-killer thing to say
De gustibus -- I for one don't like her better than Frenesi, nor think
her more grounded, competent or perceptive.  However, she has her
merits!

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).
>

I'd say her self-consciousness is hijacked by the TV news process. 
The green room and makeup and dress-awareness, the outfit and cadences
of the interviewer, the focus of the interview on stuff that is not
the point she is trying to make
...more Stockholm --- puts her back into the girl-brainwashed mode and
subverts her message, by being bigger, louder, more persistent so that
she interiorizes the memes of her captors
from being a kid, she transitioned to being a part of this collective,
which is existing in outlaw space - and it's fairly easy for authority
figures to subvert her consciousness and push her back to kidly,
girlish concerns
I'm not even saying that's a totally bad thing when the TV station
does it, tho I think Brock's action is pretty bad and hurtful to her. 
Their affair, far from being a mutual attraction - he would use the
standard defense attorney smears to weasel out of it, but it's really
just a big long rape of her

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

It's what it reminded me of.  Actually I think you used the term
"martyrdom" and that got me thinking.
I don't know anything about Italian futurism, or it might have
reminded me of that.
 "La Dolce Vita"?

> 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.
>

a) but it's how they fit together that is so wonderful...furthermore,
concepts like Thanatoids and Puncutrons are useful in everyday life;
and I was glad and relieved to see Mucho Maas go on the natch

b) I like Tom Robbins; again, de gustibus non est disputandum

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