Creeping Figs

[pynchonoid]

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks
were striking thirteen."

All clarity, until that "thirteen" - how have the
times changed?

At the end of Vineland's first sentence, the question
might be, dreaming or awake?

The ambiguity  - is Zoyd drifting in the sunlight, or
is the sunlight drifting, through the figs, or just
imagining it as he watches them after waking, in his
dream is he up there stomping around with the birds? -
helps extend the dream state into waking, not unlike
GR's opening. Asleep, awake to a dream:   Reagan's
American nightmare.



>Jasper Fidget

Best sock puppet name yet.


 <jasper at hatguild.org> wrote:

> Me too.  I imagine Zoyd himself drifting through the
> creeping fig in a
> wake of sunlight.  But only if I try too hard.

Disorienting. Like a koan.

> 
> On Sat, 2006-09-16 at 18:25 +0000, Carvill John
> wrote:
> > Much as I love Vineland, and definitely *not*
> wishing to stir up the whole 
> > political debate around it, I've always found the
> opening sentence quite 
> > odd:
> > 
> > "Later than usual one summer morning in 1984, Zoyd
> Wheeler drifted awake in 
> > sunlight through a creeping fig that hung in the
> window, with a squadron of 
> > blue jays..." etc.

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