VL-IV 1: Every Dog, pgs 4/385

[Robin Landseadel]

If it seems like I'm crawling through these first few pages, it's on  
account of the sheer density of material on the first ten pages of  
Vineland.

Desmond appears for the first time:

          Desmond was out on the porch, hanging around his dish,
          which was always empty because of the blue jays who
          came screaming down out of the redwoods and carried
          off the food in it piece by piece.

In M & D there's the L.E.D. and in ATD there's Pugnax. But the  
doggiest dog of all of TRP's dogs gets to bookend Vineland. No  
question that  those Stellar Jays are creating a thin blue line of  
invasion and annoyance and that Desmond is a creature of grace and  
kindness. So Desmond [Celtic: "man of the world", "Esmond" is old  
English for protective grace] bookends Vineland and has his "second  
day" [ie; gets his] at the very end of the book:

          It was Desmond, none other, the spit and image of his
          grandmother Chloe, roughened by the miles, face full
          of blue-jay feathers, smiling out of his eyes, wagging
          his tail, thinking he must be home.

Among all the other things that make post Vineland Pynchon different  
from the previous Pynchon is the placement and roles given to Dogs. I  
suspect classic cynicism is an element in TRP's canine adventures. In  
any case, the closest to true innocence and positive spirit we find in  
VL, M&D & AtD is in Desmond, Fang and Pugnax.