Vl-IV, Chapter 3: . . . this is a real revolution, pgs 26, 27

[Robin Landseadel]

	Man could crush him with just a short tap dance over the
	computer keys - why was Hector being so unnaturally amiable?
	All that could possibly be restraining the tough old door kicker
	was kindness, unfortunately a trait he was born so short on that
	nobody living or dead had ever observed it anywhere near him.

I offer up the possibility that Hector has turned a tad kinder over  
the years, at least to the extent that the old dope cop somehow  
recognizes the value of a long-running friendship, no matter how  
twisted:

	For Zoyd a creature of attitude himself, this long defiance had
	been Hector's most persuasive selling point.

Hector bribed Zody with free lunch at the Vineland Lanes in order to  
warn Z Dubya of the oncoming shit storm as Frenesi's cover in the  
witness protection program dries up*, thanks to Reagan's defunding of  
all sorts of programs.  The B-Movie actor probably gave certain  
programs the ax in order to demonstrate that he was some kind of  
fiscal conservative.

I see a lot in these passages that relate directly to our current  
state of affairs. First off, remember that little tapdance of the  
keys? Computers are really on the scene circa Vineland [1984]:

		"So - she's in with all these Mob snitches, the money
	disappears, but you still have her file, you can punch her up
	when you need her-"

		"Wrong. Her file is destroyed." The word hung in the wood
	space, between percussive attacks from next door.

		"Why? Thought you guys never destroyed a file, 'th all 'ese
	little fund, defund, refund games -"

		"We don't know why. But it's no game in Washington - chale
	ese - this ain't tweakin around no more with no short-term
	maneuvers here, this is a real revolution

There's  a convergence of various police forces, allowing for all  
sorts of distopian scenarios:

		"She was on some program? Now she's off it?" They were
	talking about his ex-wife, Frenesi, years and miles in the past.
	Why, besides the free lunch, was Zoyd sitting here listening to
	this? Hector, leaning forward bright-eyed, had begun to show
	signs of enjoying himself. "Where is she?"

	"Well, we had her under Witness Protection."

		Not hearing the stress on had right away, "Oh bullshit,
	Hector, that's for Mob folks trying to be ex-Mob 'thout havin' to
	die first, since when are you usin' that Mafia meat locker for
	politicals, thought you just took 'em put 'em in the booby hatch
	like they do over there in Russia."

		"Well, technically it was a different budget line, but still run
	by the U.S. Marshals, same as with the Mob type of witness."

Note all this defunding. The defunding business will come around  
again; in the end scary spider Brock Vond is drawn back into the black  
ops helicopter by his own webbing just as he's about to snatch away  
Princess Leia's younger half-sister because Reagan pulled the plug on  
Vond's program. OBA realizes that many of his most paranoid  
paramilitary and apocalyptic fears and fantasies would [in time]  
naturally be restrained by natural limits—eventually you run out of  
cash and have to latch onto a more profitable scam. And it seems that  
with Vineland that Pynchon moves from Justice to Karma. The Justice of  
the crazed mystical vision is huge and frightening and cosmic and  
Karma is what contemplative mystics see in nature and the natural  
order of things. The focus turns from wrath to balance. Pynchon's last  
three books are coming from a more hopeful writer.

In some ways the Zoyd/Hector relationship serves as a warm-up for  
Mason & Dixon, two bickering friends caught up in each other's  
misadventures. A lot of what I'm referring to can be seen in the  
dialog, how each character has a distinct style and sound of speech.  
These may be cartoons here, but they are very well drawn cartoons.

My second thought  is: ". . . you just took 'em put 'em in the booby  
hatch like they do over there in Russia"—Zoyd's half of the Frenesi  
"cover-up" is playing crazy for the "witness protection program,"  
reminding us of Russian suppression of dissent by imprisonment via the  
nuthouse—and foreshadowing Zoyd's de-funding.


* Hector's real reason for trying to get to Frenesi is the result of  
toxic overexposure to The Tube and insane Tubal fantasies, but we'll  
get to that later.