Idle Zoyd, Crappy Vineland?

[Carvill John]

Hmmm. I have to admit, I'm not sure of what you're saying here, Mark.
 
Who, exactly, do you think is 'overidentifying' Zoyd with Pynchon?
 
And if Zoyd'd gotten off his arse (instead of his face eh?), and pruned that fig, and it therefore didn't creep through the window, then:
 
a) It wouldn't be there, as a symbolic signifier, in the sentence; and
b) We readers would never know about it, would we?
 
Sheesh :-)
 
 
<<
Yes. Yes. 
 
I see Zoyd as in the tradition of Pynchon's schlemeils, the "whole sick crew", the young chums......loveable but (still)immature. 
 
To overidentify him with TRP himself is just wrong...(not least because we know from John Leonard's review that TRP had presented his BIG works-in-progress to grants committees before Vineland was even published....he always worked harder than his characters...)
 
And in this novel I think it does reflect on Zoyd and the book's themes
that he is still a bit like that at his age....that 'creeping fig' should have been cut back a bit which is all it needs to NOT invade through a window. 
 
Still disorganized, sleeping late regularly, hunting his smokes and eating sugary 'kids' cereal. 
 
Mark
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