VL-IV 1: The Cucumber Lounge, pgs 9/10

[Robin Landseadel]

The Cucumber Lounge echos the Echo Courts, its sign simultaneously  
pushing up to the edges of sexual taboo while being throughly  
commercial at the same time.  The details of place and time—

	“ . . Dwarfed and overshadowed by the towering dim red trees
	were two dozen motel cabins, with woodstoves, porches,
	barbecues, waterbeds, and cable TV. . .”

— are spot-on. When thinking of “Vineland” the image of snaking cable  
in a Television studio also comes to mind. All the small details of  
preparations at the Cucumber Lounge echo Hollywood and Hollywood deal  
making as well. The unpaved parking lot is covered in gullies from the  
local—frequently rainy— weather, also echoing visuals of the paths of  
creeping vines. If this place we live in is “Vineland” it is by virtue  
of the creeping network of cables and other webbed infrastructures  
that make up the “information/entertainment industry.” Van Meter—a  
name filled with multiple possible interpretations as regards Zoyd and  
Van’s “Rock & Roll Lifestyle”—is still stage-managing the SSI scam of  
Zoyd’s upcoming annual act of transfenestration.

But his worried demeanor has everything to do with the presence of  
Zoyd’s ole frenemy DEA field agent Hector Zuniga. Going back to the  
1998 VLVL p-list archives starting in September of 1998 [once the page  
is loaded, it’s about 2/3’s the way down]:

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9809&sort=thread

. . . I found some fine pointers about Hector Zuniga. In the opera  
“Carmen”, Zuniga, Captain of the Dragoons (bass) is obsessed with the  
bohemian and untamable protagonist of the tale, much like Hector’s  
obsession with the “technical virgin” Zoyd. “Hector”, of course, means  
to harass. And Zoyd [as we soon find out] has been plenty harassed by  
oily Tubaholic Hector:

	“ Zoyd went sweaty and had one of those gotta-shit
	throbs of fear. Was it ESP, was he only reacting to
	something in his friend's voice? Somehow he knew
	who it would be.”