Ch 15

[Joseph Tracy]

   I read through ch 15  the last 2 evenings and was struck again by  
the  literary simulation of a Bach Fugue. Does anyone else feel that  
this is Pynchon's most musical novel, some parts having the feel of  
jingles, TV theme songs, some like torchy singers from movies,  folky  
ballads, soul, a few lonely jazz improvisations,   lotta rock and  
roll, lotta blues.  CH 15 particularly sings, riffs, dirges and rocks.

One of the major themes that runs through M&D CoL49 and Vineland is  
civil war.  Does every war begin as a kind of civil war? Mustn't  
every war start with the creation of enemies of the state, and isn't  
the first obstacle to war disagreement about who or what  is the  
threat?? The trouble with civil wars is societies don't break down  
along any clean lines. Inter-marriage, economic interdependence,  
respect , affection, geography all tend to blur and transgress the  
lines proposed for warfare. The cold war is cast as a clash of  
empires but it comes home to roost as a civil war  over militarism  
and lifestyle choices, and loses popularity fast.. It is harder to  
fight at home since every victory is a defeat, you kill college  
rebels but they are also the children and  relatives and hometown  
friends of citizens.  Even Reagan knows he can go only so far in this  
direction. With all the contingency plans for concentration  camps   
and  all the spying, the excuse that would enable a transition to a  
full scale police state is always too risky, too contingent .  But  
Pynchon shows a country where the dream of some kind of final  
solution to deal with the dissidents and troublemakers begins and  
ends as a TV fantasy bristles and crackles through the cathode rays    
of a nation drenched in cop show fantasies,  job insecurity, and  
escapes to the mall.  And Vond sees his future in the implementation  
of that solution.

So why is Vond reduced to a kind  of madness and distraction by his  
infatuation with Frenesi? Not Frenesi as an actual person, but  
Frenesi as a sexual fantasy of the Chic blond blue eyed California  
hippie unable to resist his magic Vond wand.  He is seduced by a TV  
action figure doll. Fascism loves the freedom it wants to destroy,  
not as an actual liberty, experienced, and extended to another, but a  
sexual fantasy of endless and unlimited potency. Fascism secretly  
knows that to destroy his "enemy" is to destroy the one thing in all  
the world he is helplessly in love with.  Without an enemy  Fascism  
is nonexistent so it must possess and control rather than destroy..  
Anyway I think that is the kind of personification P is working with.

Again and again the American right proclaims itself the defender of  
personal liberty and  the family, and again and again it tears  
families apart in wars  that were lost before they began. Vond  
coordinates a statewide assault to tear apart the last of Zoyd's  
family and take Prairie.  The metaphoric implications of this are  
huge.  Its about the identity, history and self image of the coming  
generation. It takes place under the guise of the war on drugs, but  
how is it not also a war on free enterprise, free and non-coercive   
market forces?
In ch 15 we are seeing the highly coordinated SS style assault  all  
reliant on a pyramidal authoritarian approval/support and it is being  
contrasted with a family reunion which is a biological tree.  The  
family reunion is oddly encompassing and interacting with the  
Thantoids and former agents of the state: Frenesi, Flash, Hector.   
Human contact breaks down political and social stereotypes in what  
seems a very credible way.  This is not enough to break through  
Zuniga's insanity.  Rather, Zuniga's power is on the rise while  
Vond's is lost, being insane no hindrance to working in the private  
propaganda sector.  A lot of laughs here, which are contrasted with  
the dark little fables of Sister Rochelle and Vato.