Zoyd

[alice wellintown]

Again, we want to love Zoyd for a number of reasons including, he
appears to be the protagonist and the novel is structured to suck us
into reading him as the protagonist. But he's not. It's not Zoyd's
story. We want to like him because he makes us feel good, we laugh at
and with him. But he's not an American  wandering Jew Schlemiel, but a
TV version of the tradition. He is constructed as the wanderlust
figure; he doesn't have a union card;---remember the Traverse Family
only tolerates him because of Praire he's a gypsy-roofer; he's a
distant cousin of Benny and Slothrop and the tradition of wandering
picaresque characters. But he not Don Quixote. He is not a Fielding
character. He is a parody of those earlier figures. He gets set up and
beat up and, we could even say knocked up since he is the Mommy of
Praire with a little help from his friends and his not so friendly
Mother in Law. But Zoyd, while he is not Moody, DL's violent old man,
or Vond, or Hector, he's no better or worse. He's playing out a TV
role. It's his job. He jumps and they pay. DL's Mom tries to
rationalize Moody's violence; it's his Job, she tells her daughter. DL
thinks she's getting the old birds and bees talk. You mean everybody
does THAT? The TUBE has confused being human with being a Professional
or a J O B. What are you? I'm a Police Officer. Do you carry a gun?
I'm a Police Officer. Ever shot anyone? Well ..... Beat anyone up or
violated a person's civil rights? I'm a Police Officer. As Willy
Lowman says, it comes with the territory. TV Job is internalized, as
are TV relationships. TV situations. Yesm TV situation Comedy too.
Zoyd is a parody in a satire. And, the novel gives us a ton of
evidence to counter our "Zoyd is the protagonist, the funny guy, the
Charlie Chapman in a New Modern Times" reading.

Penguin.120

I looked into all the jobs and professions and labor history in VL.  .
On the Films---Feminst Films about Women's Work is one major theme.

Hang Loose; Old Men Rule ...see ya at Ditch Plains ...bring the sex wax.

Terrance