Zoyd

[Tore Rye Andersen]

Terrance:
 
> 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. 
 
I don't believe we said that. If anything, VL is the story of Prairie's
quest for her mother, but should we really disregard Zoyd just because 
he's not the primary protagonist? You seem to imply that his status as
a supporting character automatically turns him into an inferior character,
a character we shouldn't take seriously, or (gasp!) like. But Pynchon puts 
a lot of care into constructing his supporting characters, and often the
important stuff in the novels happens to them, instead of to the main 
characters. The reader of V. who focuses exclusively on the central 
characters, Profane and Stencil, won't learn a goddamn thing. The important
things happen in the margins, to the Mondaugens of the novel. Same with
GR, and as if to underscore this, Pynchon has Pig Bodine (one of the most 
likeable 'minor' characters of GR, a vast improvement on the would-be rapist
in V.) specialize in impersonating supporting characters:
 
"Let the others do Cagney and Cary Grant, Bodine specializes in supporting 
roles" (GR, 684)
 
VL may not be Zoyd's story, but Zoyd's story is an important one.
 
 
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