Zoyd

[kelber at mindspring.com]

We all have our little points we like to obsess over, and the protagonist issue is one of mine.

I think both VL and ATD were hampered by not having a strong protagonist.  In the case of ATD, I'm sympathetic to TRP's reasons for choosing not to have a single (or even dual) protagonist.  In a book that's all about chaos, diffusion and anarchy, a central protagonist holding it all together is a thematic problem.  There are lots of characters, each on their own personal quest, with the quests being more interesting than the characters.  In VL, though, I think there was a slight bungle.  Zoyd appears to be the protagonist, but Prairie is given the quest.  It might not matter as much if we didn't have DL and Frenesi cluttering things up.

Compare that with GR.  Slothrop's not the first character introduced, and he cedes a huge amount of page time to the huge cast of supporting characters.  He's the protagonist, though, not only because he's kind of a goofy, lovable hedonist, but because he's given the quest (no pat answer on what he's questing for, as in Prairie's case, but a quest into the heart of The Zone, nonetheless).  Because he's such a strong protagonist, we can afford to spend time with the supporting characters, returning to him as a safe haven when things get too confusing.  More than that, the confusion and paranoia we feel as readers (what the hell is this about?  Who's voice is this?  I don't understand what I'm reading right now!) helps us bond with Slothrop, since he feels exactly the same way.

His other books:

V:  Profane, a likable schlemiel, is introduced first, but shares the spotlight with Stencil, who's questing for the elusive V.  The Profane scenes and Stencil's quest dominate the book, so even when we digress to other characters, the book still feels as if it has a center.

COL49:  Oedipa, strong protagonist, introduced p. 1, sympathetic, on a quest to discover Tristero.  No other points of view visited.

M&D:  Two strong protagonists with a goal.

IV:  Strong protagonist with a quest, but not a particularly riveting one.  Searching for Shasta and Coy, investigating a standard-issue mafia/drug/corporate cartel.  The subtext quest is potentially more interesting:  Who murdered the '60s?  But the answer is screamed too loud:  Manson.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Tore Rye Andersen <torerye at hotmail.com>


>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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