Zoyd

[John Carvill]

Well, T, let me just say that it's good to have you back, even if I
rarely agree with what you're saying.


> He is not portrayed sympathetically.

Oh yes he is! Oh, come now, you must realise that the way Zoyd is
portrayed at teh start of the book, his 'establishing shot', very
powerfully suggests that the author intends us ti like him?

I know he has his flaws. Well, as I'm sure you know, that's one of the
reasons we like people.

>Just for a moment, allow that my
> theory, "VL is about work," is a working theory and apply it to Zoyd.

Your theory was always more interesting when you didn't just
dogmatically hammer it with 'Vineland is about work' over and over.
Certainly a *lot* of Vineland *is* about work, that's indisputable.

> What does Zoyd do? He is a gypsy-roofer and ex-musician. He picks up
> odd jobs. Not bad. He has a kid to support. He's not a responsible
> daddy much of the time, but he's better than nothing. Although he's a
> pothead and he likes jail-bait and he's not the daddy any kid with a
> good daddy would want, he's not a bad man. Dumb and stuck in the past,
> but not evil.

Dumb is harsh. I think he's a good Dad. Does the best he can. Didn't
abandon his kid like her Mum did. Zoyd wasn't political, like Frenesi,
but he didn't sell out. Complex stuff. But as a father, flaws
notwithstanding, I think he does pretty well.

>
>  But he also works for the big bad government.

NOt really. The public insanity thing is a trap he's caught in.

> What does he do for
> them? He rats people out

When?


>
> [snip.. a lot of complex stuff...]. Why should
> we have sympathy for him?

Because we like him. Because he got pulled into political hippiehood
by a dame who used him then snitched and ran on her own kid, for
starter...

>  Well, America is a tough place.

Nokind of an argument that, T. Come on.


>  If he were simply a rodeo clown, we could forgive him and laugh it
> off. But Zoyd has taken that step to the other side. He knows it.
> That's why Pynchon marries him to Zoyd. And DOC, is a Zoyd-Hector in
> IV. Again, not a sympathetic figure at all.

Rodeo clown eh? Well you brought a smile to my face with that
reference. You're playing with fire there, as you know. Zpyd took a
step to 'the other side' when he got involved with a 'political
family'. He may never have gotten comfortable on that side but he
stuck to its principles, as best he could.

As usual, I don't think your argument hangs together, I don't see how
what you have said makes Zoyd unsympathetic. Happy to continue
debating the matter...