Zoyd

[John Carvill]

One of the key differences between Pynchon's perspective on the
Sixties, and those on this list who seek to 'explain' to us that
Pynchon's 'purpose' is to expose the fact that the revolutions of the
Sixties contained teh seeds of their own destruction, is that Pynchon
regrets that destruction, that failure. He is, imho, asking questions
about what happened, rather than issuing edicts. Those who pontificate
and endlessly seek to contain the 'blame' for what happened to the
Sixties movements to factors internal to those movements, are working
to an agenda which is in diametric opposition to the spirit in which
Pynchon approaches the matter. Therefore the irony could not be more
striking: those who are engaged in trying to 'explain' what Pyncho is
saying in VL will never really understand it at all, because you have
to love something in 'the Sixties' in order to accurately see the
flaws. Same goes for friendship: Zoyd knows Van Meter's flaws because
he is his friend. The same reason he sticks by him is the reason he
knows there's some question over whether he should.

Those of us who see good *and* bad in 'The Sixties' can smell
revisionist right-wingers coming. We know your agenda for what it is.