Zoyd

[alice wellintown]

Michael Bailey wrote:

> on the allegorical page Zoyd suffers sloth

Hector, though, Sylvester to his Tweety, doesn't think so:
"...it ain't like you're lazy or afraid to work either" (page 28)

Exactly. An excellent example of how the allegorical reading fails to
deal with the complexity of the characters.  Hector knows Zoyd. Zoyd
has "more jobs than a Jamaican immigrant."  He hustles here and he
hustles there. Hector's description of Zoyd is not only accurate, for
it is confirmed by the plots that show Zoyd working at several jobs
and businesses, it's instructive. If Hector were to read Zoyd as a
hippie type in an allegory, he would misread him.  Zoyd's employment
opportunities are quite limited. Hector knows this too. That Hector
respects him for his work ethic is quite ironic too. Hector, like many
a character in this novel and in IV, is not Always fooled by the
middle class myth. At the same time, Hector, Doc, countless other
characters in these twin novels, fall victim to the myth of the middle
class and hope to move into the so-called business class or sometimes
called professional class. Once there, they can hire people to do all
sorts of things for them. A-and as Doc says, he can hire some dude to
dig the waves for him over in Hawaii. Doesn't sound like a class I
want to belong to, but ...my baggies ain't all that tight still.

Hang Loose,

Alice