VL-IV: Chap 9- Close-ups

[kelber at mindspring.com]

VL, p. 195:

"They particularly believed in the ability of close-ups to reveal and devastate.  When power corrupts, it keeps a log of its progress,
written into that most sensitive memory device, the human face.  Who could withstand the light?  What viewer could believe in the war, 
the system,the countless lies about American freedom,looking into these mug shots of the bought and sold?"

A number of people have observed that cameras=evil in Pynchon's world.  In this case, though, it's an instrument of truth.  The good guys 
use filmed close-ups of bad guys to reveal their true intent.  Close-ups reveal the soul, but they also turn the filmed person into an object,
a mug shot, frozen in a lie.  It's this latter aspect, maybe, that causes TRP to be camera shy.  WHo wants their life and work to be defined
by a frozen moment?

Laura