VL Betrayers and betrayed

[Rob Jackson]

Well, Van Meter has a history of snitching and betrayal (back at the  
house in Gordita Beach, 23-4), and he's still setting up Zoyd (he's  
the go-between for the tv crews and Mob at the Cuke, as well as  
Hector, 10).

And Prairie and DL, both as prominent as Frenesi in the narrative, if  
not more so, aren't duplicitous females.

Oedipa's a straight-up sort of dame, too.

And I think Jessica comes out of GR as more fickle and far less  
likeable than Katje.

One of the big problems with the novel is the characterisation of  
Frenesi. The excuses for her abandonment of her baby and for her  
setting up the murder of her lover - post-partum depression and that  
supposedly genetic predisposition for men in uniform - just don't cut  
it. I suspect they're supposed to, but they don't. And she is a bit of  
a bimbo when we first meet her, living in a dump, getting herself off  
to daytime tv, feeding the family frozen food, trying to cash her  
benefit cheque at the local Kwik-E-Mart, etc.

felice anno nuovo


On 07/01/2009, at 9:07 AM, pynchon-l-digest wrote:

> Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2009 12:41:59 -0500 (GMT-05:00)
> From: kelber at mindspring.com
> Subject: Re: VL--IV Passivity, more active thoughts
>
> I think they're as developed as the next Pynchon character.  It's  
> kind of disturbing for me as a feminist that he's chosen to portray  
> two duplicitous women (with counter-agent Katje as a third).  These  
> aren't demeaning portrayals of women -- none are bimbos or bitches  
> -- nor are they bad guys (Frenesi's no Brock Vond, Lake's no Vibe,  
> Katje's no Weissmann).  But why are these morally equivocal,  
> duplicitous types all female?  Or maybe I've just missed their male  
> counterparts?  Any suggestions, anyone?