VL--IV Passivity, more active thoughts

[kelber at mindspring.com]

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?

Laura 

-----Original Message-----
>From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>

>
>I think one HAS to try to understand the motives of characters like
>Lake and Frenesi, but the problem is that Pynchon never develops them
>to the point where one can have any empathy, let alone understanding
>for the thoughts they're thinking.  They are mysteries in some
>ontological cypher (like the one-zero affinity Frenesi adopts), but
>never developed as understandable people.
>
>On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 10:26 AM,  <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
>>
>> Whether we can have any empathy for Lake or Frenesi is an issue.  In the ATD group read, some people (Mark?) seemed to feel that Webb had brought on Lake's disloyalty by being an absent father.  Frank had pretty harsh words for his sister, while Reef and Kit remained neutral.  Zoyd still loves Frenesi.  Sasha's a little angrier.  There's a lot of call for forgiveness on the part of their families.  But both women end up in pretty rootless, agonizing situations:  Lake cut off from motherhood, Frenesi cut off from any semblance of a normal life.  Personally, I don't hate either of them, and I'm extrapolating from this that TRP doesn't mean for us to hate them, and doesn't hate them either.