VLVL (13) - The PREP Camp

[Richard Ryan]

The opening section of Chap 13 flashes us back to one brief, but highly evocative, episode in the relationship between Brock and Frenesi, a scene that underscores the sado-masochistic co-dependency of the pair (did someone say "Night Porter"?) and also let's us gauge the full extent of Brock's clinical narcissism.   The year is 1970 - Brock and his "sidekick" Roscoe show up at the PREP (Political Reeducation Program) camp, and the scene proceeds to flicker back and forth between Brock's erotically charged exchange with Frenesi and his pathological musings on matters social and bureaucratic.  Of especial note is Brock's interest in Cesare Lombroso, a 19th century phrenologist who developed an elaborate theory of criminality based on brain and head structure, and on a subject's racial characteristics.