VLVL (13) - Cesare Lombroso

[Bekah]

Ever since Laura said that I've been kind of thinking along the lines  
of Reagan and the "evil empire."    Reagan was, to some,  very  
charismatic and pretty good looking (for an older gent with Grecian  
Formula hair)  - he had the Mr. Superman body in his younger days.     
I think Frenesi going for that ideal,  that personna,  is  symbolic  
of America doing it.   All that fascism - it looks so good,  strong,   
manly.

Bekah



On Mar 10, 2009, at 2:16 PM, Thomas Eckhardt wrote:

> Animal attraction is or can be one element of what we consider to  
> be love. As is or can be attraction to power (outwardly signified  
> by e.g. the uniform, the gun), which is what Pynchon clearly is  
> getting at in "Vineland". Makes perfect sense to me.
>
> Thomas
>
> David Morris schrieb:
>> I see discussion of VL like this as proof of the book's failure as
>> viable fiction:  desperate attempts to imbue the characters with
>> understandable motives where none are apparent in the text.
>>
>> No need to respond.  I'm voiced this criticism of VL before.  Carry
>> on, and I'll continue to try avoiding VLVL posts.
>>
>> David Morris
>>
>> On Tue, Mar 10, 2009 at 3:06 PM, Richard Ryan  
>> <richardryannyc at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Vond is both repugnant and charismatic.  He *has* to be  
>>> charismatic if we're going to understand Frenesi's love for him  
>>> (assuming "love" and not mere animal attraction is the right way  
>>> to describe her feelings....)
>>>
>