VL-IV (14): Round vs. Flat

[Robin Landseadel]

On Mar 27, 2009, at 11:08 AM, Ian Livingston wrote:

> This
> actually sounds pretty personal as regards the parenting problem.  P
> is likely a househusband most of the time, assuming he's a married
> man, being a pop and all.  Probably changed a fair share of diapers in
> that role.  Probably felt some of the despair of helplessness in the
> early days of it.

Yes it does, and that would be my point here, this scene feels like  
real human behavior, the kind of human behavior we find in "Mason &  
Dixon."

> The pot thing seems to me like a specter in the
> magic show, rather than the point of the scene.

Perhaps, but Zoyd's progress is followed  by the DEA's operatives  
right up to the end of "Vineland." By the end of the book we really  
don't know what Zoyd's current legal status is. Issues concerning weed  
& Drug Laws in America take up more space in Vineland than in any  
other book by Pynchon.