VL-IV (14): Round vs. Flat

[Mark Kohut]

Pynchon might have changed a lot of diapers before Vineland was published, but the year it was published marked the year of his marriage and within that year (or the next) his son Jackson was born.

--- On Fri, 3/27/09, Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net> wrote:

> From: Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
> Subject: Re: VL-IV (14): Round vs. Flat
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Friday, March 27, 2009, 2:40 PM
> 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.
> 
>