IVIV Bobwire & Jolly Rancher

[Richard Fiero]

John Carvill wrote:
> > How is this take on Bigfoot's 'endearingness' in collecting 
> barbwire, that wonderful Pynhconian image with seemingly no redeeming value:
> >
> > Bigfoot LOVES his job. Bigfoot LOVES being a fascist. Bigfoot is 
> a friendly fascist. Another spoke in the co-optation theme ala 
> Laura's question?
>
>Yeah, maybe. I mean he's meant to be a fascist, or we get the feeling
>that's teh space his character is supposed to occupy. BUt he just
>doesn't seem to fit. I'm not turning it completely on its head and
>claiming Bigfoot as 'one of the good guys', but he certainly comes
>across as ambiguous to me.
>
>The comparison has already been made: Doc & Bigfoot = Zoyd & Hector,
>and there is a lot in that. BUt in some ways Doc almost seems to feel
>more fond of Bigfoot than Zoyd ever was of Hector.
>
>As for 'friendly fascist', the phrase that springs to my mind when I
>think of another Vineland villain, Brock Vond, is "genial fascist".
>Both share a tendency to seem polite and mannerly on the surface, the
>way all those Christer Republicans and Dick Cheneys and Donald
>Rumsfelds do. Dunno, drifting offshore now...

Well, I don't get this train of thought at all. Who's a fascist? Mao, 
Pinochet, Stalin? Seems awfully loose to me although that's how the 
term is used in Vineland--frequently and loosely.

Barbed wire makes a wonderful clothesline. No clothes pins needed-- 
the clothes stick on really well even in wind.