Come on, Come on, Lolita, Start the projection machine

[Michael Bailey]

On Wed, Sep 8, 2010 at 10:29 PM, Dave Williams <daveuwilliams at yahoo.com> wrote:

>
> I can understand why one might be inclined to focus on Zoyd, then Frenesi, and then, other characters >or groups of characters around these two. And, your reading below is a fine example of the kind of >readings such an approach can generate. I wonder, though, if relegating Prairie to an afterthought or to >minor or not-quite developed or not quite essential character status is something the text or the author >tries to prevent,

if so, how? I think if you read it as an adult who's enmeshed in stuff
that's a lot like Z & F's life (but even a bit grungier and less
redemptive in some ways), then you feel protective toward her, you
don't see things thru her eyes all that much (that's why this is such
a neat avenue to explore: what DO all these things signify for her...)

she's a special rider...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_0Iv5m_lqs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pULHgeKpSk

riding along with the band, riding in the various souped up superrides of DL

wouldn't suggest she's inessential for the text, nor even for my
reading (Zoyd doesn't make any progress, or, heck, any sense at all,
without her)

> and, if this is the case, does the text or author fail. And, if the text or author fails, is the failing owed to >the success of Zoyd and Frenesi, or, perhaps the failure of the DL and Takeshi or the "Japanese" part >of the novel?

no, all these terms fall out if we consider Prairie qua Prairie.
She's not invested in any of the adults' trips, though she's enmeshed
in all of them.  She's interested in the same way a reader ought to
be...able to turn fresh eyes on them, able to be objective, to winnow,
to sift...

>I say the text succeeds only if we can stay focused on Prairie. Doing so, though, makes the work rather >grim. I can appreciate what the novel celebrates, mourns, comes to terms with, but Prairie, as you note, >hasn't a very bright future.

My notion was her folks didn't have the stuff to offer her that
Frenesi's did, and at first blush she might seem (and probably feel)
deprived...but I'd go on to say that film school and a strong
self-concept didn't necessarily serve Frenesi as well as an easygoing
pastoral childhood in Vineland might end up serving Prairie,
especially with the unique and influential friends she has access to
just by being Prairie Wheeler.
Can you imagine DL and Takeshi not watching out for her? for just one
instance...


> Where will she work next? Who will she work for? And, what, if anything,
>  did she learn on her quest to find her past and the recent past of American Labor? Maybe, she didn't
> learn a G-Dmn thing.

but was that her quest?  an adolescent, if I remember the only primary
source I have access to, is mostly questing for a pleasant present,
with an occasional thought for the future...
she doesn't seem to have any trouble using computers; she's apparently
not self-destructive to any great extent; I'd say her survival and
thrival chances are at least as good as the next person's!