Zoyd’s progress

[Raphael Saltwood]

> On Apr 9, 2020, at 9:31 AM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com<https://webmaila.juno.com/webmail/mobile/8?folder=Inbox&msgNum=0000LTW0:001UZnwn000034qb&block=1&msgNature=all&msgStatus=all&count=1586583144#>> wrote:
>
> This attachment to innocence and youth, is ubiquitous in american art,
> and with few exceptions (Henry James comes to mind) is at the heart of
> American prose fiction, in the so-called novel, and is not something
> america can grow up and out of  on this side of paradise. Zoyd, of
> course, is Slothroplike, childish and innocent,  but is, because it's
> 1984, though no Big Brother totalitarianism but rather Neoliberal
> torments him, a working class male trying to raise a daughter in his
> hippie hair and dress. Like Jim and Huck, naked on the raft, he floats
> past the flotsam of what is left in Gatsby's wake, avoiding the shore
> as the trees cleared for Gatsby's mansion are clear cut on the other
> side of Vinland the Good, Zoyd, a member of the Multitude (Spinozian),
> can only partake in the picnic of old lefties and young mutants.

As one matures, if that actually happens,

one still loves youth and innocence but gradually learns to love it in others, protect it, nurture it.

If Benny Profane's tale was an anti-Bildungsroman, not learning a g-d thing,

 and Slothrop's an anti-Odyssey, the wily voyager morphing beyond the possibility of coming home,

Vineland for me has always been Pynchon's first novel with a net positive developmental theme for the protagonist (I could argue for CoL49 - the fact that she goes to the auction means she’s beginning to cope...hmmm)

(obviously there is much more to V and GR than the protagonist's outcome, but still...)

First action - Zoyd wakes up. Then Pynchon proceeds to build a community around him.

His daughter leaves home. With a band - a van load of friends and a boyfriend.

 Nobody’s saying he’s perfect, but this is not a failure outcome for a parent.

Not the way it happens here. Especially when music runs in the family.

She confronts him with his inadequacies, which he ruefully acknowledges, and they exchange affectionate benedictions.

During the rest of the book he grapples with those inadequacies and we are treated to the whole sordid history.

But is it really so sordid?

Zoyd’s flashbacks show a fairly honorable man, incapable of retrieving Frenesi from Vond’s clutches, but otherwise not so terrible*

He gave up his keyboard career in favor of supporting Prairie, his in-laws trusted him with the baby (kudos), he works as a roofer and landscaper for The Marquis de Sod, he gradually builds a home where Prairie can grow up and bring friends.

he does rely on the largesse of the federal government for a crazy-person stipend, but in a sense

 (a sense continually gainsaid by jingoistic  agitprop which justifies huge payments to those involved in warmaking and disparages humanitarian aid, but over the years hasn’t completely eliminated it - for example, the paltry guilt money the loggers toss at Jess after his “accident”)

...in a sense, Zoyd’s pittance is a legitimate diversion from the national treasure, especially considering that Vond’s government-financed machinations took Frenesi away.

Contrasting Zoyd and Frenesi with another couple in Vineland, RC and Moonpie, it seems that the latter couple’s bond relies on RC’s warrior puissance and a corresponding singleminded mate-for-life mentality on the part of Moonpie.

Another successful couple, the Marquis and Marquise (or Marchioness) de Sod, share a theatrical past and run a business together.

Zoyd and Frenesi lack these connections. He’s a lover, not a fighter, and, literally and figuratively, they don’t work together.

How does his action in the “present time” of the book constitute progress?

1) his progress in the flashbacks also counts

2) his penchant for friendly discourse gains him a network of friends - and his network of friends links up with Frenesi’s in the person of the 3rd successful couple, DL and Takeshi, which shelters and nurtures Prairie

3) he’s wise enough to let his daughter go when he learns of the looming threat of Vond

4) unlike Huck, he doesn’t drift away; unlike Benny, he sets down roots; unlike Slothrop, he stays in (star-crossed) love for years and years and raises a kid - he doesn’t have to go searching for himself because he kind of knows who he is. Not that who he is is all that, but he does accomplish some things

5) like the end of _The Crying of Lot 49_ I got the sense that he’s learned and grown enough to be a meaningful part of the upcoming action, whatever it turns out to entail. Not that he’s perfect, or attained some infallible vantage point, but that he’s become a more worthwhile person and fulfilled some of his potential


* excepting Prairie’s mention of his scouting for bedmates among vulnerable girls as young as she. Although this is indeed despicable, I like to think her bringing it up is a reminder that she administered corrective talk at the time and he listened - otherwise she would already be gone.

Can’t prove that from the text, though.