Re: Zoyd’s progress

[John Bailey]

This is a lovely post, and reflects my own feelings about VL, which
are so wonderfully ambivalent. There are few novels that see-saw my
feelings so subtly. Maybe some Atwood, Coetzee. It received a cool
reception, but I wonder if Pynchon was perhaps trying to *not* write
the Great American Novel. After the filibustering chest-thumper GR,
maybe he became less needing of praise.

On Sat, Apr 11, 2020 at 7:51 PM Raphael Saltwood
<PlainMrBotanyB at outlook.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > 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.
>
> --
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