Fascism In Vineland, Or, I Don't Know Anything About The Political Environment of The 80's

In order to get a better handle on the political ideologies discussed in Vineland, I read an article online at this website:

http://www.notbored.org/vineland.html

that explained some of the political connections in a more in depth way. Though there are a lot of connections in this article, like Biblical allusions and bird motifs, that I did not pick up on in my reading and therefore I am not going to discuss here, I was specifically interested in the allusion to the novel 1984 that this article talks about. A particular line sticks out to me:

“Pynchon clearly believed that, just because the year 1984 didn't bring actual "telescreens" into every home in the country, this didn't mean that Reaganism wasn't an American form of fascism.”

This suggestion is crucial to a greater understanding of what Pynchon’s message in the novel is.

Many of the characters in this novel, in fact almost all of them, seem to be almost one-dimensional, acted upon by outside forces instead of their own will. Whether it be their own past, like DL, the ubiquitous and alluring world seen through a television screen, like Hector, the threatening anonymity of organized crime, like Takeshi, DL, and the Wayvones, or the decisions of another (Frenesi), like Zoyd, the storyline of Vineland is often driven by vague entities not quite explained. The characters are seen as somewhat helpless in the face of concepts that extend beyond themselves.

The character of Brock Vond is a person who embodies both the tightly wound control and nagging insecurities often associated with fascism. The centralized power of total fascist control is often preceded by a period of doubt and confusion, much like the turbulent sixties gave way to the reactionary

Brock was introduced formally bizarrely late into the novel for someone with such power over the central plotline, which further ties him to the concept of a faceless and oppressive authoritarian society. However, as we begin to know Brock, we see him as less of a machine and more of a human, able to make mistakes, able to be afraid. His individuality strips him of the power of anonymous control. In the end, he is nothing more than a cog in a machine, a powerful one perhaps, but just another person navigating the ravages of time, unable to escape his past.