Comparison between Gravity's Rainbow and VinelandFrom the author of Gravity's Rainbow (1973), the famous apocalyptic novel of the Second World War, comes Vineland (1990), a journey to 1984 California: a Reagan-era wasteland of yuppies, malls, food preservatives, and, above all, the tube: the cathode ray tube. The opening line of Gravity's Rainbow, "A scream comes across the sky," describing a V-2 rocket on its lethal mission, finds its way into Pynchon's later, albeit transformed, work: "Desmond was out on the porch, hanging out around his plate, which was always empty because of the blue jays that would come screaming down from the redwoods and carry off the food piece by piece." One passage describes the war. Another tells of birds stealing dog food. The change in scope is huge, but misleading. Some readers might initially scoff at Pynchon's subject matter - hippie remnants running away from the drug trade - but there's no doubt about Vineland's connection to Gravity's Rainbow. The more recent work acts as a corollary to the older one. The book begins with Zoyd Wheeler waking up one summer morning to some Froot Loops with Nestle's Quick on them. He lives in Vineland County, a foggy, imaginary expanse of Northern California that makes a great haven for wilted flower children. Zoyd is one of them: a part-time keyboardist, handyman, and marijuana grower who acts crazy in public (once a year on television he jumps through glass windows) to qualify for mental disability benefits. He and his teenage daughter Prairie both mourn the passing of Frenesi Gates, who was the mother of one and the wife of the other. Frenesi was a radical filmmaker in the 1960s until she was seduced by Brock Vond, a federal prosecutor and overall bad boy/crazy guy who transformed her from radical hippie to FBI informant. With his help he manages to destroy the People's Republic of rock and roll. Fast forward two decades. Frenesi is about to be expelled from the Witness Protection Program because the government is tired of subsidizing her. Zoyd wants to find her, for obvious reasons. Vond, still the small and charismatic psychopath, also wants Frenesi back and decides to kidnap Prairie to get her. Even Prairie, the only sane and sober person in the book, wants to meet Frenesi, the mother she never knew. But there's more, as in every Pynchon novel: Vond is apparently the ultimate killjoy of law enforcement and hasn't stopped persecuting kids like him. Zoyd.