The Importance Of Thanatoids In Vineland

When one is invited to a ‘60s, ‘70s, or ‘80s decade theme party, they would expect to walk into a colorful room, perhaps with people dressed in miniskirts and tie dye, patent leather and knee-high white boots. Maybe the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, or even Madonna would be playing in the background as peace signs are held up in pictures and phrases such as “Rad!” and “Groovy!” are flung around. However, one would not expect to walk into a decade theme party and see a simulation of a police state, with people dressed as DEA agents, young revolutionaries, drug addicts, and policemen. They wouldn’t expect play drug raids or police brutality because the ‘60s to the ‘80s were the time when the Brady family became blended and when Michelle Tanner was

Notably, all the characters in the novel seem to be more addicted to the Tube than drugs, which indicates Pynchon’s stance on drugs in relation to television. Thanatoids are the collective group in the novel that demonstrate the television addiction the most as they “[spend] at least every part of every waking hour with an eye on the Tube.” Relatedly, Thanatoid Ortho Bob describes his people as “like death, only different” personalities, implying some sort of correlation between being reduced to just existing and watching copious amounts of the Tube. Drugs and the Tube become analogous in this way as they both lead to forms of death—drugs take a physical toll on the body while the Tube has a more abstract, mental effect on the mind. However, since the Tube is more accessible, innocently entertaining, and, most of all, legal, more people become damaged by the Tube than

While at first glance the novel seems to be about the consequences of drugs or the War on Drugs, the drug use is never extreme or life-threatening. However, the consequences of television addiction are described in great detail, even if just referenced in the characters’ mannerisms. The Tube portrays a false sense of reality and makes viewers believe in a perfect world. It reduces the viewers’ view of the world to a mere peephole, a narrow “Tube” perhaps, focusing only on the quirky antics of the Brady family and the wardrobe of those that lived through the period and, gradually, viewers become obsessed with this false utopia and are unable to cope with the real world without incorporating it into their