Introduction
One of the latest detective novels by Thomas Pynchon, Inherent Vice, brings readers back to California in the 1970’s. The main character, Doc Sportello, becomes involved in the investigation of the mysterious disappearance of Mickey Wolfmann, a local real estate magnate. After getting pulled into a series of interconnected events, Doc reveals the conspiracy behind the Golden Fang organization.
The story begins when Doc’s ex-girlfriend, Shasta Fay Hepworth, approaches him and asks him to help her find Wolfmann, her current lover. During the first and the following scenes, it becomes apparent that the protagonist still has romantic feelings towards Shasta. He dreams about her, recalls his memories of her, and deliberately seeks her image in different situations and contexts in the novel.
This obsession drastically contrasts with the protagonist’s current relationship with Penny Kimball, Deputy DA, whom he dates occasionally: the two characters interact in a non-affectionate way and do not show any attachment, passion, or intense emotions for each other. The major difference in the two relationships can be explained by the idea that the hero’s ex-girlfriend is a central yet ghostly figure of his romantic desires. The fact that Doc could never keep her makes him seek for pleasure and comfort in more pragmatic relationships with other women.
Analysis of relationships between Shasta and Doc
At the beginning, it becomes clear that Doc and Shasta first met at Playa Vista High, where she was Class Beauty and “fantasized like everybody else about getting into the movies” (Pynchon 11). The author implies it was Shasta’s ambition to become an actress that made the characters separate after a short-term romance, “gradually locating a different karmic thermal above the megalopolis” (Pynchon 11).
At the same time, since the characters continued to meet once in a while, one may presume that both characters were affectionate towards each other and let their impulses be revealed. However, Shasta’s pragmatic and career-oriented character was incompatible with Doc’s way of life. The analysis of the motivations that drove their behaviors may reveal a significant difference between them in their worldviews and approaches to life. Shasta has a business-like attitude to relationships with men and seems to value financial prosperity more than Doc, while he, being a former hippie, appreciates pleasure and the emotional aspect of living more than money.
These basic differences, combined with their strong and enduring emotional connection, provoked an ongoing conflict between Doc and Shasta. The protagonist’s obsession may also have been strengthened by his refusal to accept the inevitable changes and dive into “a different karmic thermal” separating him from Shasta (Pynchon 11). In this way, Shasta’s image can be regarded as a metaphor of time, and the hero’s search for her can be seen as resistance against the course of time.
Evidence of Doc’s obsession
The main character’s obsession with his ex-girlfriend can be traced through the investigation he conducts. For instance, when he snooped around the house after talking to Sloane Wolfmann, the wife of the missing Mickey Wolfmann, he found a closet in which hung a lot of strange-looking neckties, “each with an image of a different nude young woman on it” (Pynchon 63). Immediately, he started to look for the image of Shasta Fay there.
In Doc’s actions and his way of thinking about his ex-girlfriend, one may observe a mix of jealousy, fixation, and impulsiveness. Nevertheless, his feelings for Shasta also did not lack romance and tenderness, which were clearly displayed after the characters actually spent the night together and took a walk along the beach: “Doc followed the prints of her bare feet already collapsing into rain and shadow, as if in a fool’s attempt to find his way back into a past that despite them both had gone on into the future it did” (Pynchon 314). Not only does this sentiment show the protagonist’s nostalgia about their shared past and even regret regarding the current state of affairs between them, but also demonstrates that there is no realistic chance for them to be together no matter how badly Doc wanted it.
Analysis of Doc’s relationship with Penny
Conversely, in his relationship with Penny, Doc tends to avoid all the sentiments he shows in relation to Shasta. The way the two characters interact can be described as non-affectionate and lacking attachment, passion, and intense emotions. They were not in a serious relationship and therefore Doc did not feel especially bitter when Penny was out, “probably Watusi-ing the night away opposite some shorthaired attorney with a promising career” (Pynchon 6). Based on this, it is valid to describe his relationship with Penny as instrumental: he uses it as a means to achieve distinct goals, either professional or personal:
“Put it another way… how close were you and Shasta Fay Hepworth?”
He’d been asking himself this for a while now but didn’t know the answer. “It was all over with years ago,” he said. “Months? She had other fish to fry. Did it break my heart? Sure did. If you hadn’t come along, babe, who knows how bad it might’ve got?” (Pynchon 68-69).
In his relationship with Penny, Doc looked for comfort and distraction from thinking about Shasta. The fact that there was not much they spoke about except work and related things implies that they do not have much in common and there is also no strong emotional connection between them. Usually after they slept together, “Penny would’ve jumped right up again and gotten reimmersed in some straight-world activity, and Doc would have found his way to the TV set on some chance the playoffs… might still be on” (Pynchon 280). To a large extent, their relationship resembles a professional interaction or at the most an open relationship without responsibilities.
Analysis of the difference in relationships
The lack of strong feelings for Penny may be due to the idea that haunts Doc about the continuation of a romantic relationship with Shasta, which never left the protagonist completely. It seems as if the protagonist deliberately sought Shasta’s presence everywhere, and her actual disappearance at a certain point can be regarded as a metaphor for Doc’s continual quest for that relationship. Overall, the innate contradiction between the characters who cared about each other and Doc’s obsession with Shasta reveals itself not merely in the protagonist’s behavior throughout the investigation (for example, it could be the character’s curiosity about Shasta’s relationship with Mickey Wolfmann that made him plunge into the inquiry more deeply), but also defines the way he interacted with Penny.
Conclusion
Throughout the majority of the novel, Shasta’s image remains ephemeral and symbolic. Thus the image of Doc’s ex-girlfriend is central to his romantic desires and is represented as an unreachable ideal and a faded past. The failure to reverse time and realize this dream made Doc seek for pleasure and comfort in non-serious relationships with other women.
Work Cited
Pynchon, Thomas. Inherent Vice. Random House, 2015.