Vineland

The College of the Surf in Trasero County is built by wealthy right-wingers “for training the sorts of people who would work for them” (204): pliant law enforcement officers, business administrators, and computer science students. The campus, however, is taken over by the availability of marijuana. The “sinister herb” corrupts the minds of the trainees, having been made available by surfers and hippies. Cops are called to brutally remove the marijuana smokers. At the time, Weed Atman is a math professor. Since he is so tall, he helps many of the students escape into an apartment owned by a grad student named Rex Snuvvle. In doing so, he emerges as a de facto leader of a student activism organization which becomes known as All Damned Heat Off Campus (ADHOC).

From Rex, Weed and the other students learn a different version of how the United States became involved in the Vietnam War. The College of the Surf is actually a front. It is a cover for a land development deal that wants to build and sell “cliffside vacation units.”. As a result, the ADHOC members seek to take over the college. They want to secede from corrupt, untrustworthy California and build something of their own, which they will name The People’s Republic of Rock and Roll.

As the police, media, and military try to shut down the campus, the 24fps crew comes to film the students’ declaration of independence. When Frenesi shoots footage of the students, however, she secretly hands it over to Vond. This initial exchange leads to a more intimate relationship. He begins to tell her who and what she should be filming. His main target is Weed Atman.

Frenesi works her way into Weed’s inner circle. She starts a relationship with him to get closer to the heart of the organization, which allows her to shoot more footage for Vond. As she gathers this footage for him, he plans to use Department of Justice funds to destabilize the People’s Republic of Rock and Roll, injecting just enough money into the group that internal disputes will tear them apart. This is an experiment, illustrating how much money would be for “bringing down a whole country” (212).

Vond encourages Frenesi to kill Weed, thus collapsing the organization, but she refuses. One night, while laying in bed beside Vond, Frenesi reflects on the different way she sees Brock Vond. To other people, he seems like a “self-obsessed collegiate dickhead, projected on into adult format” (216). She hopes that, in the future, the real Brock Vond will come back. She thinks about love, a word and a concept that has been rendered trivial by rock and roll music.

In 1984, Weed Atman is attending the annual Thanatoid Roast. This is a get-together for all Thanatoids. Van Meter plays bass in the band; though he wanted to invite Zoyd to join him, Zoyd has not been seen for nearly a week. Zoyd is supposedly staying with one of the last remaining places in California where marijuana is grown. The other grow spots have been targeted by a “crop-destruction effort” led by CAMP and a former Nazi pilot named Karl Bopp. Willis Chunko, the sheriff of Vineland County, poses proudly with the flamethrower used to destroy the crops. He is filmed by television news crews.

Weed is greeted by a dentist named Dr. Larry Elasmo. The greeting sends Weed into a horrific reverie, reminding him of the time he was in a relationship with Frenesi during the time of the People’s Republic of Rock and Roll. The relationship was Vond’s idea, allowing Frenesi to get close to Vond’s target. As much as Weed came close to loving her, he never truly trusted her, as so much of her story did not seem to make sense. She also seduced Rex, elevating the growing tension between the two leaders of the People’s Republic of Rock and Roll.

Frenesi feared that her plot was about to be uncovered. She spread a rumor that Weed was an FBI informant, which turned the student protesters against him. When they met to discuss their plans, Frenesi and Vond talked about the widespread paranoia in the People’s Republic of Rock and Roll. The group was falling apart. Handing a gun to Frenesi, Vond told her to deliver it to Rex in the hope that the firearm would escalate the chaos and tension in the group. Vond’s plan worked: In a paranoid moment, Rex shot Weed.

The People’s Republic of Rock and Roll broke apart shortly after the shooting. Rather than a single moment, the breakup was a chaotic disintegration against the backdrop of tear gas clouds and burning cars. Everyone turned on one another in the dark after the power and water were shut off. Marines stormed the campus as the Highway Patrol and the sheriff watched on. In a press conference afterward, Brock Vond lied about the dead students. They were not murdered, he claimed. They simply went “underground.” Since no one at that time could believe that an American government agency would kill civilians, they all believed it.

DL and 24fps lost track of Frenesi after the collapse of the People’s Republic of Rock and Roll. According to rumors, she was arrested and taken to a nuclear fallout evacuation site from the Kennedy era. DL infiltrated the site with her ninja training. She found Frenesi in a part of the facility called the Office, where she was being tortured and brainwashed by Vond. DL led Frenesi away from the facility, hiding with her in a small Mexican fishing village. They stayed in a hotel, where Frenesi told DL everything about her relationship with Brock Vond. She admitted that she began to crave the torture in the reeducation camp; she “got to like” the pain as a way of welcoming punishment upon herself (261). The confession ended their relationship, and they parted ways. Not long after this separation, Frenesi met Zoyd. He was playing with the Corvairs in a Mexican town. Not long after, they were married.

In 1984, the in-house astrologer for 24fps, Mirage, tells DL that another member, Howie, has been “popped for cocaine” (263). She claims that Howie would never use cocaine, so she fears that he is being set up. She is calling all members of 24fps to alert them that they might be targeted like Howie. Some members, however, cannot be contacted. In a panic, DL wants the house to be inspected for bugs or spying devices. An old transmitter is found, one which is a sure reminder of Brock Vond. They leave the premises, with Prairie still in shock about the revelations concerning her mother.