Today in class, Brian made a joke, as perfect for a Monday morning, “this is one of the things I do not know”, which is a very common thought I usually have especially in any classes that have anything to do with science or mathematics.
As a college student, I often find myself thinking this thought multiple times a day. We all laughed and gave him a round of applause for brightening up an early Monday morning however, as we all laughed, I started thinking about how true this statement is. I find myself learning new things each and every day from readings to my friends to my family and not to forget the conversations I over hear on a daily basis when I learn about the girl behind me in line to get food and all the intimate details of her life- no I am not nosey but observant, yes.
Vlepo in Percival Everett’s Frenzy often finds himself learning new things, unlike college students who are usually very in touch with their emotions and learning educational knowledge, Vlepo learns about how people express emotions and human knowledge. There are many circumstances where Dionysos-the half god half mortal- needs to understand a mortals feelings about say sex, he then inserts Vlepo into a sexual situation and has Vlepo experience the sex, then report back to the demigod about what the sex made him feel and what he thought. Dionysos then uses this information to understand humans better. “Vlepo, Vlepo, what would I do without you, my eyes? Why, without my eyes I would not exist” (Frenzy. 71). Dionysos is very dependent on Vlepo in order to understand and empathize with humans.
So, as my thoughts have led me to this decision, I am Vlepo in a way. I am trying to learn and collect all the knowledge I can in order to be an educated and accepted by society. In this case, if I wanted to follow my claim, Vlepo is an example of the individual, learning in attempt to make society better, society represented by Dionysos. The individual tries to learn as much as they can in order to make society a better place, by being more educated, if that individual had children, they pass that information and knowledge down to them, and if they don’t, they spread it through their friends and family thus making the world a more educated place.