TRP/Sexism/Film

[James W. Horton]

On Wed, 16 Nov 1994, Alec W Mchoul wrote:

> On Wed, 16 Nov 1994 Orlowsky at aol.com wrote:
>  
> > If Robert Altman makes a successful movie of Angels in
> > America, perhaps he could be the one to try.
> 
> Then Basil:
> "I don't think that a director as sexist as Robert Altman would do a
> Pynchon screenplay any good"
>  
> To which I have to say, after several investigations of TRP's sexual 
> politics (pre- and post- his admissions to sexism in the Intro to _SL_), 
> Basil is right: Altman wouldn't be sexist _enough_.
> 
> Alec


Okay, I'll bite.  This is always a dangerous topic, but a good one.  Pig
Bodine's encounter with the Red Cross nurse around the time of the runcible
spoon fight (with Bodine and Slothrop highjacking her ambulance) is pretty 
off-putting and sexist I think.  But I would ask you to give what you 
think are some of the most egregious examples, because I don't think by 
and large Pynchon is very sexist, despite the disappointingly smarmy 
tone he took in the intro to Slow Learner.  Sometimes there exists a 
tendency to confuse the use of sexual stereotypes (of which there are 
many in the corpus) with sexism per se.

jim