Pynchon and sexism

[Lawrence Warner]

Catharine Stimpson's article "Pre-Apocalyptic Atavism: TP's Early 
Fiction" (in *Mindful Pleasures*) has some interesting things to say 
about Pynchon's portrayal of women.  From the opening paragraph:  "[T]he 
pre-apocalyptic fiction of TP, before the splendid GR, grants a 
privileged place to women.  They are actors and symbols.  Their 
characterization--at once generous and warped, shrewd and 
regressive--provokes a mixture of contempt for contemporary sexuality and 
reverence for an atavistic mode."

In the last paragraph, Stimpson remarks that "If the early Pynchon were 
to offer a vital myth," in it "Ordinary women would be fertile.  
Goddesses would protect the natural bounty of the womb.  Like the moon, 
women would have a dark side that would haunt the imagination of men and 
remind them of their fragile mortality.  However, the early fiction 
dramatizes the mortifying betrayal of such roles, which wome women will 
and others resist."

In between these paragraphs, of course, are good readings of *V* and *Lot 
49*.

Lawrence Warner
University of Pennsylvania
lwarner at english.upenn.edu