V. vs. COL49

[LARSSON at vax1.mankato.msus.edu]

Bonnie started an interesting thread on the relative merits (or lack of
same) in V. and COL49.  Just a couple of thoughts here, for what they
re worth (about a cup of coffee if you have a buck or two on you):

1.  COL49 *is* more "teachable" because it's shorter.  V. is difficult to
handle in  a term, GR nearly impossible (especially if you're on the
quarter system).  That doesn't, of course, mean it's better than either of
those (or VINELAND, for that matter), but it does introduce some standard
Pynchon themes and concepts in a handy way.

2. TRP himself is right about the problems with the book's style.  The whole
concept of the Tristero (and especially its relation to Thurn & Taxis, once
you discover that the latter at least was real) can be headspinning.  But
there's a deadness of narrative tone that afflicts the book.  Despite a few
attempts at differentiation, all the characters sound the same.  (I also
have that problem reading Saul Bellow, who's *supposed* to have a great
ear for dialogue--can't hear it, myself).

3. There are good reasons not to underrate the book, though.  For fairly
readable analyses of the book's "politics," try some of the earlier stuff,
such as Cathy Davidson on Oedipa's "Androgyn" quest, Richard Poirier, and
Robert Sklar's essay "An Anarchist Miracle" (in the 20th Century Views
collection).  I think Sklar is especially on target in seeing COL49 as
a transitional work, not only in Pynchon's career but in American lit.
in general.

4. Thus, I'd agree that V. is more carefully crafted, more diverse and in some
sections (like Chap. 3) quite remarkable in its literary allusion, humor and 
evocation of postwar (pre-WWI?) angst.  And that is just why it is relatively
dead as a book--too crafted, too careful, too much postwar angst.

As an example, Bonnie notes the power of women in V.:
"Women are, especially in _V._
extremely powerful and free.  It is their power and their ability to
exercise it that become man's undoing.  Recoginizing this, they do all
they can to destroy her.  Yes, she is diminished--tricked often,
saddened.  Yet she is powerful.  Underscoring the nature of the cover
up--the one that's been going on for centuries, the one that is
instigated and maintained by men who pursue the eternal destruction of
this power, particularly by writing histories that favor male
hegemony--Pynchon shows his readers "the horror" of a male order built
upon destruction, much like Conrad did earlier in the century.  Kurtz
goes into the heart of darkness and learns of his "true nature".  The
truth of Vheissu?  Kurt Mondaugen faces a similar epiphany,which begins
when he too leaves innocently to study (weather?) and encounters visions
of a horrific imperialistic impulse that hurtles him further into an
encounter with madness."

But that analysis might work if we could be sure that V. were *real.*  I am
not at all convinced that she is, since she (or it) appears only in Stencil's
chapters, in reworkings of incidents that have been "Stencilized," in which
case she may represent a male fear of the Other, but her "power" is just
one more vision of male fantasy and fear.

Pynchon's women are always problematic, I think.  Even when they seem strong
and level-headed, from Paola to Oedipa to Geli Tripping to DL and Prairie,
they always seem to essentialize certain *eternal* female norms.  There's
more variety than in, say, Hemingway but there is still a sense that these
characters are closer to nature?  Maybe it has to do with the women--including
feminists--with whom TRP has associated.  Maybe it's just because he's a
guy.  I still have a problem, though, when prostitution becomes an emblem of
sensual and psychic liberation (see Paola/Ruby, Leni, and DL).

In sum, I guess I'm just saying that COL49 is probably somewhat overrated,
but that V. is better than a first novel but a bit too neat, all things told.

--Don Larsson, Mankato State U., MN

By the way, I think the person who started the TRP is dead rumor also started
the Hillary is pregnant rumor, which leads to interesting possibilities:

a) TRP is the father of Hillary's child
b) TRP is really Elvis (or Elvis is TRP)
c) TRP started the rumor himself
d) TRP really is (as someone suggested a long time ago) a pen name for
	JD Salinger, who wants to come in from the cold now.