give Vineland some respect (& a lengthy hello)

[Eric Dean Rasmussen]

First, hello all.  I'm Eric & I've been silently reading the list for a 
couple months now, but finally feel compelled to throw my 49 cents worth 
in after hearing Vineland get dogged on 1 too many times.

I feel a special affinity for the book.  It was actually the 1st Pynchon 
I read (In an undergrad class 2yrs ago, in my jr. year).  I'd only 
recently decided to major in English lit, but still hadn't fallen head 
over heels for an author.  

Vineland was the seductress that really pulled me in, not only to 
Pynchon's world, but to literature in general.   

Not that it was love at 1st read.  When I started it, I must've had other 
things on my mind.  I remember getting to the section where Zoyd is 
abducted on the plane & realizing I didn't know what in the hell was 
going on. My hunch is that I was trying to read it in the ridiculous  
dissect a book before you're finished fashion so that you can BS your way through class 
discussions w/out truly reading it.  Horrible, I know. Unfortunately 
that's what many undergrad Eng. classes unintentionally encourage.  But 
that's another topic.   

Anyway I started over, after we had finished the book in class, & 
actually read Vineland for fun.  And fun it was.  I was overwhelmed.  I 
particularly liked Pynchon's ability to explain to me what in the hell 
happened from the late '60s to the '80s.  I was born in '72, so Raygun, 
unfortunately, dominates my cultural memory.  I was also blown away by 
Pynchon's way w/ words.  He could credibly convey that annoying (in most 
cases, David Lowry of Camper Van Beehtoven & Cracker fame sings in it, 
yet I find it eloquent, so maybe its the content & not the form which 
bugs me usually) California slang which still hasn't overtaken Nebraska 
(my homestate) but has reached Colorado.  

To condense by bio, I ended up reading all of Pynchon's books (GR 
took me a few tries) & ended up doing my senior thesis at Coe College on 
exemption in Vineland & Farina's Been Down So Long.  I think Farina's 
novel surely must have influenced TP when writing Vineland. 
REading the books together is a good idea.  Pynchon's is far 
more satisfying, but its interesting to note how Farina's book 
seems to predict the collapse of the political left in the US.  
Someday, I hope to write on liberal politics & lit.  I still 
refuse to believe that the good ol USA has become irrevocably 
right wing.  And this is despite the fact that I'm living next 
to the district responsible for electing that Newt.  

Maybe current affairs will prompt Pynchon to write another "V" 
novel, a sequel to Vineland, perhaps, w/ the V for Victorian. In terms of 
human compassion, we're living in a Doggy Dogg Social Darwin World, but 
now the technology for a truly omnipresent Panopticon environment is all 
but in place. 

I want TP to start publishing on the Net.  The world needs a  
renegade liberal voice on the Info highway & airwaves. I 
nominate Pynchon.  Surely he could still maintain his privacy.  
Might not have the profile that Rush does, but few people could 
succeed in being so disgustingly Jabbaesque, & the invisible 
voice might just convert a few fundamentalists.

OK, OK, enough daydreaming... but it feels soooo good.  

Where was I?  Oh yeah, I've read Vineland countless times & still love it.  It might be my favorite, 
actually. One reason is b/c I think the human relationships in the 
Vineland are richer than the other books w/ the exception of GR.  In GR I 
was most impressed by Pynchon's treatment of Roger & Jessica's relationship & 
the German officer & the S. African slave girl--the latter was 
horrifying (sorry can't remember names) yet somehow beautiful in the way 
it played out.  I can't think of many writers who could pull such a topic 
off, or would even try.  

I'm going to be rereading GR this semester for a 
class & am really looking forward to it (I'm now a grad student in 
English at Emory University).  Perhaps it will oust Vineland from my #1 
slot (actually I hate having to pick favorites, but since Nebraska is 
Natl. Champion I'm temporarily more accepting of hierarchies). 

This is becoming too narcissistic, so I'll close w/ a ?

Anyone know where I can get ahold of a hardcover copy of GR for myself?  
	I know I can't afford a 1st edition, but wasn't GR reissued in 
the '80s.  A bookstore here in Atlanta is working on it for me, but so 
far hasn't contacted me.  If you can point me in the right direction, I'd 
appreciate it.

One last comment for disccusion -- I nominate Milos Forman (One Flew Over 
the Cuckoo's Nest, Amadeus, Fireman's Ball, Loves of a Blond) to direct 
the film (TV movie?) version of Vineland. Coming from Czecheslovakia, he 
learned how to get "subversive" messages across on a # of levels, is 
great at ridiculing bureaucracy, and can move from cartoon to tragic in a 
flash.  Like Pynchon, he's received acclaim, but is still a figure the 
mainstream dunno what to do with.

Any remarks?  Casting suggestions? Further support for Vineland?

Talk to ya'all ril soon...
	
			Eric