Pynchon and Jung

[LARSSON at vax1.mankato.msus.edu]

Recent post:
"I do find a lot in that is useful, and a lot of which has remarkable
affinities with some of the post-structural discourse that usually debunks
Jung.  While Pynchon takes a crack at Jung in GR re the collective uncon.
and archetypes, I'm not sure it was properly informed, especially considering
some of the Jungian spiritualism that pervades the rest of the book (I'm
thinking of Geli's vision).  Anyway, the unfortunate thing about Jung, then &
now, is his populist 'new age' (mis)appropriation, promoting the opinion that
his stuff just can't be that intellectually sophisticated (wrong), and goodness
knows, we need intellectual sophistication.  Sorry, I'm ranting a bit about
academic standards.  I'll stop by inviting comments and suggestions.  Any
closet Jungians out there?"

I'm not really a closet Jungian (I have similar--and rather severe--apprehen-
sions about Carl), but certainly Pynchon appropriates him--or at least some
of his concerns and interests--in both GR and VINELAND.  I suspect that
P. is by nature too skeptical to take Jung literally, but there are many
affinities, from the Titans passage and the notion of earth as a living
critter in GR to the passage to Hell at the end of VINELAND.  While
Freud (and Lacan, Lord help us!) might be a more suitable starting place
for "materialist" theories of literature and life, one can question the
ideological biases of those materialist theories to begin with.  Even if
one doesn'
t, the *cultural* influence of Jung has been immense and is not acknowledged
often by the academy.  Consider the Jungian ramifications of the STAR WARS
films and shows like NORTHERN EXPOSURE, just to begin.

--Don Larsson, Mankato State U., MN