Pynchon's politics again

[Bonnie Surfus (ENG)]

On Mon, 10 Jul 1995 LOT64 at aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 95-07-10 10:34:47 EDT, you write:
> 
> >I'd say there are metaphysics and metaphysics.  In V., the Conspiracy
> >that
> >Stencil imagines (and which is reinforced by P's imagery) is of some
> >malign
> >Otherworldly Presence whose mission on earth is to enhance the
> >eventual
> >triumph of entropy--the movement toward inanimation.
> >

I don't know.  I see the "Otherworldly Presence" as something more 
"worldly," something Pynchon illuminates through what Robert Holton reads 
as a retrieval of the sublime.  But what he exposes is only, partial, 
fragmented, achronological.  This is how history is always situated, 
despite the imposition of a false stasis.

If you read _V._ in terms of a satire concerning the nature of 
history-building, particularly in terms of the historical neglect of any 
incarnation of the Goddess beyond the Greek, the Renaissance Italian, or 
the contemporary porn-queen, drag star, etc., you might consider that the 
"Otherworldly Presence" does not effect the "triumph of entropy," but 
merely a kind of transfer, an unfriendly takeover.  If anything, the 
powers of animation are exploited and even, it's suggested in the nature 
of SHROUD, possibly transferred through cybernetics.  It seems to me that 
the situation involves a jealousy over the ultimate ability to animate by 
the reproductive capabilities of women.  Sex becomes perverse--witness 
Esther's sad affair--all bound up in Eigenvalue's desire to animate 
Esther, to reverse the process.  Where once the power was Her's, it is no 
more.  And the manner in which the shift struggles to occur--humiliation, 
degradation, all in the context of a Nazi talk on the domination and 
destruction of the Jews.
It's perverse.
Then there's that whole bit with Hedwig in Fopple's basement.  Mondaugen 
and she dancing, romantic, otherworldly--a dance with the Goddess.  But 
he spies the engines that metaphorically drive the universe and he's 
off.  Hedwig dances with Venus, her partner of choice, a nice parallel to 
the later, and greatest chapter in all Literature (14 ), "V. in Love,."  
Mondaugen's brush with a manifestation of the Goddess, She who has great 
power to animate (and to destroy), leaves him wanting.  So he tries his 
own hand.  And where does it lead him?  Smack into the center of the 
ugliest picture of the effects of this desire--to see the tortured 
bondel, a sad figure used to evoke the critique of colonizing impulses 
that span the "history" we know.  Interestingly, this all in the context 
of this brush with the GOddess, whom, we can find through reading recent 
work, has suffered the same fate at the hands of warring tribes, 
historians, anthropologists, etc.

I go too far.  But the point is that for me, _V._ is not so much about 
"moving to inanimation," but aping the powers of animation that occur 
naturally in order to effect male powers of animation--through the power 
to build colonies, histories, and cyborgs.  In fact, that the novel is 
called _V. A Novel_ is something we haven't discussed.  Not only does the 
".", the period seem essential to the title, but so does the "A Novel" 
addendum (oooo, Latin.)

Bonnie