Kenosha, Fractals . . .

[Aaron Yeater]

> 	I want to suggest -- hesitantly, deferentially -- that in recent 
> discussions of the Kenosha Kid and the fractal structure of GRAVITY'S 
> RAINBOW we are imputing to Pynchon a consciousness of his effects 
> that he does not, much of the time, possess.
> 	In the introduction to SLOW LEARNER, does he not specifically
> repuditate the practice of writing fiction merely to embody ideas?  I see
> Pynchon as an instinctive writer, albeit a hugely learned one. 
> 	Even instinctive writers, of course, cannot help HAVING ideas, 
> but this is quite a different matter from coding Mandelbrot into one's 
> work. 

No need to be hesitant or deferential--what you express is always a 
possibility, with any writer, any time you try to "interpret" what 
they are/were doing when they write, and its always worth reminding 
ourselves of that fact...

that having been said, i am wary of the other alternative--dumming 
TRP or any other writer down because he "couldn't have really meant 
that."  i would rather assume that he's smart and we occasionally 
figure out what he might mean, rather than assume that he's an idiot 
savant and
we are in fact too smart for our own good--its an easy form of 
self-congratulation.

in the end these are all interpretive ideas--possibilities that will 
help us all get a handle on what is happening in what we all, 
hopefully, agree is an amazing work, GR.  they are tools.  i for one 
can say that true or silly or false, the possibilities of meaning suggested 
in scholarship and here on this discussion group have given me much 
to think about in TRP's work and elsewhere in my thinking life.

keep talking...

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"The world is all that is the case"
                  Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus