Pynchon and Film

[LARSSON at vax1.mankato.msus.edu]

In reply to Ron Churgin's notes about P and film, these are well noted.  I 
happened to write my dissertation on this very subject.  There is, as you
note, the notion of film as a false and analytical representation of reality, yet
there is also its potential (for "dreams of flight," for reversals of entropy) 
which themselves can be misused.  Interesting that Greta, maybe the most
tragic and abused figure of the book, is most deeply implicated by film, while
those who have been used by film or misled (Katje, Pokler) are able to make
some kind of escape.  Finally, note the interesting parallels between Pynchon's
critique of the film apparatus and the one coming out of French critics in
the 1970s.

Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)