Seduced and Abandoned

[LARSSON at vax1.mankato.msus.edu]

P. writes:
"We're all abandoned in the end. We all die. We are all preterites here.
It's like the Christian view of Fallen Man except this being the 20th
Century there can be no hope of Redemption and Ressurection. We may
hear voices from beyond, and try to heed them. But no one is there."


If there's any one consistent theme in Pynchon, I think it is of abandonment
(subsets Fear Of and Consequences Of).  Consider Stencil trying to find the
trace of his father via V., Oedipa losing just about everybody she comes
into contact with in COL49, the kids in "The Secret Integration" running
back to mom and dad, and Prairie awaiting Brock's return in VINELAND, u.s.w.


Don Larsson, Mankato State U (MN)