Uncomfortable TV

[matthew.percy at utoronto.ca]

Probably the only way to subvert is through "irresponsible use of the 
harmonica".  Check the last book of _GR_, for example: I've always 
considered it to be an examination of  the impossiibility of creating an 
entirely alternative structure of power/language (i.e. a symbolic order 
that doesn't rest on the idea of exclusion).  Pynchon seems to stress 
that we use "their" tools/objects for "our" purposes (which is also a 
fairly accurate description of how his prose style works, borrowing from 
the popular and re-imagining it in a more literary form).  I think 
Pynchon attempts to avoid dogmatic distinctions such as 
proletariat/bouergeois;disempowered/empowered;1 and zero... he seems to 
assert that it is impossible (at this stage in the game) not to be 
tainted by "their" systems of though; ergo, the only thing to do is to 
practice those systems dialogically or recognize the "play" implicit in them.

Of course, the (eternal) question remains - how to do this?  It's pretty 
much a matter of personal responsibility and recognizing in yourself how 
you exclude/disenfranchise others through your actions, I'm told by a 
certain school of French philosophy.  But then again, I have no idea/

On Tue, 9 Jul 1996, Paul Mackin wrote:

> 
> Though tending to be skeptical of the power of a few TV shows (all of
> which I personally like) to "subvert" or "discomfort" ANYTHING, I
> can't help but question this perhaps too smug position in the face of
> the film (soon to be shown on televison? dare They?) "INDEPENDENCE DAY". 
> 
> The White House _does_ get blown up, doesn't  it?  And the 
> aliens, at least some of them, do go unpunished? 
> 
> Am basing this all on hearsy. Have walked by the local theatre several times
> (for me the Uptown, in the very shadow of the hallowed W.H.), but the 
> line is still prohibitively long.
> 
> The above is of course a joke, but I DO have a serious question. 
> 
> What exactly is there out there that there is any prospect of subverting?
> Capitalism? State Power? Popular Culture? Public (In)decency? 
> 
> For me, any one of the above would do. But these institutions are the air
> we breath in the final years of the 20th Century. 
> 
> 					P.
> 
>