PYNCHON IN PULSE

[jporter]

Steely replies:

>Hell, no. I don't buy into this Spenglarian nonsense about the inevitable
>decline of American culture. If you want a good working out of that
>wacko theory go back and read Fitzgerald's Tender is the Night. Spenglar
>leads right to Harold Bloom, William Bennett, and that glib proponent of
>Catholic fascism Pat Buchanan. Sure, the nattering narrative voice of
>GR is self-conscious, self-mocking...but it's also incredibly generous...
>look at how it points outward into the vibrancy of contemporary culture
>with its references to Ishmael Reed, MF Beal, Kirk Sale, Farina, et al. TRP
>doesn't stamp GR as the "apogee of one culture's passing." At least, I
>don't see it that way. I don't read TRP as a fatalist.
>
>Steely

You give me WAY too much credit! "Spenglarian?" my mastery of philosophy is
much closer to Stengelarian, as in Casey, than to Spengler, et. al., or
better yet, one of my favorites, Yogi, whose oft' quoted "It ain't over
till it's over" is probably more apt here. I don"t read fatalism into TRP.
But it's sooo American to assume that cultural decline, of the type I'm
suggesting means: impotency, loss of vibrancy, etc...cf the passage in GR,
where Slothrop chases the lil' (Maxwell's?) demon- who just stole his
clothes and gave him the finger-

        That *sneak*. He climbed *down* the tree, not up!
        He's down there now, watching! They knew Slothrop
        would choose up, not down- They were counting on
        *that* damned American reflex all right, bad guy
        in a chase always heads up- why up? (GR,p199,Viking,'73)

Those damned American Reflexes. As Don Larsson suggests, up stream:

       ... some of it, from some readers, smacks of that
        terribly boring and male-centered agonizing over
        How Do I Top This that drove Hemingway to suicide
        and infects so much of Mailer...

Going down ain't so bad. If apogee means the passage of some of those
damned American reflexes, conditioned responses that lead "right to Harold
Bloom, William Bennett, and that glib proponent of Catholic fascism Pat
Buchanan" (not to mention Brock Vond), then perhaps having a soft-off ain't
such a bad thing.

It might even lead to more, ya know, goin' down...(Pity those poor,
tasteless, Prussians.)

Jody Porter
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Them good ol' boys were drinking whiskey and rye..."  Don Maclean