feminized Vineland

[davemarc]

At 03:17 PM 5/29/96 PST, you wrote:
>Following up some comments of Heikki and Andrew:
>
>>> _GR_ is impurely involved with phallic powers, sure, but the kaleidoscopic
>>> reflections of the narrator and characters won't cement any ego-boostings 
>>> of male individualism. Instead, the text desparately tries to prompt its
>>> readers to look for ways to subvert institutionalized phallic traditions.
>
>>I'll buy that too, in so far as it applies to the male characters.
>>Pynchon inverts Miller. What is interesting though is how the females
>>get a very different treatment, or rather no treatment at all. The
>>subversion is almost exclusively of phallic traditions.  Jessica,
>>Katje, Geli - they don't really get dissected. Sure, they are used as
>>stage props - Katje in particular - but it all reflects male concerns,
>>male perceptions. In this respect (and maybe only this respect) there
>>is a relation to Miller. But then why single him out.
>
>I strongly agree, and that's why I think that in VINELAND TP develops a very 
>different textual surface for his prose. and a different trajectory for his
plot: Much 
>less phallic, less linear, less projectile oriented, and much
more--female--if that 
>other suff is--male.  I think it's his mea culpa for all that boy
talk--male perceptions, 
>male concerns--in the previous work.  And IMO he gets it right.
>
So why is the martial arts expert unable to defend herself when abducted?

davemarc