pynchon's misogyny

[Brent Buescher]

matthew.percy at utoronto.ca writes:

>This leads us to Greg's point that 
>"this is what the ability to READ A NOVEL is all about"- is this to say 
>that there is a correct, right way of reading a novel (i.e. gauging its 
>meaning).  Personally, I prefer the notion that there can be numerous, 
>heterogeneic readings of texts (and of "meaning").

I think it's hard not to accept that notion in the face of experience.
I personally find it fascinating how different a rich piece of writing
like V. or GR can be when one returns to it after five years or more.
So in a sense, one's own previous "reading" of a text becomes more and
more inaccessible to *oneself* over time.  Extrapolating from there to
the inherent difficulty of communicating non-trivial "meaning" to
others is not a big step.

On the other hand, there really are *wrong* ways of reading a novel.
Saying this is equivalent to saying "misunderstandings occur", after
all.  

I think the folks who want to ban "Huckleberry Finn" from public
school libraries and from public school curricula on the grounds that
it is unacceptably and unredeemably racist have vastly misunderstood
Twain.  I think attributing this misunderstanding to an
"African-American" way of reading texts instead of to a regrettable
lack of education (and of sophistication) sufficient to understand
"Huckleberry Finn" in its Western literary context is actually a
pretty good example of the inherent racism in a lot of PC posturing.
That is, accepting the hysterical idea that it is a sign of
unredeemable racism when a white author depicts a sympathetic
character calling a black person a "nigger" on the grounds that this
is a valid "African-American" reading of the text is pretty darned
demeaning to African-Americans in my opinion.  I see this sort of
argument as nearly equivalent to saying "African-Americans don't
belong in the mainstream of American discourse."

>In a sense, Twain is 
>both racist and not-racist at the same time, and I think that you have to 
>try and remember this as a reader/critic (which to me is the essence of 
>"political correctness" - remembering the limitations of our own 
>(western) epistemology) so as not fall into the  trap of a binary 
>position and participate in a racist traditon of ignoring the concerns of 
>other peoples and races. 

Sure.  I don't doubt that there are ways that Twain is racist and
otherwise accepting of 19th century social norms that we now abhor and
of other such norms we may learn to abhor in the future.  I also don't
doubt that there are reasonable ways of reading "Huckleberry Finn"
that show it.

Some of the concerns of other peoples and races are also unrealistic,
like the tragedy of Native Americans who are unhappy because they want
North America back to themselves.  This is about equivalent in my
opinion to Northern Europeans wanting to return to the lifestyle they
lead before the Roman conquest.

Matthew, a lot of what you're saying here is correct but not relevant
to Dave's example of the people who want to ban "Huckleberry Finn".
If I've overstated my case above to build up to that point, I
apologize.  

>I think 
>its safe to assume that my comments 
>regarding Twain are analogous for Pynchon (and his treatment of women).  
>At least, I hope they are.  

Actually, I think they are more relevant in this context to Pynchon's
depictions of women than they are to the Twain-banners.  On the other
hand, recoiling from Pynchon in distaste and labeling him as "sexist"
is probably a symptom of misunderstanding Pynchon in the same way as
the Twain-banners misunderstand Twain.  I have to admit, though, that
I have gained some insight into Pynchon's quirky approach to female
characters from some of the arguments on this list about whether and
how and to what degree Pynchon is sexist.  This has suprised me
because I don't usually find getting into race or gender subtexts of
works that aren't focused in some degree or another on race or gender
issues very interesting.  But I guess there is a lot of grappling with
20th-century race and gender issues in Pynchon that I had absorbed but
not consciously articulated as part of my experience of his novels.

Brent