HIGHLY SYMBOLIC

[Steelhead]

Karen Kaminski, a scholar at Bryant College, wants to know whether
Pynchon's characterization of Pig Bodine in V. is HIGHLY SYMBOLIC. The
querry is intended to smoke out responses from those in the know. In fact,
the intrepid student actually gets credit for being able to get decoders of
Pynchon to respond (relexively?) to this seductive stimulus. Her class is
called Shakespeare and Pynchon.

Now I know next to nothing about symbolism, except that it usually involves
fish (not pigs), at least in the representations of the surrealists, who of
course have nothing to do with Mr. P. But the thing that pricked my
curiousity was the title of Ms. Kaminski's course. Shakespeare and Pynchon.
I'm ordering a catalogue from Bryant today because I think its the
institution I've been looking for these many years.

For nearly two decades, I've wanted to pursue a course of study that would
place comparative literature in a truly post-modernist context. I've longed
for courses like: Racine (Jean) and Robbins (Tom): Less than Meets the Eye;
Fra Angelico and Judy Chicago: six degrees of separation; Hadyn and Bud
Powell: Anticipating Cool; How Green Was My Valley and Eraserhead:
Adventures in the Cinema of HyperReality; the Briton Lay and the poetry of
Charles Wright: the Hidden Links. I once tried to get approval for a
masters thesis comparing Marlowe's Edward II and Faulkner's Sanctuary. I
called it Sore Holes. No takers.

Steely