Roger, Jessica and all things Queer.

[Wayne A. Loftus]

I don't mean to quibble, but that does seem to be what we do here, no?  I've
just noticed several comments regarding the nature of Pynchon's
representation of all things queer, and am beginning to have something of a
problem.
Yes, the representation is as that of the perverse, arguably even on the
level of pedophilia or copraphasia.  However, setting Jessica and Roger's
relationship in the context of healthy hetero counterpoint to all of this
insanity doesn't seem particularly helpful to me...
Lest we forget the Beaver (where's Ward when you need him?)
Their relationship seems a reaction to the fear of the rocket more than
anything else, and for me at least, gets loosely grouped with Pudding's
reaction to his experience in the trenches.  More tender, to be sure... but
"healthy"?  I don't even think that that word has any meaning within the
context of this novel.  Human sexuality, of whatever type, seems very
"debased" here, frought with perversities and perils (E-coli really the
least among them).  Roger and Jessica's sexual fantasy is surely as
self-destructive as Pudding's... no?  For Roger, at least... but he was only
one who really bought into it in the first place... witness, again, the Beaver.
Enzian, also, is given to homosexual relationships, and, for me at least, is
the only truly sympathetic character in the novel.  But that's just a
personal reaction.  Nothing for which I'd care to make a case...


--wayne