author's bios, etc

[Jules Siegel]

Diana York Blaine wrote:
> 
> Thank you Roman!  your elegant posting helped me see the irony of my lack
> of interest in Pynchon's private life.  I, too, feel who wrote what and
> when are important issues to considering when analyzing literature--in
> fact my scholarship and pedagogy depend on it. During the last 2 weeks  my
> American lit survey course involved reading African-American author
> Langston Hughes and then seeing "Looking for Langston," a film about his
> homosexuality.  This was news to most students who then struggled in class
> discussion to renegotiate their relationship to the poetry with this
> (sadly unwelcome) knowledge in mind. We talked at length about whether
> it's our business, whether it matters, etc etc etc.  I guess the Pynchon
> stuff feels like minutiae, at least comparatively.  But your point is well
> taken, and I am looking critically at my own assumptions:  am I
> uninterested in the details because he is a straight white male and I
> "know what that means"? Talk about totalizing!  Glad for the nudge.
>     Speaking of which, even though I have just returned from a Southwest
> Airlines flight back from CA (if you have flown them you know what I am
> saying), I am so excited to see the discussion of feminism, parenthood and
> V. that I can't tear myself away.  Briefly:  in my diss I argue that V. is
> not postmodern but looking to reimpose at least one flagging metanarrative
> (Lyotard) in order to "shore up our ruins" a la Eliot.  That metanarrative
> would be, of course, conventional constructions of gender. V. is a
> woman/machine responsible for the destruction of the 20 century--she's
> also a mother, and when I saw the discussion of children I of course
> thought of Stencil, who is the adult-child-of-a-castrating-bitch (I don't
> know if there's a support group for this.  Could be.) Stunningly sexist?
> Yes. I think so.  And for good reason.  If the world is as awful as TRP
> posits it--and I know y'all probably find his argument as compelling as
> I--then the impulse to make stability becomes even more intense than in
> periods of relative ease (hence Vineland, which I admit I set down with a
> thud and a yuck--please God let Mason Dixon crank!!!!!!).  Attracted to
> and disgusted by the mother (and the mother's body) Stencil both can and
> cannot approach her for she's forbidden to him as male subject.  (Sorry
> about the psychobabble John but it's what my fancy UCLA education learned
> me how to do best).  Anyway sorry to go on at length but I am terribly
> impressed by the list's members (ac and non-ac alike) and would love
> comments. I promise credit when I publish the book!  thanks, Diana

I'm going to try to take this apart so I can try to understand it
better, and I will comment more later, as I think you're on to
something. Please excuse my ignorance of some of your references, but:
what book? "diss" = dissertation? Also, I always thought post-modernist
referred to art. Do you have a brief definition of post-modernism
somewhere you can send me so I can answer this intelligently? I think
the reference to Eliot should be explored fully. "The Wasteland" is very
close. As soon as you realize that these are different voices, each
speaking with its own accent and tone, the poem pops into relief. As I
remember, Eliot (with Pound's help?) added the footnotes, which some
readers found more obscure than the poem itself. Images created by
voices floating in a landscape--this is a very important (indeed,
dominant) Pynchon technique.

-- 
Jules Siegel Website: http://www.caribe.net.mx/siegel/jsiegel.htm
Mail: Apdo. 1764 Cancun QR 77501 Mexico
Street: Green 16 Paseo Pok-Ta-Pok Zona Hotelera Cancun QR 77500 Mexico
Tel: 011-52-98 87-49-18 Fax 87-49-13 E-mail: jsiegel at mail.caribe.net.mx