pynchon's misogyny
Craig Clark
CLARK at SHEPFS2.UND.AC.ZA
Thu Oct 31 14:38:32 CST 1996
Bonnie Kyburz wrote:
> REpresentation has a lot to do
> with sexism, perhaps more than just the writing of a plot where certain
> things happen to that character or are enacted because of her/him. How
> is V. represented? by BOTH authors? by Fausto?
Interestingly enough, Susanne Kappeler's _The Pornography of
Representation_ - which deals with this idea - is highly critical of
TRP's status as a novelist: for Kappeler, the acclaim accorded to
_GR_, with its frequent images of the sexual degradation of women,
constitutes one mechanism whereby the White Male Establishment
disempowers women. Personally I disagree: I believe that the
"pornographic" (by which I mean degrading of women) elements in _GR_
are intended as ironies, to indicate not that women enjoy being
forced into degrading relationships (which would render them purely
pornographic, IMHO), but rather to illustrate the consciousnesses
created by the White Male Establishment, including those whereby
women are degraded. Anyone who mistakes Pynchon's work for a defense
or even a complicit gesture of support for the White Male
Establishment has clearly missed the boat.
Craig Clark
"Living inside the system is like driving across
the countryside in a bus driven by a maniac bent
on suicide."
- Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"
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