Harper Valley PTA Report

[Craig Clark]

davemarc sez:
    
> As I've probably stated before, I think that in GR especially Pynchon's
> like the Bosch of The Garden of Earthly delights.  He's portraying a
> multitude of bizarre carnal activities with a partly "judgmental," partly
> satirical, partly awestruck sensibility.  Add to that Pynchon's penchant
> for analysis:  he touches upon the "programming" that leads to such
> behavior in humans.  But I don't get the impression he expects to titillate
> many of his readers.

There's another important consideration as well. _GR_ attempts to be 
a compendium of twentieth century textual forms, from scientific text 
to comic book to film script. Of course pornography must be included. 
This is not in itself enough to label _GR_ as a pornographic text, 
however, since the crux of Pynchon's use of textual forms is to 
expose the power relations they serve. Unlike the average work of 
pornography, _GR_ is massively hostile towards white male capitalist patriarchy.

As far as Steelhead's attack on Diana York Blaine is concerned, 
personally I doubt that TRP would be willing to support many of the 
causes that Larry Flynt espouses, whereas I suspect TRP and Diana 
stand for many of the same values. Flynt seems no more interested in 
freedom of speech than the editors of his South African edition, who 
since 1990 have been willing to face prosecution on furtherance of their 
rights to publish pictures of female genitalia, but who sat with their smuggled-in
copies of the US edition of _Hustler_ pulling on their puds while _The Weekly 
Mail_ was banned for an article explaining the ANC's proposals for a 
non-racial SA back in 1988. Somehow the number of people who were prepared to
fight censorship in regard to pornography has always been bigger than 
the number of people who were prepared to fight censorship in regard 
to basic human rights.

Should _Hustler_ be banned? Of  course not. (I've seen nothing yet to 
suggest that Diana York Blaine thinks it should be, either). Is censorship the only
way to combat pornography? No, it is not. Let's try educating people 
about womens' rights and their claims on equality. Let's promote 
healthier attitudes towards sexuality (and remember that repressing 
sexuality leads to unhealthy attitudes). Let's stop commodifying 
sexuality and just about everything else that is good and nice. Oh, and while 
we're doing all the above, we might notice that TRP stands up for love and 
compassion and respect for human beings, male as well as female. 
Which is more than can be said for Larry Flynt.

 
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"