pynchon-l-digest V1 #721

[Scott Eric Kaufman]

On Sat, 19 Jul 1997 kellner at ccwf.cc.utexas.edu wrote:

> But I didn't find any particularly illuminating depictions, or can't
> recall any right now, of the US North and South divide. So while I think
> it is very good on the Enlightenment and its other, colonization, race,
> and many many other things I was a bit disappointed by failure to really
> engage the great North/South divide in US history.... Or did I miss
> something(s)??

This may sound a bit odd, but I don't think the book was about the
ramifications of drawing a line so much as the difficulties.  It seems
that the ramifications of "lines" are something Pynchon's already covered
in GR, where the lack of lines that once were (in Europe) cause
international havoc and those that've just been created (in Berlin when
Tyrone's the Rocketman dodging series of border police to get Bodine's
hash) cause a more personal devastation.  Lines abound in GR (the
aforementioned, those between this and the spirit world, between those who
believe Slothrop's erections are a reaction to the coming bombs and those
who believe they attract the coming bomb, etc.), but there's little talk
of their creation.  GR is the madcap adventures of those dealing with
lines and linelessness; M&D, though it deals in part with linelessness, is
(quite obviously) the madcap adventures of those creating the lines.  

I'm not saying that Pynchon shouldn't've dealt with the ramifications (I
found M&D increasing dry and sluggish as the drawing of the line went
along, but was thoroughly pleased with the last section), but that he
already has, even though the wars differ.

I mean, WWII and the Civil War are not one and the same, but the parellels
that I can draw by connecting them in this fashion are nearly limitless,
and that's what I look for when I read; audience participation.

Scott Kaufman
skaufm1 at tiger.lsu.edu