Will's Students- Adam

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WillL at fieldschool.com wrote:
> 
> Date    5/8/97
> Subject Will's Students- Adam
> From    WillL
> To      Pynchon List
> 
> Will's Students: Adam
> 
> Thanks again to the wonderful Pynchon List for indulging my students during this
> busy time on the list (too busy, if you ask me -- I can barely read half the
> list messages, much less respond).  I have asked my students to write about four
> paragraphs or so about one of three stories:  TRP's "The Secret Integration,"
> William Vollmann's "The Blue Wallet" (from THE RAINBOW STORIES) or James
> Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues."  They will then be required to post responses to at
> least three of the comments they receive from the List.
> 
> Please note that these posts are unedited by me.  Also, you should know that the
> students' "central texts" this year have been THE WIZARD OF OZ (the movie), THE
> SCARLET LETTER, HUCK FINN, Whitman's "Song of Myself," and THEIR EYES WERE
> WATCHING GOD.  When reading THE SCARLET LETTER, they read a one page excerpt
> from GRAVITY'S RAINBOW regarding heretical Puritan William Slothrop.  They are
> steeped in the idea of Preterite and Elect as a metaphor for various dichotomies
> in American society, as well as the idea that such dichotomies are often false
> constructions.  This project in the culmination of the THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING
> GOD unit, which has dealt with gender and race inequities depicted in American
> Literature.
> 
> Again, we welcome your critiques, to be addressed directly to the students.
> 
> My first student is Adam Rick , writing about William Vollmann
> 
> **************
> 
> Will Layman's 11th Grade Literature Class
> "The Blue Wallet" by William T. Vollmann
> Adam Rick
> [all italics and smallcaps have been retained in the quotations]
> 
>      This selection from Vollmann's The Rainbow Stories is not demonstrative of
> the typical and clear-cut dramatic conflict between two sides: blacks versus
> whites, Dorothy and her companions versus the Wicked Witch of the West, Montagus
> versus Capulets, etc. This story has a twist on that old hat theme -- the
> narrator. Bill must deal with neo-Nazi friends who feel racial hatred against
> his Korean girlfriend, Jenny. On the other hand, Jenny's Korean social circle
> does not approve of her relationship with the culturally-distanced Bill, and
> certainly fears his link to the skinheads. How can the seemingly neutral Bill
> manage to keep both these two "enemies" close to him, meanwhile avoiding their
> potentially destructive confrontation?
> 
>      Although Bill manages to preserve this delicate balance throughout the
> story, it seems quite unlikely that the health in his relationships
> (primarily those with Jenny and the skinhead Bootwoman Marisa) could last
> much beyond his narration's finale. Marisa is not conceding in her
> overwhelming racism; in Part 2 of the story wherein she fights a "fucking
> fat woman", she expresses disdain for the overweight as well as her belief
> in the supremacy of the white race. Vollmann's crude writing emphasizes
> such beliefs of Marisa's: The "nigger-fucking whore" is "too fuckin' fat
> for a white man to fuck [her] lousy ass!" So, when at the end of the story
> Marisa stares "expressionlessly into Jenny's face, and says cooly," one
> could easily expect some horrible racial slur to flow off her tongue. She
> responds to Jenny's longing to see Bill dance with only an assurance that
> she never will. This could be construed to imply many different things:
> Does Marisa feel that Bill _as a white_ is destined to separate from Jenny?
> Is she plotting to murder Jenny, as Bill theorizes four pages earlier in
> Part 11? Will she seduce Bill, and consequently rob Jenny of her man.
> (Reference to sign in doorway at the party where this confrontation occurs:
> "S.F. Bootwomen - They'll rob you of your money, your pride AND your man!"
> This motto embodies Jenny's fears of the bootwomen: that they took her
> wallet, dis her culture, and threaten her relationship.)
> 
>      If Bill were to persevere in his relationship with Jenny, would she be apt
> to keep it? Jenny hasn't told her family that she dates a white guy.
> Jenny's brother Richard is harshly criticized in the Korean circle because
> "he was seeing a Korean-American girl who had Caucasian ways." Her other
> brother Adam tells her that he is very disappointed about her (white)
> boyfriend. Jenny sticks up for Bill, particularly with Adam=97she can't
> understand why he "doesn't feel good" about Bill "just because of
> appearance." Nevertheless, Bill comments in regard to Jenny's clam-
> scrubbing that "in Jenny's world, as in Marisa's, every alien must be
> sterilized." Indicative of Jenny's racism is her quick conclusion that
> Marisa stole her credit card and took it shopping at Macy's: this is simply
> not part of a skinhead's life. Even Bill's roommate Martin thinks that the
> skinheads took Jenny's wallet, and the accuracy of her suspicions about
> their extreme racism is confirmed by Bill's narration. But, are the
> skinheads the only "bad guys" in this story?  Don't the Koreans exhibit an
> equally awful racism?
> 
>      I would like to believe that Bill's two loves are reconciliable, but
> Vollmann's indications against this possibility abound. If this were a
> happily-ending "Chekhovian story, or a tale from Maupassant," as Bill
> speculates, the wallet would be found and relations would cool. If it were
> really a happily-ending commentary on life in these United States, (San
> Francisco, to be exact), "this revulsion that the colors of the rainbow
> feel for each other" would cease to exist. Bill could concurrently date a
> Korean and party with skinheads. The strong-felt prejudices apparently
> aren't eliminated by the end of this story, but I wonder if Bill could
> better juggle the elements of this relationship conflict.
good thinking there. keep in mind that whether or not bill's two
relationships (or the people involved, rather) can be reconciled to EACH
OTHER, bill might still be able to reconcile the two relationships to
HIMSELF. it is always disheartening to try to get two friends who don't
like/accept each other for whatever reason to try and get along, only to
see them his/scratch/punch at each other. what one must realize in order
to stay sane is that contingencies are not absolute, ie they may not
like each other, though they each get along with you, and one can only
really look after their own interaction with others and avoid feeling
like one has to choose. bootwoman marissa, despite her company and
perhaps half-hearted philosophy, is an ok person (better than ok, and no
worse than jenny, who harbors her own bigotries, though to her credit
she goes to the skinhead party, just as marissa goes to bill and jenny's
party). one is left to wonder if both jenny AND marissa will reconsider
their appearence-based bigotries. in any case, bill must deal with his
own feelings and alliances, which he seems to have the bravery to do.
a note to the teacher: 
i am impressed that among the "classics" you have introduced some
modern-modern masterpieces--i cannot guess at your enthusiasm for some
of the standard reading list texts, but regardless of the fact that you
might be under pressure to present certain examples of literature, you
have found a way to present some of what you've come across in your
contemporary travels. your students will be richer for it.
ray