Lud Oafery (was Re: MDMD(8) Notes Addendum)

[Doug Millison]

The New York Times has Pynchon's "IS IT O.K. TO BE A LUDDITE?" essay at its
web site, go to http://www.nytimes.com/books/home/ and search for "Luddite"
to get it. Highly recommended. You have to register to get into the site,
but it's free.

I felt a suspicion that Lud Oafery starts out as a wolf -- or at least
animal-like, no physical description, all that growling -- and transforms
into a fop at the end of the chapter, as in a reverse strip-tease, where
the dancer starts off naked and puts clothes on one piece at a time until
leaving the stage fully clothed.

At 7:31 PM 9/16/97, davemarc wrote:
>Lud Oafery seems to me both an inverted werewolf and an inversion of
>Pynchon's own idea of Lud--in his "normal" state akin to the "insane" Lud
>and then, against expectations, turning into a fop--not a dedicated Badass.


D O U G  M I L L I S O N ||||||||||| millison at online-journalist.com