Pynchon and Feminism (was Re: Later, nerds)

[davemarc]

> From: Paul Mackin <mackin at baywire.com>
> 
> Does Pynchon's writing somehow support the feminist viewpoint (assuming
there is convergence on it) by virtue of being a horrible example of what's
wrong with the world?

Setting aside the likelihood that there is no single "feminist viewpoint,"
it seems to me that the overall impulse of Pynchon's writing--non-fiction
and fiction--is feminist, and that the impulse has been growing stronger
over the years.

A philosopher once theorized that "by means of an accurate portrayal of
authentic social relations, the novelist will have destroyed the
conventional view of the nature of those revelations, shattered the
optimism of the bourgeois world, and forced the reader to question the
permanency of the prevailing order...even if the author [himself] does not
offer us any solutions, even if he does not clearly take sides."  At the
very least, Pynchon's writing strikes me as being "feminist" in that sense:
 it fairly screams out to the reader about social injustices, including
sexism (manifested through free will as much as conditioning).  It depicts
them as complicated--a very authentic portrayal indeed--and challenges the
audience to confront their complexities.

davemarc