GRGR (15): Good & Evil (was Enzian...)

[Paul Mackin]

On Sun, 12 Dec 1999, Terrance F. Flaherty wrote:
> 
> Pederasty is quite common in Pynchon's fiction. Who are the
> men and who are the children? Does this tell us anything?
> 

I can't confirm that it is quite common. Haven't read the books
recently enough I guess. Perhaps however I am overlooking certain
occurences  for the simple reason that they are not very memorable. But
how can actions we are so conditioned to abhor NOT be memorable? Maybe
because there isn't a great  deal of carry over. Ruined lives, that sort
of thing. We are not made acutely aware of the damage caused. Or if there
IS carry over it is carry over of the wrong kind. The actuality of the
event is undermined, even turned into a joke. Soon we expect this kind of
betrayal. We grow to love it. It is Pynchon's way. But it does not promote
any kind of BELIEF. There can be no sense of evil if we cannot accept the
fictional goings on as REAL.

Someone is certain to bring up the historic evil we have been having
impressed upon us nonstop over the past fifty years. This context will
admittedly affect how we experience the fictional reality. But it is not
what we principally need in order to BELIEVE in the fictional reality, or
to believe in the evil.

Pynchon is not the place to exercise one's good and evil receptors, IMHO.


			P.