What's it all about?

[Paul Mackin]

On Mon, 12 Jul 1999 calbert at pop.tiac.net wrote:

> 
> > A difference in Pynchon is that his book doesn't seem to be  
> > autobiographical. Because of this, do we have a harder time feeling
> > directly his own hopes and fears? What his answers to the problem of
> > death might be. We do know or think we know that he believes that Death
> > (and by extension meta-death) is the only thing worth writing about. (not
> > in so many words but something to that effect)
> > 			
> > Please excuse all the generalities. It's the surface texture of the novel
> > that gives us pleasure. But the skeleton is also discernible. 
> 
> I think the question of whether P is an optimist or pessimist is a 
> highly relevant one. I'm with the former.
> 
> In the review of Waugh that I mentioned a few weeks back, the author 
> suggested that Waugh has mistakenly been labelled kind of a 
> misanthrope, it was the authors contention that in spite of the 
> apparent abundance of evidence to that effect, that Waugh had a 
> fundamental faith in love and redemption.  It is pretty clear that 
> Pynchon's universe appears pretty bleak, but he does seem to place a 
> value on love (in its various tortured forms) and hope does not 
> appear entirely obliterated.
> 
> now THAT'S general.

I think I remember Waugh once saying something to the effect that though
he was in fact a pretty dreadful person he would have been much worse
without his Catholicism. It might not have helped his writing however. The
pre-conversion books seem to be more admired. The Catholicism in Bridehead
Revisited always struck me as being hopelessly cut and dried. Julia must
either love God or love Charles. She can't love both for the
seemingly (to many) arbitrary reason that she was married previously to
Rex. But I guess we're talking about Pynchon, not Waugh.

I think P maintains tension between hope and despair exceedingly well. The
central metaphor is that we are passed over. We really FEEL passed over 
when we hear the taunting pronouncement: you never thought they would
save you, did you. But is this real or imaginary? Sane or delusional?
The question is always present. P strikes me as having a pretty sunny 
disposition, as one of the healthy minded despite what he writes about.   
Doubt if he worries enough about his natural inclinations or state in the
universe to feel a need for any kind of trancendental deliverance. 

As to love, it's a very difficult subject.

			P.