GRGR(4) - Wasted-Word-Man

[calbert at pop.tiac.net]

david&/Jane:

> I think you're onto something here. The term 'westwardman' has always
> intrigued me. It doesn't seem to be a natural term at all, no archetype
> that I can think of. Now, 'cowboy' or 'frontiersman', yes, but
> "westwardman"? There's that stuff later in _GR_ about travellers north
> and the Kirghiz Light. And the Sudwest. And, in _Vineland_ DL heads
> *east* in a '66 Plymouth Fury whose name is Felicia, stopping in
> Columbus Ohio (_VL_ 133-4). Mm.
> [snip, but w/o snipfereous intentions]
> 
> The westwardman:
> 1. Moving toward the setting sun.
> 2. Leaving a Raped Landscape (Vs. Tryone's family's inertia).
> 3. The John-Wayne Hero:  Big Dick, will travel.
> 4. All Partners better watch out.

How about those who went west (English and French (yes spanish too, 
but I think P has them positioned a little differently)) - as opposed 
to those (primarily Germans, Belgians) who went south?

The path of the sun is east to west ( the corrrect translation of 
Spengler's title should be closer to "The Sunset (or Dusk) of the 
West) The west is new, fresh - the south (Africa) dark, dank, in a 
sense decrepit, the original home. The westernman seeks the new 
horizon whereas the "easternman" goes backwards to the origin.

Consider again the difference twixt Blicero and Crutchfield (I KNOW 
this is a stretch Crutchfield - LaCrosse) Blicero is described 
looking much like a civilian version of Schenks (sp?) Nosferatu. 
Nasty cracked yellow teeth, the aryan model gone to seed, whereas 
Crutchfield has that Malboro Man quality. Blicero is detached from a 
sense of "national" purpose while in Africa, as if he is hip to the 
degeneration of his "meta"- culture (that branch of western civ, 
scandi-teutonic). Cruchfield IS his national (cultural) purpose, 
unlike Blicero there is no recognition of the dark side of his work. 
As rj sez, he is, in his mind, bringing light, and by way of the 
colorcoded bandanas (red and blue, traditionally associated with 
England and France) offering (actually stamping) a link to a greater 
cultural identity.

Crutchfield is in the tradition of Mason & Dixon, albeit with a more 
sinister twist. To make him a symbol of the United States of the 
early 20th century seems to this reader to ignore Pynchon's exquisity 
symmetry.

love,
cfa