Prosthetic Paradise(2) Enfetishment&MS

[Michael Perez]

Terrance wrote:
"This non-humanity is not, as so many have argued, simply Pynchon's
Borgs or Terminators,human/machines, humans with plastic parts.  The
process is not mechanical and the humans are not machines, but are
humans in a world that no longer recognizes their humanity."

When Pynchon does introduce us to "humans with plastic parts," like the
Bad Priest, some humanity manifests itself.  Disassembly is not
necessarily disintegration.  Slothrop "disappears," but is not rendered
inanimate.  Esther gets a nose job which isn't necessarily rendering
her inanimate either, but the gruesome description of the process does
have the effect of goading the reader into seeing this as a
construction job (complete with orange cones).  Gottfried, of course,
is the ultimate human "cog."  To recognize humanity within the
inanimate and recognize the inanimate within humans is a bit too
simplistic for Pynchon.  After the characters and the reader
reestablish the humanity of humans given up for inanimate and realize
the lack of humanity in the inanimate, all are faced with a
considerable moral dilemma.  This is not, I believe a readers' trap, as
Terrance asks about (or a writers' trap), but a presentation of a major
philosophical question, there does not appear to be conscious deception
or dangerous ambiguity.  The dialectics regarding this issue are left,
for the most part, to the readers.


Michael

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