Prosthetic Paradise (was Re: pynchon-l-digest V2 #1012

[Terrance F. Flaherty]

The back door of philosophy, yes, Swift uses this metaphor. 

Clearly. It would be po-faced of me not to hear the wit
        in a passage like this. But Scarry's humor is so
closely
        tied to a kind of humorlessly passionate intensity
that it
        is hard to appreciate for its own sake. What makes
        ''Dreaming by the Book'' stimulating is also, quite
        frequently, what makes it infuriating.

"Passionate intensity" is an insult that I'm sure Scarry
will recognize. "The worst are filled with passionate
intensity," WB Yeats, "The Second Coming." 

Wild! Is this what Slothrop's parents sold him to Jamf for?
Just kidding. 

TF


Paul Mackin wrote:
> 
> On Sat, 27 Nov 1999, rj wrote:
> >
> > > When I say Pynchon insists that
> > > humans should not be treated as machine parts, as means to
> > > an end, as slaves, I am offering my opinion, I insist that
> > > Pynchon insists.
> >
> > I'm saying that Pynchon is not a polemicist in the sense you imply here.
> > His fiction can be read as insisting this, as you do, but that is purely
> > the individual reader's prerogative, not the unalloyed intention of the
> > text.
> 
> You mean a posteriori P is not a polemicist based on analysis of his text,
> or a priori by the very nature of text "Pynchon" meaning Pynchon
> text cannot be polemic?
> 
> In either event those looking for a new way to read a book might like to
> read the Sunday NY Times review of Elaine Scarry's new book.
> 
>                 P.