Drugs in Pynchon's fiction

[Terrance F. Flaherty]

rj wrote:
> 
> "Terrance F. Flaherty" <Lycidas at worldnet.att.net>:
> 
> > One more point here, in SL intro, Pynchon is talking about
> > 1955, in 1959, in his Ford Application,
> 
> He might be talking about 1955, but he is writing in 1984. The phrase
> "useful substance" is an endorsement from the perspective of 1984, one
> not affected by the context of the anecdote. I take it that he means
> that marijuana has been and is a useful substance for the
> imagination/his writing. On the basis of this I find it very difficult
> to accept that his Fiction would reflect a diametrically-opposed view.

Yes, obviously he is writing this in 1984, I don't see his
statement as an endorsement. I don't think you can support
this claim. A useful substance, yes, to artists, and for
traditional use as Doug notes. But where do we find Pot or
any other drug, used in a positive, life affirming way,
other than those instances when it is used for ritual,
ceremony, pow-wow, as I noted in my post on ergotism. Where
in GR, do we find LSD used for the good.  


> 
> I haven't read the Ford Application (and would love a link to it if
> there is one), but I think that the *SL* intro would be a more candid
> and reliable source than any overtures young Pynchon made to a corporate
> organisation for funding.

Yes, this is a good point. 

> 
> > began a set of Voltarian,
> > "Candide-like" stories.
> 
> Which became what? 'The Secret Integration'? *V.*? *Lot 49*? Not the
> best way of classifying any of these, I'd say.

That depends on how you would classify the above, and I
would add GR. These I view as Satires. 


> 
> > In SL intro he notes the "negative side" of the Beat
> > prophet resurrections, and the hippie movement, that "placed
> > too much emphasis on youth, including the eternal verity."
> 
> Yes, but he also writes of the positives, at greater length, and is
> positively laudatory of *On the Road*. He writes: Kerouac's book "I
> *still* believe is one of the great American novels." (my emph.)

This is true. Do Pynchon's novels resemble Kerouac's great
american novel, how? 


> 
> Thanks for the Eddins citations on Control and Conditioning. The thing
> he misses out on is the characters' Denials that such processes are
> possible, that they in fact operate on a daily basis and apply to each
> individual, and that in most cases each character her/himself is
> complicit in Their exercise and dominion. This additional theme is
> achieved stylistically, by the appropriation of (jumpcuts to and from)
> different characters' points of view throughout the text.
> 
> best


Does Eddin miss this? 

TF