Drugs in Pynchon's fiction

[Terrance F. Flaherty]

rj wrote:
> 
> Paul Mackin <pmackin at clark.net>:
> 
> > studying the dope culture as a social phenomonom and something
> > to write about is nothing like the same as being a part, even a marginal
> > part, of that culture
> 
> There's something very sterile and bookish (or newspaper reporterish)
> about this view of Pynchon as an Encyclopaedist, merely studying sources
> and commentating rather than actually living through the experiences he
> writes about. When I said that he seems to share Kerouac's
> "phenomenological" attitude to writing fiction, I meant that his life
> and his writing seem to be deliberately intertwined. 'A Journey Into the
> Mind of Watts' is the key text here, I think, where Pynchon is trying to
> get into the "mind" of that neighbourhood. But, his experiences as a
> corporate employee at Boeing (--> "Yoyodyne"), his work on aerospace
> safety, even his Jazz Club and post-Beat partying, all find their way
> into his fiction. In this respect I also think that his references to
> drug consumption and mind-altered states are more than the product of a
> quick cerebral dip into Hilde Hemme's Herbal Encyclopaedia.

Who knows? Phenomenology is from the Greek Phenomena "things
appearing" + logos "knowledge" and we don't have much
knowledge of Pynchon's mind. I'm not saying this is not a
valid approach, but to access the author's consciousness, to
discover the underlying nature and essence of a work of
literature under scrutiny is no easy task when our Knowledge
is so very limited. But, I think your point about Watts
valid, if we had more essays like this one, a
phenomenological approach would be easier, but than again
there are approaches, sometimes called "vulgar"
phenomenology, where a critic attempt to share the mode of
consciousness of the author, where the critic empties the
mind of all preconceptions and presuppositions about the
author and the text and studies the text, naked. 

TF

> 
> The other thing that strikes me is how much Slothrop's (reputed)
> appearance on the back cover of The Fool's record cover is emulated by
> Pynchon's own Godzilla-shirted guest spot on Lotion's LP.
> 
> best