animals in M&D

[Richard Romeo]

M&D goes back to the beginning when the Age of Reason was in its 
ascendancy--Pynchon through his images wants us to remember that as history 
remembers things by reducing complex systems to certainty, that so much gets 
left out, leaving his lonely crazies to wander the flat entropic plains, 
listening only for those to bring them death.
Vineland bookends with M&D the three previous books, in that in Vineland, 
everything is pounded flat, language, revolt, even rock and roll, M&D is 
where it starts in Pre-Revolutionary America (no pun intended). Pynchon, in 
effect, is giving us the alpha and omega of the three quest late 20th 
Century malaise novels, and hence one can see P's direction after GR--why 
not show the present results of what went on in V CL GR, 1980s America, and 
where it began, right at the end of the 18th Century. (of course, this begs 
the question, what could P do next as seen in this specualtive view, as to 
how can he fit anything new into the pre and post-GR dichotomy.)

But Pynchon through his affinity for the margins, not a surprise, has his 
readers look to the margins for the bits of transcendence that the Grinch 
forgot to steal from Cindy Lou (me and you). The duck and the dog are such 
examples.

"Better a sober cannibal than a mad Christian"--Ishmael

Rich

>From: "miriam fernandez-santiago" <m.fernandez at latino.com>
>To: "Richard Romeo" <richardromeo at hotmail.com>
>Subject: Re: animals in M&D
>Date: Fri, 03 Sep 1999 19:02:53 +0100
>
>
>--I like it, can you push further?
>Miriam
>
>On Fri, 03 Sep 1999 09:21:27   Richard Romeo wrote:
> >another strike against the age of reason by those who whilst tuning their
> >mellotrons, begin again the process of attacking the dominant culture (cf
> >Robert Fripp and the boys before performing Fracture).  What could be 
>more
> >subversive than avatars of the divine,  not in human form, but a dog, a
> >duck.
> >also, Pynchon's way of not discriminating in his fiction:  don't forget 
>the
> >talking clocks, the woods that murmur, the rocks that are alive and
> >sentient.
> >Earth one big bug critter.
> >
> >rich
> >
> >
> >>From: "miriam fernandez-santiago" <m.fernandez at latino.com>
> >>To: pynchon-l at waste.org, "Richard Romeo" <richardromeo at hotmail.com>
> >>Subject: Re: animals in M&D
> >>Date: Fri, 03 Sep 1999 16:28:28 +0100
> >>
> >>
> >>--
> >>
> >>Ok, maybe I got to this list too late and  you ahve alrady discussed it
> >>but, any of you has a clue on the meaning of speaking animals in  Mason 
>and
> >>Dixon?  Like the Learned Dog and the Loving Duck?
> >>Miriam
> >>
> >>
> >>http://www.latinolink.com "A website with News, Culture and Commerce."
> >
> >______________________________________________________
> >Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
> >
>
>
>http://www.latinolink.com "A website with News, Culture and Commerce."

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com