SPHERE to Eternity

[rj]

tf
> But the case is being made for fictional characters
> referencing historical figures. 

The same principle applies with corporations you said.

> We seem far apart on Geli.
> But Sphere seems to have more common ground. It is a short
> essay a few of us have read and we can discuss separate from
> the ongoing grgr.

OK.

*****

>From the essay:
'Does McClintic Sphere in *V.* Stand for Thelonious Monk?'
                                               by
                                       Charles Hollander

http://www.achilles.net/~howardm/pynchon.html

> Wendell "Mucho" Maas, Clayton "Bloody" Chiclitz, for but two examples. In Lot 49, Pynchon means
>         for us to summon political figures Wendell Willkie and Henry De Lamar Clayton, on the subtextual
>         level. 

I disagree with this. These connections are not explicit. The characters
are developed in the text as fictional individuals who bear no
relationship to these prior personages.

> Also in Lot 49, Pynchon half-names "Secretaries James and Foster and Senator Joseph," and
>         similarly means for us to decrypt them as Secretary of Defense James V. Forrestal, Secretary of State
>         John Foster Dulles, and Senator Joseph R. McCarthy. 

Yes. Oedipa is referring to the actual political leaders of her student
days. This is a different type of reference altogether. These
Secretaries and Senators are not characters in the text, they are
historical personages, referred to as such.

> By naming his jazzman McClintic Sphere,
>         Pynchon signifies he wants us to decode to Thelonious Sphere Monk in the subtext.

I have a problem with "Pynchon signifies he wants us to decode". It is a
convoluted way of saying something very simple: "Pynchon might be
alluding to". And, why is this signification of a different timbre to
mention of the "hand-carved ivory saxophone" linking Sphere to Coleman?

The biographical data is well-detailed, but the stretch from Sphere's
mistress to the lady V. is an enormous one. Nowhere in the text of *V.*
is McLintic Sphere even cognizant of the existence of V., let alone is
she a mistress of his.

>         First, indicative naming is the use of a half-name where a fictional character leads us to a real historical
>         person. Second, the textual reference leads to something extra-textual that is important for understanding
>         the work at hand - what I term Pynchon's misdirection. Finally, this misdirection leads to a historical
>         situation - though never mentioning it in the text. 

The critic relies on a notion of "misdirection" to make his point. As
with the Incorrect German Fallacy and the Reader Trap False Syllogism,
the critic's approach relies on Mr P. making mistakes, or on the
assumption that what is actually written in the text is not what is
meant, for his interpretation to hold together. It is a critical
reinscription of the text in the image of the critic's own persuasions.

> We see, then, that McClintic Sphere is not a one-to-one stand-in for Ornette Coleman, and how and why
>         Pynchon means Sphere to signify Thelonious Monk and his mistress, the Baroness. We see how
>         Pynchon's use of irony and camouflage will mislead readers lacking the trained, or magic, eye.

This final statement smacks of an elitist approach, an imposition of
interpretation, one which is in stark contradiction to the notion that
the character of McLintic Sphere stands for "those who view themselves
as the disinherited, the preterite, the passed-over in American
society." The essayist seems to be saying that only the privileged can
understand the text, those with the "trained, or magic eye", and he is
the High Priest who holds the key. This is creating another
Elite/preterite scenario in which the critic has placed himself on a
side diametrically opposite to Mr P's acknowledged preterite sympathies.

What is framed as a question in the title of the article has become a
fait accompli by essay's end. It is a closed interpretation, and does
not do justice to the subtlety and breadth of Mr P's characterisation of
McLintic Sphere in *V.* The biographical information on Theolonius Monk
is well-presented, however.

best