Bodhisatva & Show Biz Kids

[Lycidas at worldnet.att.net]

"Derek C. Maus" wrote:
> 
> On Wed, 26 Jan 2000 Lycidas at worldnet.att.net wrote:
> 
> > Right, Steely Dan---these satirists. Why Zappa? He's another
> > satirist and Pynchon mentions him several times, for example
> > in his SL Intro. at the end (Pynchon seems to relate,
> > California word from a New Yorker, rilly,  and in VL. The
> > two songs are satires that, only to my listening to them
> > today, have some connection to the current GR chapters.
> 
> The Zappa connection I see easily enough, but I'm curious to hear how you
> see the Steely Dan songs as a) satires (they seem sort of like
> self-parodies to me, esp. the latter with the mention of the "Steely Dan
> t-shirts") 

Yup, self-parody and satire (and I don't want to get into a
discussion of satire, parody, Irony), in the simplest sense
that Steely Dan mocks contemporary trends of thought. Also,
how does the music fit to these lyrics, shouldn't a song
about a bodhistava sound more like Aja? How many notes can
we fit into this song, maybe it also reminds me of Pynchon's
Entropy, those speakers and trash cans?   And how this is
related to current GR discussions, is that Mondaugen is a
mockery of a Bodhisatva (these chapters are full of
self-parody, and political satire of 1960s America), more
complex than Steely Dan's, and the show biz kids making
movies of themselves, well on one level, a literal level,
isn't that what is going on in the STUDIO here in GR,
literally making movies of themselves and they don't give 
fuck  about anybody else--solopsistic, pornographic. And
aren't those show biz kids with all that money can buy,
kinda like,  at a siege party? Nice contrast to those
churches full of sinners and patron saints in the glory of
royal scam. 

TF




and b) related to GR. Given the length and breadth of the
> playlist we've assembled so far, I'm always curious to see the connections
> people are making.
> 
> As far as I know, TP never mentions Steely Dan, but I could be wrong. If
> he does, it'd almost surely have to be in Vineland.
> 
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------
> Derek C. Maus               | "My fondest hope is to die at the hands
> dmaus at email.unc.edu         |   of a murderer. In America, the truly
> UNC-CH, Dept. of English    |       famous are always murdered."
> http://www.unc.edu/~dmaus/  |                   --Quentin Crisp
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------