thoughts

[Mark Wright AIA]

Howdy

--- DudiousMax at aol.com wrote: (snip)
> As 
> Mrs. Quoad's name suggests, the passage is a medley of anattributed 
> quotations from texts, literary or musical, known as quod-libets. 
(snip) At the subtextual level TRP is alerting us to The
> Holocaust, 
> to the murder of Jews by Germans, to poison gases, and to true and
> false 
> allies.  Much of what the book eventually is about it here in this
> short 
> section, in miniature, in the subtext.  It might prompt us to Max's
> axiom #1; 
> SOMETIMES THE SUBTEXT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE TEXT. (snip).  #2;
SOMETIMES THE SUBTEXT IS OF EQUAL
> 
> IMPORTANCE AS THE TEXT.   And just to demonstrate my charity, #3;
> SOMETIMES 
> THE TEXT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN THE SUBTEXT.

Is "alerting" the right word?  In a passage like this is the author
really alerting us to anything?  I think he is building an allusive
collage of sorts, using words/concepts the reader must bring to the
table.  You, as a wonderful reader, are alert to the text and find
within and beneath its surface a subtext.  Sometimes I think Pynchon
is, mostly, having fun -- flexing, grinning, performing, enjoying the
reach of his own mind.  The architect Robert Venturi often does this in
the context of another art form, which is one reason why I love his
work.  I propose Mark's First Corollary to Max's Axiom #2: "SOMETIMES
THE SUBTEXT IS AS MUCH FUN AS THE TEXT."

cheerfully, flexibly yours,
Mark
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