Pynchon's Celebration of Television as a Preterite Medium in *Vineland*

[jbor]

>From the Introduction to the quite good 'Babies of Wackiness' reader's guide
to *Vineland* at

http://home1.gte.net/shadow88/index.htm

> Pynchon's attitude toward TV is easy to figure out: He loves it, but at the
> same time he distrusts it deeply. The fact that he always capitalizes it
> ("the Tube") shows how seriously he takes it; and his cascade of TV
> references, jokes, and sub-plots make it clear that he considers it a key
> element in his story. (A reasonably reliable source reports that Pynchon is
> a tube-watching insomniac.)

And, in the conclusion to the (*1984*) 'Is it OK to be a Luddite?' article
Pynchon comments that "because of the data revolution, it becomes every day
less possible to fool any of the people any of the time." That's "*because*"
of the data revolution, it is becoming "*less*" (my emph.) possible to fool
the people. He goes on to say that these revolutions in technology and mass
communications will ultimately keep "even the biggest of brass ...
flat-footed".

"But we now live, we are told, in the Computer Age. What is the outlook for
Luddite sensibility? Will mainframes attract the same hostile attention as
knitting frames once did? I really doubt it. Writers of all descriptions are
stampeding to buy word processors. Machines have already become so
user-friendly that even the most unreconstructed of Luddites can be charmed
into laying down the old sledgehammer and stroking a few keys instead.
Beyond this seems to be a growing consensus that knowledge really is power,
that there is a pretty straightforward conversion between money and
information, and that somehow, if the logistics can be worked out, miracles
may yet be possible. If this is so, Luddites may at last have come to stand
on common ground with their Snovian adversaries, the cheerful army of
technocrats who were supposed to have the "future in their bones." It may be
only a new form of the perennial Luddite ambivalence about machines, or it
may be that the deepest Luddite hope of miracle has now come to reside in
the computer's ability to get the right data to those whom the data will do
the most good. With the proper deployment of budget and computer time, we
will cure cancer, save ourselves from nuclear extinction, grow food for
everybody, detoxify the results of industrial greed gone berserk -- realize
all the wistful pipe dreams of our days.

THE word "Luddite" continues to be applied with contempt to anyone with
doubts about technology, especially the nuclear kind. Luddites today are no
longer faced with human factory owners and vulnerable machines. As
well-known President and unintentional Luddite D.D. Eisenhower prophesied
when he left office, there is now a permanent power establishment of
admirals, generals and corporate CEO's, up against whom us average poor
bastards are completely outclassed, although Ike didn't put it quite that
way. We are all supposed to keep tranquil and allow it to go on, even
though, because of the data revolution, it becomes every day less possible
to fool any of the people any of the time.

If our world survives, the next great challenge to watch out for will come
-- you heard it here first -- when the curves of research and development in
artificial intelligence, molecular biology and robotics all converge. Oboy.
It will be amazing and unpredictable, and even the biggest of brass, let us
devoutly hope, are going to be caught flat-footed. It is certainly something
for all good Luddites to look forward to if, God willing, we should live so
long. ... "

http://www.dds.nl/~n5m/texts/pynchon.htm

It's heartening to see that Santa Clara College has just taught a (freshman
level?) course in Technology and Communication, with Pynchon's NY Times
article high up on the reading list (along with an article by Kirkpatrick
Sale, stuff by McLuhan, Asimov, Neal Stephenson, Daniel Chandler et. al.)

http://www-acc.scu.edu/~PSoukup/12reading.html
http://tamaki.scu.edu/comm012/0329notes.html

best