Hemingway and Pynchon

[Paul Mackin]

On Thu, 1 Jun 2000, Henry Musikar wrote:

> Many, if not most people (and writers are people, after all) are not of 
> products of the cutting edge of their own generation, but rather the fat, 
> conservative middle of the previous. Most young people during the sixties 
> weren't exactly "hip," let alone "hippies."

Hi Henry--
True. I tried to be one but was already too old and a father to
boot. Had friends in P's cohort starting in the mid-50s and some were
advanced politically and also quite hip. I appreciated their ideas
intellectually. I was  still young enough to be in search of
answers. Negative thinking about the powers that be was as natural to me
as falling off a log. This didn't mean I exactly thought anything much
was going to happen. The exception was the civil rights movement which I
firmly believed in and the antiwar movement as well. The rhetoric of
these was always too much for me to swallow but the practical action
turned out in the end to be effective to at least a limited degree. I
would marvel at the faith and  dedication of some of my younger
friends. One in particular whom I was in pretty close touch with from the
mid-50s into the early seventies made a point of always being politically
correct and I don't mean in the modern sense. I must admit his thinking
was as clear as anyones I've ever known. But what has ever came of
it? Haven't seen him lately but I'm sure he's as much of a dedicated
Marxist as ever.

What any of this explains about P I'm no long as sure of as even
yesterday and I was even then dubious. I feel sure that P at least
believed in the spirit of the youth revolution. At least he didn't
down right reject it whereas Roth and Updike probably saw it mostly 
as sound and fury harmful to good novel writing.  Anyway for
whatever reason the vociferious and often sincere cries of 
youth against injustice became a significant part of P's writing. 
It happened. For better or for worse.

Walked over to where Elian is staying to see what was going on. It's close
by. Same old agglomeration of news trucks and reporters looking for a
snippet for the nightly news.

			P.