Kids

[Dave Monroe]

... well, I see you all beat me to yr copies of Philippe Aries's
Centuries of Childhood: A Social History of Family Life, so I won't even
attempt to rehearse the undulating history of the notion of childhood
innocence (though I'm taking Rousseau, Romanticism and Victorian
Sentimentalism as key moments, myself), but I will note that, in
"Christianity" (as for The Sex Pistols), no one is innocent, that
"original sin" thing, indeed.  Though, again, and as has been noted by
others, the culpability of children varies among Christianities, though,
presumably, baptism cleanses that there original sin away, at least,
although not all Christians are baptized as children, either, so ... but
perhaps that's all beside the point, at least as far as Pynchon,
Gravity's Rainbow is concerned.  Richard Poirier, in his review of GR,
"Rocket Power" (handily reprinted in the very useful indeed Thomas
Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow, ed. Harold Bloom; Bloom's introduction, by
the way, of course, takes an affirmative view of GR as gnostic, but I'll
decline to disagree here) conveniently hits a few key points on the
subject of Pynchon 'n' kids.  While he notes what seems to be Pynchon's
genuine sympathy for children--says Slothrop "will do anything for
little kids," something like that, right on up to an including wearing a
giant pig costume; he also notes Pokler's poignant series of meetings
with a girl and/or girls who may or may not actually be his daughter--he
also notes Pynchon's "extraordinary affection for adolescent
girls"--e.g., Bianca; one might also note hose Dutch girls wriggling
around on the lap of, can't recall now, Mason or Dixon? in, well, Mason
and Dixon--an affection he seems to have shared with his former
instructor, Vladimir Nabokov, and which is noted as well in Jules
Siegel, Christine Wexler, et al., Lineland: Mortality and Mercy on the
Internet's (well, whaddaya know) Pynchon-L at Waste.Org Discussion List.
And, along with the instances noted by Michel (though I'll note that
Byron is referred to as an "old soul"), note what Pynchon, via Jamf and
Blicero, respectively, puts Baby Tyrone and Gottfried through as well,
both caught up particularly twisted moments of plastics R&D.  On the
other hand, you do have our intrepid adolsecent heroine, Prairie, in
Vineland, but ... but, well, like virtually everything in Pynchon's
texts, nothing is cut and dried, plain and simple, either/or, in short,
unproblematic ... but I will chime in on Larry Clark's Kids, which I
found, if not, say, "realistic," realist, at any rate, naturalistic,
believable (and I think there were those who say it who weren't quite
sure that it wasn't a documentary) ... disturbing, yes, but excellent,
nonetheless ... then again, I'd defend Jerry Springer: Ringmaster on the
basis of the perfectly plausible performances of those playing the
guests--indeed, JS himself was the least convincing memebr of the cast
...

Terrance wrote:

> Some notes from Aries, Hoyle & Evens  -==0
>
> Until sometime around the twelfth century, European society
> did not see childhood
> as a distinct period of development the way that we do now
> (Aries,). [...]