(no subject)

[Muchasmasgracias at cs.com]

Lycidas at worldnet.att.net writes:

< So what's to be done? The family is gone terribly wrong. 
 
Again, gone from what?  I mean as bad as things are nowadays, haven't there 
been a lot of ugly and scary living conditions for humanity for a long long 
time?  Kinda 'nasty, brutish, and short'?  Although I guess there are many 
more people nowadays...  and there may have been a larger portion of humanity 
living under peaceful agrarian circumstances in the past....  whereas 
nowadays many of their progeny no longer farm or work or eat too much or feel 
so great about being alive...  But shit, I'm no anthropologist so how can I 
PROVE statements that?  I just got it all out of books and scattered 
photographs, what do I know?

Jeez, before I was going to suggest that the rest of what you posted sounded 
really cynical, but now I'm feeling kinda cynical myself.  And as you say at 
the end of your post, not everyone likes Pynchon's books.  By the standards 
of John Q. Citizen (whom I've never met) Pynchon is pretty remote and he's 
not always so cheery either.  Maybe that's what keeps the lines from wrapping 
around Barnes & Noble on his behalf (or maybe they do, I don't know about 
that either).

But okay so here's the thing:  If all a person has to offer is cynicism they 
really aren't helping much.  There certainly is a lot of pessimism in TRP's 
books, should we wonder that there isn't enough lightness, or that lots of 
the lightness he does give us seems to be implicated in the cause of all the 
Bad Shit he lays bare?



Of course not (but ooo wasn't that scary?)  I think the general way he goes 
about his work is a great example, the smoothest possible denial of the 
hype-culture (and reminiscent of Blake).  That and the dude's got a literary 
style with demi-semi-quavers shooting out his ass, gotta give the man credit 
for that.

To backtrack and prattle a bit, I would say that there are definitely humble 
and happy people out there who are living rich, sustainable lives, but it's 
hard to record the phenomenon because prying eyes tend to throw a 
heisenbergian wrench into the dance floor.  (Although doesn't it take prying 
eyes to be sure that the Joneses aren't living under a tyranical Mr. Jones 
who drinks all the time and has his way without question?)

Yours in confusion,

BS


Lycidas at worldnet.att.net continues:

 I know, how about bringing a super hero to power, say Ronald
 Ray Gun, and we'll bring back the glory days. 
 
 No, that won't work Ralph. 
 
 Oh, how about if we all dress up in hippy stuff and take
 acid and maybe have a parade for the guilty?  
 
 No, that's not gonna do it Ralph. 
 
 I know, we can get Hollywood to make a film about an idiot
 that makes every one feel smart and good all over again. 
 
 No, that's not gonna work Ralph. 
 
 How about we forget the past and make a new beginning, start
 all over, you know. 
 
 No, can't do that Ralph, but there is something of the past
 that can be of use to us, problem is, you can't sell it. 
 
 Can we make a non-profit made for free television movie
 about it? 
 
 No, but that Pynchon wrote a book about it, problem is,
 people didn't like it very much.