V.V. (1) Picaresque novel

[jbor]

Thanks for your comments.

> Just to clarify, if you take the 
> Spanish works as a resumption of the form of these original works, which
> is, given the thematic and structural similarities, fairly easy to do, it
> seems to me, at least, that elements in the original experiments with the
> form were not continued.

I'm not so sure about a "resumption of the form". I think that there were
perhaps ongoing oral traditions, which is part of the thrust of Bakhtin's
commentary; and that what was written down and rescued for posterity is
probably only the tip of an iceberg. If there was a direct link or conscious
return like this I think that the intertextual references would be overt, as
that is in the nature of the medium.

> I think- of what relevance I leave to your judgement- that the original
> position of the Goddess and Goddess Cults, in these works, indicates a view
> of society as incomplete, and thus the picaresque journey becomes one of
> spiritual growth, enlightenment, etc.  As such it ties into all manner of
> things, and, hopefully, out of the realm of literature as speculation and
> into a sphere where really there's an attempt to communicate some very
> important and obscure things about being alive.  I have never been able to
> convince myself Don Quixote has that stature.

I think the novel is very much a secular form. The impetus of the narrative
is as much a loss of the social as a loss of the spiritual. The perceived
distance between "life" and (writing about) "life" is a sort of sublimated
tension in the text, whereas the quest for spiritual completeness is
something which is often regarded cynically, or with despair. If anything it
is this dynamic which passes down from Don Quixote (but I agree it is more
evident in the picaresque novels that preceded and paved the way for *Don
Quixote*, which is much more hybridised and certain of itself than they are)
through (for eg.) Tristram Shandy, Ishmael and Stephen Dedalus to
Stencil/Profane and Slothrop.

best


----------
>From: Ron Meiners <random at hearme.com>
>To: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>, pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: V.V. (1) Picaresque novel
>Date: Thu, Oct 12, 2000, 6:06 AM
>