pynchon-l-digest V2 #1794

[Doug Millison]

I'm willing to bet we'll find a better discussion on trade, 
economics, globalization, "free trade" at ILOVEGREENSPAN-L or 
IHATEGREENSPAN-L than we will on Pynchon-L, so I suggest we stick to 
Pynchon and what we find in his writing. Since he writes so much 
about politics, and economics, and corporations, and governments, 
there's plenty there to discuss, but I'd prefer to stay away from the 
strictly personal political/economic arguments -- but hey, go for it, 
nobody's stopping anybody from saying anything.  I put out the ZNet 
commentaries when the right-wing/libertarian/neo-liberal bs starts 
piling up too deep here in a discussion forum devoted to the works of 
a writer whose work is the object of a small library of critical 
articles clearly supporting the notion that Pynchon's work puts forth 
a recognizable political view of the world generally in keeping with 
leftist/Progressive/60's-radical ideals, even as the critical 
literature also sees Pynchon's work as treating this with some nuance 
-- especially, we can see that Pynchon tends to undermine the We/They 
opposition, he doesn't clearly condemn the System out there and 
instead takes many opportunities to show how They (corporations, 
Nazis, etc.) are in fact Us.  That doesn't stop Pynchon from also 
(both/and) indicting the ills that They (even if They is Us, acting 
through corporations, governments, armies) do.  I argue for a 
political, moral Pynchon who makes firm judgements in his fiction -- 
in fact, his work reveals a rather bitter critic of contemporary 
society, but I don't believe he's defeatist or fatalist (he keeps on 
writing and making us look at the world deeply, after all); I 
believe, from reading his texts, we can construct a "Pynchon" (that 
"implied Pynchon" Jane seems to like so much, perhaps) who positively 
values community, relationships, kindness, defense of human rights 
and the environment, love, and more, and who equally clearly condemns 
all manner of ill acts (genocide, environmental destruction, War, 
etc.).   Others construct a "Pynchon" who epitomizes the PoMo 
inability to make any moral  judgements and revise his work such that 
it cannot be said to condemn or favor anything; I reject this 
interpretation, just as I reject any interpretation that revises 
Pynchon and seeks to makes him into a defender of right wing or 
libertarian or AynRandy values -- it just won't fly.

>Date: Sat, 28 Apr 2001 17:52:12 -0400
>From: Jane Sweet <lycidas2 at earthlink.net>
>Subject: Re: I'm not jbor Doug

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