paranoia: 12 kinds in P's fiction

[wood jim]

--- MalignD at aol.com wrote:
> I have not read Hollander, don't see why I should,
> necessarily, but might.
> 
> As to P's paranoia--
> 
> I think it is fair to say that Pynchon uses in his
> fiction a paranoid point 
> of view.  That is, he envisions something behind or
> above what might 
> otherwise be considered the ordinary, some control
> where one would typically 
> not expect it.  WWII is a controlled theater, a
> puppet show of death, 
> controlled by various multinationals for whom the
> war is an 
> inconvenience/opportunity; 

I agree, a paranoid POV. However, I would add, that it
is not simply or only what might be behind or in
control of  war/War or Death/death or Theatre/Theater
or history/Secular History or that these are
controlled  by various multinationals (see Sasuly) or
Them/They (political/corporate/religious/metaphysical
etc.), but rather that in the present Dispensation
(the holy ghost of "calvinism",  loving JR BTW,
reminds me of Melville's M-D Kai, but also Typee and
CM), in the Modern Secular world and thus in the
Postmodern paranoid mind, the binaries 

(for example, and this is still another paranoia in
P's fiction, paranoia-- all is connected  vs. 
anti-paranoia--nothing is connected and  remember that
P does not allow for dialectic, only one and one one
only in GR and that is the Devil's Advocate so yin
yang for example is satirized along with Marx, Hegel,
Christianity, Neo-Freuduans like Jung and Brown  etc.)


are corrupted, the agon or conflict, say,  Eros and
Thanatos in a Freudian sense, or the best example
because it is a religious one, the Herero religion, is
not sustained, it has been corrupted, sickened, or
what happens when V is in Love, they lie on the bed
and all the agons melt away, but with them so too does
the communication among the living and between the
living and the dead, what remains is  "love" between
the quick and the inanimate or fetish, the difference 
is not sustained, but is homoginized, white washed,
and so even heresy, even jazz, even murphy's law,
chance, is coopted, all apparent conflicts are just
that apparent, we are them and They are We and there
are no
ways to make sense of it. Remember, on the other side,
there is no good that is in conflict with evil, this
is why Geli fears the other side, and ther is no sex,
no male and female polarity.  
 







Inverarity's will is a
> contrivance, worked upon 
> Oedipa.  Etc.  
> 
> Since this makes for rather compelling fiction, it's
> difficult to extend the 
> idea further; i.e., it (creating compelling fiction)
> is a pretty good reason 
> for using the paranoid sense of things and makes
> other theories suspect.


Sorry, lost me.??? 

> 
> That there is evidence for some of what P puts in
> his fiction, at least in GR 
> (e.g., deals between Stanard Oil of NJ and IG Farben
> around buan rubber), 
> only makes the fiction stronger.  Nevetheless, onne
> speculates, I think, 
> taking it much further.  P's job  was to create a
> good novel, which he did.
>


I'm not sure that one speculates when taking it
further, there are facts, plenty of facts to ecourage
and support these speculations, and some real bad crap
too, conpiracy theories for example, but one does not
remain in the world of fiction and so it has little to
do with Pynchon's books. This is where we get into
trouble. Pynchon's books are simply an excuse to argue
one's personal political views. 

 



__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger
http://phonecard.yahoo.com/