neither paranoid nor dispossessed

[calbert at hslboxmaster.com]

Paul:

> This kind of dissatisfaction as a factor in character formation and
> his writing's emphasis on loosers and the down-and-out is not hard to
> credit though relating it too closely with a perceived loss of family
> status rather than the failure of a still solidly middle class family
> to do something within it current means about young P's dental probem
> as well as providing other financial support makes me hesitant--for
> what I fear it might imply--but perhaps I'm being overly squeamish.
> Yes, I really think I am. Character and writing style formation may be
> a bit like proverbial sausage making.


I would be more enthusiastic in my agreement with the above, had I 
not spent a little time thinking about how such may manifest itself 
anywhere else. Consider:

i) Pynchon is a middle class type at Cornell...one need not be a 
flaming leveller to see that such a role involves certain social 
dynamics, including a sense of "foreignness" (been there, done 
that)

i) re-reading V, I  was struck by the little hints of class "envy" 
which seem to creep up in his description of the LI neighbourhood 
of his youth....

ii) I think it may be a very relevant "referent" for the "decline of the 
SLothrops" section in GR....

But I abhor a strict adherence to such "analysis", I was more taken 
by the "context' as a source in his work.....


love,
cfa


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