Sphere, Slab & Mafia (was Re: Ayn Rand

[jbor]

----------
>From: <monroe at mpm.edu>
>

> And, to be a completist, do hope you've seen
> that "Simpsons" episode where Maggie ends up reenacting The Great Escape
> at the Ayn Rand School for Tots ...

Indeed, though more of a spin on the Montessori method there than Rand I
should think. I guess one question when we come to the relevant Mafia
Winsome passages in _V._ might be just how much of Rand had Pynchon read in
order to construct his parody.

Likewise with the Wayne Thiebaud link which you have made to Slab's 'Cheese
Danish' series, and which I think is certainly a valid and legitimate
connection. But it seems to me also that the name Pynchon gives for Slab's
particular "genre" of painting -- 'Catatonic Expressionism' -- might, in its
oxymoronic jokiness, also be a dig at Pollock & co's 'Abstract
Expressionism'. Plus, the fact that Slab *only* paints Danishes -- and for
specific (and typically absurd) reasons if I recall correctly -- where
Thiebaud painted a whole range of foodstuffs for somewhat different reasons,
makes me think there might just be a touch of Jasper Johns in there as well;
for example those series' of targets, numbers and flags he was doing in the
50s (and I think he was part of the 'Abstract Expressionist' clique for a
mo' as well, and even got a guernsey on 'The Simpsons' too if I remember
aright.) Not to mention, of course, Warhol: car crashes, soup cans, Maos,
Marilyns & Elvis's et. al. -- but perhaps a bit early for some of these?

Anyway, it seems that in _V._ Pynchon went in for these sorts of
semi-satiric composite constructions of contemporary/recent luminaries from
the U.S. arts, music and literature scenes -- the mix of Bird, Monk and
Coleman in McLintic Sphere being another example that comes to mind (though
I'd say that that particular caricature is a far more gentle and respectful
one than either Slab or Mafia -- even the texture of the name Pynchon has
given to each seems to be a dead giveaway about different attitudes
underlying the characterisations.) But in each case the passage/s where the
connections with real people are made seem to me to be just a quick, initial
or incidental, gloss or aside, and then the characters develop off into
something else again -- something quite divorced from their putative
originals -- in the context of Pynchon's plot and themes. It also doesn't
seem to be a technique which carries over into _GR_ so much, or perhaps it's
one which has become more seamless there, a *development*; but maybe some of
the "in-jokes" of _Vineland_ are comparable to some extent.

... and so, yes, I'd much rather discuss stuff like this than be constantly
hectored and slandered, misread and "pointscored" off. And so I guess that's
up to you now. Just as an example, when I refer to a "whole text reading"
it's pretty obvious that I'm not saying that I believe myself to possess a
"totalising" or exclusivist interpretation of the text (another of your
ongoing taunts); what I am trying to differentiate between are readings
which focus on a word, phrase, sentence or passage in isolation and out of
context in terms of the rest of the text (indeed, often in complete
contradiction to other parts of the narrative). It's the difference between
reading the "whole text" and then discussing specifics, and pulling out bits
from the text and treating them as "whole text" statements. Just looking
back over your posts to find the actual words you used in the insinuations
of Holocaust-denial you were making, I was also struck by the way you pulled
words and phrases selectively from the sentences from the 'Luddite' essay
below -- "gift of prophecy", "curves of development" and "plausibl[e]
converge[nce]" (that last one actually altering, or violating, the import of
Pynchon's words) -- in order to support your assumptions about an
identification between Pynchon's and Dale Carter's theses, for example. Hope
this helps clarify for you where I'm coming from.

best


~~~
    "By 1945, the factory system - which, more than
     any piece of machinery, was the real and major
     result of the Industrial Revolution - had been
     extended to include the Manhattan Project, the
     German long-range rocket program and the death
     camps, such as Auschwitz.It has taken no major
     gift of prophecy to see how these three curves
      of development might plausibly converge, and
                before too long. ... "
                                 (T. Pynchon, 1984)
                                                    ~~~