painters preferred (was Re: Sphere, Slab & Mafia

[jbor]

----------
>From: "David Morris" <fqmorris at hotmail.com>
>

> The repetition of the painted image makes me think more of Warhol, who was
> nothing if not decky-dant.  Repetition for him was mechanical, as in
> "inanimate-expressionism."  For the more fluid and truly "expressionist"
> painter, repeated themes and images represent an explorative probing of the
> resonances of an idea or an obsession and are far from catatonic.  Pynchon
> has been the literary champion of repetitive themes, wouldn't you say?  And
> why so?  Both Pollack and Johns are painters whom I'd bet my bottom dollar
> Pynchon respects.

Perhaps so. But maybe that depiction of Slab's painting style isn't so
negative after all? (Certainly not as anti- as the parody of Mafia/Rand, but
by the same token not nearly as pro- as the one of Sphere/Coleman et al) I
might reserve further comments on this until we get to the relevant section
in the novel I think.

But I was interested to read that Pynchon originally wanted one of de
Chirico's painting for the cover of _V._ (Can't recall where I read it, but
I'm pretty sure it was at one of the Pynchon sites, maybe "Pynchonfiles".)
There is that reference to the de Chirico and his surrealist "novel"
_Hebdomeros_ later on in the text, of course. I tried reading it once but
didn't get very far. I wonder which of de Chirico's paintings he wanted? I
recall one with a bunch of bananas in the foreground, and another with
artichokes, and another with biscuits. But I think that this might have been
the one:

http://www.tigtail.org/TVM/B/European/a.%20pre%20WW%20I/chirico_great_metaph
ysician.1917.jpg

The metaphysician as golem is just so apt.

Of course, thinking of SHOCK and SHROUD, there's this

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6163/muses.html

Or, cf. the "Bad Priest" of Malta and her "good" doppelganger, this:

http://www.tigtail.org/TVM/B/European/a.%20pre%20WW%20I/chirico_two_sisters-
-jewish_angel.1915.jpg

One for monroe:

http://www.tigtail.org/TVM/B/European/a.%20pre%20WW%20I/chirico_archealgogis
ts.1927.jpg

And here's a glimpse of those biscuits:

http://www.angelfire.com/de/jwp/

But this one is my favourite de Chirico of all, and certainly comes in with
a good chance as well (i.e. all that stuff about "the Street" in the novel):

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6163/myst.html

best

ps btw, anyone know anything about these essays/collection?

'The Faustus of Malta: An Interface of Fact and Fiction in Pynchon's _V._',
'Pynchon and an International Dimension of the Sette Giugno', 'Historic
Truth and Poetic Truth: Between Pynchon and Braudel', in _Pynchon, Malta and
Wittgenstein_ (by P. Bianchi et al.), Malta, Malta University Publishers,
1995, pp. 39-73.

http://www.arts.um.edu.mt/Philosophy/publications.htm


~~~
    "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)
                                                    ~~~