Ayn Rand (was Ayn Rand)

[jbor]

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

> But I wouldn't imagine Pynchon would have had to read
> much at all of Rand in order to parody her through Mafia Winsome.  MW is
> a caricature, in the sense of a parodic sketch, of AR more than anything
> ...

Seem to recall that you were offering a comparison between the Benny/Rachel
quarry seduction scene with the Howard Roark/Dominique Francon (was it? I
sold my copy on years ago) quasi-rape scene which opens _The Fountainhead_,
and I would concur that there might well be something of a parodic
counterpoint there.

I'd also add that that list of world events for 1904 lifted from some world
almanack in _GR_ (451-2) is a stylistic manoeuvre which seems to have been
lifted straight out of the middle of _Atlas Shrugged_ also.

Interestingly, there are 464 customer reviews of _The Fountainhead_ at
amazon.com, and 551 for _Atlas Shrugged; whereas _GR_ scores 146 and _V._ a
measly 31. I think this goes near to the point that jody was making about
Pynchon's audience etc. It seems as if it's not just the *length* of the
text which is the deterrent for the "preterite classes" or, indeed, the
general reader, as it were.

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)
                                                    ~~~