pynchon-l-digest V2 #1610

[Paul Mackin]

Dave Monroe wrote:

> Paul: among the full length works on Pynchon that I've read, only those of
> Dale Carter (The Final Frontier: The Rise and Fal of the American Rocket
> State), John Dugdale (Thomas Pynchon: Allusive Parables of Power), and, to a
> lesser extent,, David Cowart (Thomas Pynchon: The Art of Allusion),  Dwight
> Eddins (The Gnostic Pynchon), David Seed (The Fictional Labyrinths of Thomas
> Pynchon)and Michael Berube (Marginal Forces/Cultural Centers), come to mind
> as having addressed specifically the political contexts and possible
> political implications of those Pynchonian texts.

Dave: I don't want to be saying that certain topics  vis-a-vis our author are
positively not worth writing about.  Politics and raising political
consciousness are important.   They may be most important. My objection--don't
want it to sound  too adamant-- is to using Pynchon's fine writing to rehash
things that have already been rehashed and rehashed over and over again. in the
past thrity or forty years. Like Vietnam and the Kennedy assasination
conspiracy theory for example.  We all know P must have been greatly affected
by these things. We all were.  His writing and our reading of his writing have
been influenced  beyond measure  by public disasters and horrors  lived though
(or heard  and read about in the case of younger readers). It's  quite OK by me
to mention these things from time to time.  But such things spoken about in the
year 2000 or  in the recent decade are not any  kind of Pynchonian revelation.
Conceivably they might be  if delivered to school children or even possibly
some  benighted souls in slightly later stages of development, but they are not
revelations to any  p-readers. They are not revelations to us.  If dwelt much
upon they can only be  banal  restatements of the obvious.  Yes P felt the war.
We all did. I think P himself would agree with this.

I'm problaby some kind of old killjoy who takes delight in dicouraging the
enthusiasms of others. You have been good natured about it and I respect that.
Some might get mad.  The appoaches to p-understanding on this list are diverse.
I can't imagine myself reading all the stuff on him that your have.  Anyway I
prefer the comparative approach.  I do think that the six books you mention are
a lot to devote to Pynchon politics.  I haven't personally read any of them so
am unsure of my ground in trying to evaluate  whether they represent a little
or a lot. The  p-commentary I read is mainly by p-listers.  On those "uncharted
topics" I referred to, I'll admit I was just assuming. But if  I think of
something I'll post it post haste.

In all good cheer.
                                                          P.