Watts article (Re: NP Genoa)

[Paul Mackin]

Rob:
It's certainly OK to put the best light on things possible but the wording was
unfortunate. Seems to me also that the two cultures thing was mildly dismaying
testimony to Pynchon's callowness.  God knows American white culture (to
momentarily posit there is such a monolith) can ligitimately be called a mess and
that the black/white divide in America and throughout the world a bigger mess.
But to seemingly romanticize so called black culture is no good for anyone. I will
give the Watts piece one thing. Pynchon's heart was in the right place. Can't
always be sure about his other nonfiction efforts (efforts assuming he's really
trying) . To me Pynchon will remain the  fiction written in written in his
maturity starting with the Rainbow book although V. is  very good as a first
novel.

But as old Max sez who am I?

                P.



jbor wrote:

> on 7/22/01 5:05 PM, Paul Mackin at paul.mackin at verizon.net wrote:
>
> > Rob:
> > Although young Pynchon  was trying to be helpful, to speak of the violence of
> > Watts as perhaps being an expression of  WHO THE PEOPLE ARE is patronizing in
> > the extreme.
>
> Hi Paul
>
> I didn't read it like that at all. Not an "expression of" but an "attempt to
> be". I read it to mean that the people of Watts weren't permitted to be "who
> they are": because they were made to dress and act and cut their hair to
> conform with "white" expectations, to get jobs, to be respectable members of
> the society etc; because they were victimised and harassed and killed by the
> police in the streets just because of "who they are"; because their identity
> and heritage was totally devalued by the dominant culture; and so forth. And
> that, with every other option closed to them, only by violence could they
> attempt to be "who they are". I don't think that he meant to say that he
> believes the violence defines them or is part of their identity. Not on the
> strength of the rest of the article at any rate.
>
> Perhaps it's just an ambiguity in that sentence? Or maybe I've got those
> rose-coloured specs on again.
>
> best
>
> > >
> > > "Far from a sickness, violence may be an attempt to communicate, or to be
> > > who you really are." --Thomas Pynchon, 1966,  still under 30 (slightly) and
> > > trustable.
> > >
> > > But, hey, not everyone is getting the message. The Washington Post sez this
> > > morning that despite the rock throwing and Molotov Cocktails only of tiny
> > > proportion of the protestors are doing anying  but protesting--not engaged
> > > in violence.