Watts article (Re: NP Genoa)

[Michel Ryckx]

Terrance wrote:
[snip]
"A very good essay, related to this topic, is Molly Hite's "Feminist Theory and the Politics of
Vineland"
[and snip again]

There is also the Mary F. Beal mention in Gravity's Rainbow (p.612) on which Wes Chapmann wrote an
article

The funny thing is, it is almost certain that mr. Pynchon and Mary Beal, who wrote about a kind of
animist eco-feminism (not mine words: I had to ask someone who knows a lot about it) in the 70's
were friends.  David Seed wrote about that connection in 'The Fictional Labyrinths of Thomas
Pynchon, Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1988.  Mary Beal is the author: M.F. Beal and
friends,'Safe House: A Casebook of  Revolutionary Feminism in the 1970's', Eugene, Oregon, Northwest
Matrix, 1976

Excerpt from Wes Chapmann:

"For Beal, man has turned away from the earth to "violence and annihilation," just as for Pynchon
humanity has turned away from the Titans to the "structures favoring death." But for Beal, this
turning away is specifically coded according to gender; the  "man" in the previous sentence refers
to men, not to humanity. Conversely, women are a key part of the Earth's counter-struggle: the earth
is triggering in women, who are open to the message of survival because they "have always known all
things are alike and precious," a "genetic reflex for species survival," which consists of a
disentanglement from "male violence and annihilation."  In 'Gravity's Rainbow', the genderedness of
Beal's vision is lost; the Titans in Greek mythology were half male and half female."

Kind regards,

Michel.