Them Badasses (was Re: Blicero's sexuality

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

David Morris schrieb:


> >>From: Eric Rosenbloom <ericr at sadlier.com>
> >>Yes, except that, like Pointsman, he serves the System as well as himself. 
> >>The Badass is a folk hero, like John Dillinger

> >From: "jbor" Well, yes and no. As well as Ned Ludd, Pynchon exemplifies the 
> >Badass in Frankenstein's monster, Alfonso the Good from Walpole's _The 
> >Castle of Otranto_, and King Kong. It's not so much a question of serving 
> >"the System" as having been created by it (literally and/or 
> >metaphorically), and then, monstrous, turning upon whatever or whomever 
> >created them in order to wreak total annihilation. Blicero would certainly 
> >fit that bill to an extent, as also perhaps would Dillinger.


> Jbor has a point here.  The Badass is, besides folk hero, also the monster: 
> King Kong & Frankenstein, the unexpected and uncontrolable result of the 
> workings of the System.  Blicero can be seen as the product of their System, 
> but in a very different way than King Kong or Franky.  He embraces the Death 
> System, but that does not make him bad.


> Others in Pynchon's novels embrace their oppressors, and become monsters.  
> Think of slave woman at the Cape in MD, or the  Jesuit-abducted  S&M 
> Sisterhood, of Frenesi.  Such an embrace is the result, I think, of an 
> acceptance of things as they are, and a decision to turn the tables of a 
> sort by _choosing_ victimization.  The Zone-Herero are another example, of a 
> sort.  These are not all the same, but they are variations with distinct 
> commonality.


  this is, in my opinion, an important aspect we haven't talked about yet. 

  in a certain sense, leni as well as katje also are "_choosing_ victimization", 
  no?!


kfl