A sketch of Pynchonian politics

[Jane O' Sweet]

Phil Wise wrote:

> > Phil Wise wrote:
> >
> > Of Slothrop, the narrator notes,  "so well have They busted
> > the sod praries of his brain, tilled and sown there, and
> > subsidised him not to grow anything of his own...", while
> > all of us, "as long as we can see them, stare at them, those
> > massively moneyed, once in a while. As long as they allow us
> > a glimpse, however rarely. We need that. And how they know
> > it - how often, under what conditions...".   The narrator,
> > then, does not just restrict his observations to the
> > characters, but brings in the world outside the text,
> > suggesting that his readers are similarly susceptable.

Jane wrote: 
> > hmmmmmmmmmmm, this is a big looking glass & a very big hole,
> > Alice.  I doubt I'm going to follow the rabbit.

Phil replied: 
> 
> Follow what you like: Pynchon strategically deploys the word "us" at various
> points in the text while his narrator talks directly to the reader.  The
> reason the Rocket transcends time and space at the novel's end is so that
> Pynchon can include, by implication, the "us" that existed under Nixon
> (Richard M Zhlubb) in America - the present outside the text at the time of
> the novel's publication.  Their nuclear bomb could have hit America at any
> time...

Thank you very much Phil. I think it will be best if we
begin with the inside/outside the text and the YOU and the
WE or US addressed in GR. 

In the end, what I will argue is this: Your conclusion, that
Pynchon is anti-capitalist was supported by two claims I
think are not supported by the texts. First, that Pynchon is
something of a Marxist. Second, the System of GR is
totalitarian, it celebrates markets, it is the object of
Pynchon's harshest satire, ergo Pynchon is a Marxist (though
with some slight reservation) and an anti-capitalist. ANd
that if he were to write about it (and you are not sure if
he has or has not in M&D) he would  take an
anti-globalization position. 

Some preliminary stuff: 

 

 Nixon is outside of the text, but he is satirized inside of
the text so that the reader *may* be able to draw some
conclusions about Pynchon's attitude about Nixon circa 1970.

I think it will be helpful if we turn to a few critical
studies. You mentioned both Hite and Baker. I will address
both. When I speak of Pynchon here, I am speaking of the
"implied author" as defined by Wayne Booth in Rhetoric of
Fiction. I will also draw on Brian McHale, specifically,
Chapter 4 of Contrcucting Postmodernism. 

But I'll wait to do so. If you have any objection/comment,
let me know. 
 
Even the narrators have parts in the S&M drama. Both with an
imagined reader, the characters, each other, the implied
author, and the
reader.

Sometimes they are dominant and sometimes they play victim
to the naratee or another narrator or character or even
their own stories. Some of the narrators work for Them,
are henchmen or masters in the "System" and they will quite
frequently address an imagined reader, mislead him
or tell him lies or tell "tall tales," or tell
ridiculous paranoid parodies, or give bad advise, or insult,
or mock the reader's "bookish" reflexes. And of course what
the implied
author mocks relentlessly, the proclivity for patterns and
systems
and "cause and effect," the reduction of Diversity to
Binarity. 

"Ideas of the opposite..."GR.48

Also, in addition to the "YOU" that is addressed in
GR, there is a  "WE" or "US" that is addressed. 

This "We-Address" often makes the naratee and the narrator
accomplices or
supporters of the Masters or Henchmen of the System or of
the System itself  or a defender of a character that has
been a victim at some point but is now a victimizer.

"Blessed are the peacemakers; for they shall be called the
children of God." 
			--Jesus