WARLOCK and Loss

[Mike Weaver]

I wrote:

> > I still think Pynchon champions resistance to the Man

CyrusGeo replied:

>You could be right, or you could just be projecting your own feelings into 
>the text (something quite common with GR, in more than one aspects). In 
>any case, pp. 712-713 are not about resistance, but about failure; the 
>failure of the Counterforce, the failure of the whole 60's "movement" and 
>the failure whose seeds lie at the very heart of every revolution in the 
>history of mankind.

Failure to what? To achieve the goals set? To reach the New Jerusalem?
How would you measure success? Achieving a stable harmonious society? Bit 
utopian, isn't that?
The dialectic which is human history is a continuing interplay of growth 
and decay, development and destruction, and by this measure the seeds of 
destruction of any system are to be found in its consolidation.

That Pynchon champions resistance seems to me to be undeniable, given the 
sympathies revealed in his novels since GR.

I agree, those pages are about the failure of the Counterforce, but I do 
feel, as I said a couple of days ago, that the Counterforce represents the 
U.S radical opposition of the 60's, the feast scene that happens next 
reminding me of the Yippie approach to revolution more than anything else. 
Gesture politics, entertaining but ephemeral.
I'd suggest that the centre of pp 712-713 is the question which faces Roger
"...which is worse living on living on as Their Pet, or death?"
Since our heroes live beyond this episode I take this to mean a willingness 
to face death, rather than necessarily dying.
And note how the episode ends - "And just at the other side of dawning, you 
can see a smile." A little upbeat for a section on failure maybe?

Bob Dylan wrote:
"There's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all."

But I reckon a more relevant quote is "...he who is not busy being born, is 
busy dying."

Goodnight sweet people. Looking forward to reading your best tomorrow evening.