Protagonists and points of view

[CyrusGeo at netscape.net]

jbor wrote:

>  Apart from his absolute selfishness vis a vis Jess, and his youthful
>  smugness, I lose a little bit of sympathy for Roger when he mashes the
>  secretary's eyeglasses into the carpet (632-33) for no good reason other
>  than the fact that she has a German name.

If you would be so kind as to satisfy my curiosity, where exactly do you find evidence of selfishness and smugness in Roger Mexico? As for the incident with the secretary, I believe it is she who attacks him first with her files. And, remember also that he is mad with anger for losing Jessica and is trying to find Pointsman in order to... well, piss on him. I think Roger is on the whole one of the most likeable characters in GR, therefore I beg of you to be more specific, if you can spare the time.

Also:
>  I don't think that the sort of simple-minded prejudices Doug seems to be
>  advocating here carry much weight at all. Pynchon's texts don't moralise, or
>  do so rarely: that doesn't seem to stop some readers from trying to force
>  them to, however.

If you will allow me to say so, Doug here is not ascribing moralization to Pynchon's text; he is talking about reader response to Pynchon's text. Readers (as viewers, in the case of movies) tend to like or dislike, identify with or outright hate certain characters, and of course the writer is not always to blame for this. Isn't that so?

Cyrus 
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