antw. RE: antw. pynchon's strictly humanist concern

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

Cyrus schrieb:

> lorentzen-nicklaus at t-online.de (lorentzen-nicklaus) wrote:
>
> >     terrance wrote: pynchon's          
> >     "concern is not machines, but humans."
> >
> > 
> >  yet didn't he study physics and even do engineering at boeing? 
> >  kai


                             > So what?

     so this has influenced pynchon's writing heavily, and i think we do miss 
     most of the pretty interesting (& often ambivalent) details the 
     rainbow-maker has to tell us about non-humans, like robots or elves, when  
     we act as if early-modern humanism has just been invented and would prevent 
     the world from deadly crimes ... perhaps pynchon did really "switch" to 
     english literature out of some humanist intention (personally i doubt 
     this), but you probably know what they say about old nuns...they all were 
     beasty bitches once. one of the fellows interviewed in "a journey into     
     the mind of p." worked with tommy at boeing and reported that trp, unlike  
     we all loved to think for years, did not (only) do the soft-science-clown  
     inside the steely house of yoyodyne, yet was deeply involved into the      
     construction of trans-continental flying-machines ... & then the man's 
     artistic interest in technology is a little to intense for a luddite with  
     pure heart ... which of course doesn't mean that you cannot read his works 
     like this ... let's support solar-technology now! kai, rational luddite
     
     ps: bruno latour's article "actor/network-theory. some clarifications",    
     though far away from being unproblematic, might work as kinda short-cut to 
     an updated understanding of technology.  
                                                   
                                                       [schnipp]

>  Now seriously, Pynchon's concern is the human condition. Machines and
>  mechanical structures mostly promote death in his work. And I believe
>  Pynchon is pro-life.