re Re: MDDM Gershom's Intervention

[Doug Millison]

At 11:34 AM -0400 7/5/02, Monte Davis wrote:
>Where Doug and I differ is that he
>seems to think that's a peculiarly American condition, while I think (and
>suspect Pynchon thinks) it's the human condition.


I agree with Monte that it's the human condition.  I do see Pynchon putting
a particular focus on America (in M&D, Vineland, and COL49 especially, but
throughout his work)  but he includes all of humanity in his works.

It might be good to remember where this thread started.  jbor solemnly
declared that we all have a duty to respect the US Presidency, and Bush Jr.
in particular, and I countered with the suggestion that Pynchon fails to
show that sort of respect to Washington in M&D, taking a rather more
iconoclastic approach that cuts to the core of what Washington and the
other Founding Fathers accomplished or not.   jbor's  knee-jerk denial that
my interpretation could  be valid -- advancing the absurd proposition that
Pynchon shows that sort of respect to the US Presidency in general and to
Washington in particular, despite the M&D portrait of W as a delusional
buffoon  --  failed rather spectacularly, depending as it did on writing
into Pynchon's texts elements that Pynchon chose not to write as well as
relying on a simple-minded reduction of the ambiguity of Pynchon's text
based on pure guess work, plus a claim to have unique insight into
Pynchon's intentions for a particularly murky scene.

Despite his international perspective, Pynchon demonstrates a particular
fondness for America --   he is after all an American writer --  but it is
certainly not an uncritical stance. His novels judge America rather
harshly in many (but not all) aspects --  none more so than M&D on which he
lavished a quarter of a century, exploring in some depth the poisoned
sources of a troubled nation, among a great many other concerns.  He
appears to stand in the long line of America's loving critics, not among
the brain-dead, flag-waving, love-it-or-leave it crowd that could keep a
straight face when bowing their heads in prayer with Bush the Younger,
Insider Stock Profiteer and Slayer of Evil-doers.