MDDM Decadence
Monica Belevan
meet_mersault at hotmail.com
Wed Jul 10 09:27:02 CDT 2002
There is a separate understanding of ´´ decadence´´ in the 19th century,
best personified by the French poetes maudits.
It is an aesthetic understanding of decadence, a certain macabre allure for
idealized dark. I think this perceptual understanding of the term, and not
the Websterian definition( Webster dictionary defintion, that is, and not
the poet Webster, ´´ much possessed by Death´´, who is, himself, fittingly
decadent), is what Pynchon´s prose buys into.
Some of his characters and situations are very representative of this
particular periphery of vision: Blicero, with his Rilkean affectation, La
Jarretiére as a porcelain lola, the complete canon for schlemilhood...
--Monica
>From: "David Morris" <fqmorris at hotmail.com>
>To: lycidas2 at earthlink.net, pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: MDDM Decadence
>Date: Wed, 10 Jul 2002 08:19:43 -0500
>
>
>Bravo! Another great summation, Terrance. This line of thought is both
>convincing and opens many doors for further examination. Glad to see you
>back.
>
>David Morris
>
>>From: Terrance <lycidas2 at earthlink.net>
>>
>>In their Decadency these Virginians practice an elaborate Folly of
>>Courtly Love, unmodified since the Dark Ages…
>>
>> -- RWC's SDB, M&D.275
>>
>> Decadence?
>>
>>A process, condition, or period of deterioration or decline, as in morals
>>or art; decay.
>>
>>Of course the word is also defined in the novel V. as, "a falling away
>>from the human."
>>
>>In terms of GW and Gersh, an interesting comparison might be
>>Winsome/Sphere.
>>
>>In the SDB entry, the RC sounds quite a lot like the conservative narrator
>>of V. (that is Stencil & Co.).
>>
>>In fact, RC is the narrator of M&D just as Stencil is the narrator of V.
>>The parallels are too many to outline just now, but it's obvious that M&D
>>is a novel close on the heels of V.
>>
>>We can read RC's conservative moralizing as the author's position, but
>>this kind of reading can not be squared with the liberal politics often
>>attributed to the author.
>>
>>We can, however, attribute these politics to Pynchon's sources, i.e.,
>>Henry Adams and Denis de Rougemont.
>[...]
>
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