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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