Screening reality

[Bandwraith at aol.com]

Greetings,

I think so, i.e., the distancing/screening effect of the tube, etc. But the
potential must've been there before the newer media evolved from plays,
and other earlier media. It's just become so much easier now. Maybe it cuts
both ways, i.e., brings together real people otherwise destined never to meet.

Makes me wonder if the self is really "real" to begin with, or, maybe just a 
potential that as it develops must be wary of being parasitized by inanimate
plots, stories, characters, "culture"- shared by the group, and potentially 
becoming too
useful as a shorthand for the expression of real feelings.

How do we get back to Vineland?

In a message dated 7/18/02 11:17:50 PM, padgett.harper at verizon.net writes:

<< Hi all,

I've been off-list for about five years, but a recent re-reading of _Vineland_
prompted me to check back in.  My apologies if I'm visiting already well-
trodden ground!

I was thinking about how the movie and TV references in _Vineland_ help 
emphasize the distances between the characters, and how the Tube 
attenuates their connections to the real world.  In my most recent reading, 
I noticed that, in two places, Pynchon makes this point explicitly:

(p. 237, hardcover)  ... Frenesi understood that she had taken at least
one irreversible step to the side of her life, and that now, as if on some
unfamiliar drug, she was walking around next to herself, haunting herself,
attending a movie of it all [...] where she could kick back and watch the
unfolding drama.

(p. 351) The smartest kid Justin ever met, back in kindergarten, had told
him to pretend his parents were characters in a television sitcom.  "Pretend
there's a frame around 'em like in the Tube, pretend they're a show you're
watching.  You can go into it if you want, or you can just watch, and *not*
go into it."

Seems to me that as a metaphor this has even more punch now than 
when _Vineland_ was written, though I'd be tempted to add PC monitors
to the list of addictive, distancing devices.

Penny<<




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