Screening reality

[David Morris]

Hi Penny,

You might be interested in skimming the archives for the last P-list 
group-read of _Vineland_ starting back in Sept '98 which is when I jumped 
out of lurking to participate.  See the schedule at this post:

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=9809&msg=30682&sort=date

One P-lister back then persisted, and persisted, in saying that clearly 
"Pynchon is telling us" (guess who would use such a phrase?) that television 
is evil, which I think he is clearly NOT "telling us."  His use of TV is as 
a metaphor taken literally at the peril of penetrating more deeply into the 
book.  Of the two examples you give below, only one has anything to do with 
TV, but both are about the phenomenon of detachment.  You'll notice also in 
the book the recurrent theme of "framing" the world and views through (and 
jumping through) windows, which again are not about TV, but about gathering 
a set of objects for scrutiny, and creating reality by the mere act of 
viewing through a frame.  This is also examined by way of film-making.  I 
think only a true fool would say that Pynchon is "telling us" that 
film-making is evil.

The other quote about Frenesi being "haunted" by herself also goes to a 
recurrent theme in the book.  Here it has something to do with regret and 
the irreversibility of time and past actions.  And this is only just 
scratching the surface...

David Morris

>From: Penny Harper
>
>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.


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