antw. Re: antw. light summer reading

[Otto]

I agree with Kai.

Telling the Yuppie-generation that it's not so great as they all have always
believed, and that there's still much uglyness in this world of clean tv-ads
isn't the worst thing to do for a writer today. I've read "Ausweitung der
Kampfzone" (Extension du domaine de la lutte) very quickly too and liked it,
found some uncomfortable things about our society spoken out very clearly.
He's not only telling about "consumer society in sex affairs" but that
sexuality has become a "system of social hierarchy" (part 2, chap. 7, p. 100
in the German paperback) like the money system in neo-liberalism. What I
find remarkable is that he says in the next chapter (and nobody seems to
realise) from a sociological point of view, but in clearly Marxian
terminology that are our current economical system inevitably leads to money
accumulation on one and pauperisation on the other side. Exploitation and
poverty seem to be necessary functions of our current economical order. What
an insight for a "right wing anarchist". Don't dismiss him too easily. I
will read his other books too.

On his last book about the Thai Sex tourism: without having read it I first
of all think what children mean in a novel, what they stand for. It's the,
to be precise, *our* future. So if we allow, as a society, that children are
being fucked up commercially, it doesn't matter where on this planet this
happens, our future is fucked up. Sex tourism is only the top of the
iceberg.

Children, and what is done to them, are a very prominent motive in Pynchon's
novels, in GR and VL too.

Otto

----- Original Message -----
From: "lorentzen-nicklaus" <lorentzen-nicklaus at t-online.de>
To: <cl.levy at free.fr>
Cc: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 26, 2002 4:22 PM
Subject: antw. Re: antw. light summer reading


>
>
> * i just read the elementarteilchen and it's - superbe. "desperate" and
> "insane", sure ... in this regard like gr. the novel points out the
> ambivalences of the post-60s liberation (like the sexual quasi-darwinism
> in alternative communities). in this it does a pretty good sociological
> job.and then - this is of course a great difference to gr - houellebecq
> writes so clear and suspensefully that i read the book very quickly.
> and this is the main reason why i feel it to be a light and pleasurable
> summer reading. what really interests me: why do you think the guy
> to be a "coward"? i don't know many people who, these days,
> would dare to say in public that they consider islam to be "the most
> stupid religion of all which could have been invented only by
> fellows hanging around in the desert with nothing better to do than to
> fuck their camels". just a couple of days ago al quaida dropped
> eminem a note that one wasn't amused about the bin laden posing
> in the "without me" video:
> slim shady hired more bodyguards and even called official authorities.
> michel still walks alone.
>
> à bientôt! kai ***
>
>
> Clément Levy schrieb:
> > Well, you could try, but i'm afraid it's not worth it. This guy has no
> > style except he chooses the ugly (in his language as in his plots). I
> > only read his first novel (Extension du domaine de la lutte), but the
> > struggle (lutte) really should turn to be against him, not against
> > what he thinks our contemporean values are. Because his struggle
> > against them is desperate, coward and insane. In this first novel,
> > he tells about consumer society in sex affairs. Some people have
> > a great capital, lovers and so on,
> > some other don't. So why not try to give someone the pleasures they are
> > frustrated of, even by violent ways, by pushing them to rape and murder?
> > This is what he writes about (should i say write?). Of course his ideas
> > are a critic against Sexual liberation or so. But he first wants to
> > attract readers by horrible stories about sex. His last novel: a trip to
> > Thailand with childrenfuckers, in which the hero meets the woman he'll
> > love. I only heard about it, and not much because 09/11 came just after
> > this book was published... Many people found it attractive just because
> > of these young protitutes. It must be rubbish. I won't try. I must read
> > GR or Vineland before!
> > Bye-bye.
> > Clément
> >
> > lorentzen-nicklaus à dit à Òantw. light summer readingÓ.
> > [2002/06/26 12:07:43]
> >
> > >
> > >
> > > * try --- michel houellebecq: les particules élémentaires [1998]
> > >
> > >  (dtsch. elementarteilchen. münchen 2001: list taschenbuch)
> > >
> > > it's straight, funny, and full of valid observations on contemporary
> > > continental
> > > life. one pynchonesque thing about it is the use of natural-scientific
> > > key
> > > metaphors. best french writer since céline ... kfl ***
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >











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