SLSL Intro "An Unacceptable Level"

[Dave Monroe]

   "Modern readers will be, at least, put off by an
unacceptable level of racist, sexist and proto-Fascist
talk throughout this story.  I wish I could say that
this is only Pig Bodine's vouce, but, sad to say, it
was my own at the time.  The best I can say for now is
that,  for its time, it is probably authentic
enough.[...]  There had prevailed fr a while  a set of
assumptions and distinctions, unvoiced and
unquestioned, best captured years later in the 70's
television character Archie Bunker." (SL, "Intro," p.
11)

>From Jules Siegel, Christine Wexler, et al., Lineland:
Mortality and Mercy on the Internet's
Pynchon-L@[omitted] Discussion List (Philadelphia:
Intangible Assets Manufacturing, 1997), "Part 4: What
Did Lolita Say about Humbert?" pp. 69-80 ...

   "We were now marching around the room shouting at
each other and she yelled at me, 'Everyone cares about
his privacy.  Has anyone expressed any concern about
my privacy, about your privacy?  Do you know he was a
fucking anti-Semite?  Should I tell them all the
shitty things he used to say about the Jews?  You're
just going to typecast me here like everyone does. 
Oh, little Shirley Temple, the stupid little thing. 
Everyone picks up on that, right?'" (p. 75)

And again from Terry Reilly, "A Couple-Three Bonzos:
'Introduction,' Slow Learner and 1984," Pynchon Notes
44-45 (Spring-Fall 1999), pp. 5-13 ...

"... writing about 'Low-Lands,' Pynchon says, 'Modern
readers will be, at least, put off by an unacceptable
level of racist, sexist and proto-Fascist talk
throughout this story' (11).  The statement presumes
that an acceptable level of racist, sexist and
proto-Fascist talk exists, and raises the question of
what that level is.
   "Euphemisms and buzz phrases like 'unacceptable
level,' 'level of clarity' (3), 'forms of wrong
procedure' (17), 'derive' in lieu of 'steal' (18),
etc. abound in 'Introduction,' and they both echo and
curously prefigure the language Messrs' North,
Poindexter, McFarland and others used during th
Iran-Contra hearings ....  And while North, Poindexter
and McFarland repeatedly referred to Iran-Contra as
'the business' or as 'embarked on a certain phase of
the enetrprise,' Pynchon notes that 'By the time I
wrote "The Secret Integration" I was embraked on this
phase of the business' (22)." (p. 9)


"the 70's television character Archie Bunker"

http://www.allinthefamilysit.com/profiles_ab.html

http://www.allinthefamilysit.com/archieisms.html

http://www.allinthefamilysit.com/soundfiles.html

http://www.allinthefamilysit.com/

http://www.tvland.com/shows/aitf/character1.jhtml?&TimeZone=-1

http://www.tvland.com/shows/aitf/

http://www.tvguide.com/showguide/showPage.asp?iProgramID=785415

http://www.yesterdayland.com/popopedia/shows/primetime/pt1337.php


Will circle back in re: "John Kennedy's role model
James Bond" but do now have Helen Waddell's The
Wandering Scholars at hand, so ...

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