SLSL Intro "Chicago School"

[barbara100 at jps.net]

In being "an unpolitical 50's student" working out a dilemma, I think he
means becoming aware of and working through the political, societal, and
sexual dilemmas of 50s culture. Yes, it's all wrapped around his writing
experience, but between the lines he's talking about his transition into 60s
hippy culture.  Too old perhaps to flood in body and soul, but he definitely
felt a connection.
The "unpolitical 50's student" passage begins on the "class angle" and ends
two paragraphs later on his lament that the success of the "new left" was
limited by the "failure of college kids and blue-collar workers to get
together politically. One reason was the presence of real, invisible class
force fields in the way of communication between the two groups." (SLSL,
6 -7)
I'm more convinced than ever reading his Introduction that Pynchon's as
Green as Northern California in the spring.


----- Original Message -----
From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thursday, November 07, 2002 12:33 PM
Subject: Re: SLSL Intro "Chicago School"


> on 8/11/02 3:53 AM, pynchonoid at pynchonoid at yahoo.com wrote:
>
> > ...TRP calls himself an "unpolitical '50s student" in
> > this Intro...
>
> At the time he wrote 'The Small Rain', his first story. He then details
his
> burgeoning awareness of political and aesthetic trends which were going on
> all around.
>
> The full quote:
>
> "Being an unpolitical '50's student I was unaware of this at the time -
but
> in hindsight I think I was working out of a dilemma that most of us then
> had, in some way, to deal with." (p6)
>
> What he's saying is that he wasn't consciously aware of the inherently
> political aspect to writing, though he was still responding to this
> "dilemma" as he began to write.
>
> best
>