Pynchon's Badasses (was Re: Authorrheal in Tension

[jbor]

Pynchon writes of his own, and popular, admiration for Badass figures in the
Luddite essay and elsewhere, and they populate his fiction in various guises
(King Kong, John Dillinger, the U.S.S. Badass, the Golem in _M&D_, perhaps
Armand's Duck, the Seamen Bodine). In his intro to _Stone Junction_ Pynchon
sets up a dichotomy "between outlaws and evil-doers, between outlawry and
sin":

http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_stone.html

I'm not 100% comfortable with that sort of easy formulation, especially when
certain perspectives do place terrorists into the former categories.

In _M&D_ there's no ambiguity about the way that Dixon uses force to take
the slave driver's weapon away from him. It is an interventionist act on
Dixon's part, though Pynchon certainly has the character come away from the
experience feeling quite ambivalent about what he did.

best


on 18/10/02 8:35 AM, RuudSaurins at aol.com at RuudSaurins at aol.com wrote:

> Pynchon and War...
> ...not much to discuss, is there?  GR non-withstanding, nobody is talking
> about the "roots" of so much belligerence, which Pynchon so ably addresses in
> his Luddite article (imho).  Some "Badass" is always bigger and meaner than
> you and willing to kick your ass to have his way.  Knowledge of the
> whereabouts and possible intentions of such persons can be terror inspiring.
> No doubt that Saddam Hussein has more than his fair share of "Bodine" blood
> circulating thru his evil vasculature.  Should such individuals be dispatched
> with extreme prejudice?  Pynchon has composed scenes in his novels that bear
> some resemblance to pre-emptive strikes against "badasses".  Pre-emptive
> strikes such as the intended castration of Slothrop backfire (tragically, if
> you are the Major).  As was so eloquently and laboriously argued with regard
> to Dixon's "allowing" the slave driver to "run into his fist"; the narrative
> is only suggestive (at best) of the author's "true intentions" in composing
> the scene.  Again, no pre-emptive strikes are composed into the narrative.
> Perhaps the author is suggesting to the reader that such actions either do not
> work, or are unpopular with the author.
> truly,
> Ruud
>