Pynchon as propaganda

[P. Chevalier]

Twice... Pig Bodine surprisingly quotes Sartre when trying to seduce a girl 
at a party (is it Paola or Rachel...) and, if I remember well, Profane is 
reading a comics about an existencialist sheriff...
But actually the whole novel is full of Sartian concepts, especially if we 
consider "La Critique de la Raison Dialectique: Théorie des ensembles 
pratiques"; tnesion entre l'inanimé et le vivant, devenir objet de la 
conscience, articulation de l'engagement individuel et de la praxis de 
groupe... Sorry for using the french words, I can't really translate 
them... But "V" can be read as a purely Sartrian epos; this is actually 
what I am currently trying to demonstrate in a thesis I am working on... 
Thanks for bringing the subject to debate!


At 09:30 8/04/2003 -0400, Terrance wrote:
>Correction: Pynchon does allude to Sartre in the novel V.
>
>
>Pynchon uses religious terms and hieratic language not simply as a set
>of
>metaphors from which to hang his narrative, not merely as a scaffolding
>(as Joyce,
>for example, uses Christian symbols in Ulysses). The religious meaning
>of the
>book does not reduce to metaphor or myth, because religious meaning is
>itself the
>central issue of the plot. This creates difficulties for criticism.
>
>Edward Mendelson, The Sacred, the Profane, and The Crying of Lot 49
>
>When the last trumpet blows, ye shall be changed....