Foreword "If Plot Were All There Were"

[Paul Mackin]

On Thu, 2003-04-24 at 07:00, Dave Monroe wrote: (quoting P)
> "If this were really only a political essay disguised
> as a novel, Julia would most likely have been obliged
> to symbolize something--the Pleasure Principle, or
> Middle-class Common Sense or something.  But because
> this is a novel first of all, her character is not
> necessarily under Orwell's firm control.  Novelists
> may wish to indulge the worst kinds of totalitarian
> whims directed against the freedom of their
> characters.  But often as not, they scheme in vain,
> for characters always manage to evade one's all-seeing
> eye long enoughto think thoughts and utter dialogue
> one could never have come up with if plot were all
> there were.  It is one of the many joys of reading
> this book that we can watch Julia turn from a
> tough-cookie seductress into a loving young woman, as
> it is one of the chief sadnesses when her love is
> dismantled and destroyed." ("Foreword," p. xxii)



Could there be implied warning here to any of Pynchon's own readers who
might be overly inclined toward forcible decoding of p-text?.

Oops, I seem to be preaching against parsification.

Self criticism could be another possibility--P taking to heart James
Wood's charge that Mason and Dixon always seem to be thinking too much
like Pynchon.

In any event an interesting paragraph.

P.