Foreword, the inevitable backlash

[Paul Nightingale]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On
> Behalf Of Dave Monroe
> Sent: 30 April 2003 08:48
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Re: Foreword, the inevitable backlash
> 
> You guys are all about the avoidance, aren't you?
> But's it's all fallen into the usual pattern so far,
> so ... so it's Pynchon, deal with it ...
> 
> ___________

I did start by discussing the Foreword from the point of view of Pynchon
himself, as a text by Pynchon. Called upon to elaborate I did so in the
interests of clarity.

To recap, I have suggested that the Foreword, what I've seen of it so
far, indicated that P's take on 1984 includes an interest in the
representation of social class. A recent extract posted by Dave M (which
I hadn't seen previously) corroborates my view here. To go further, I
would suggest that P's views on class are rather different from Orwell's
own. I have discussed Orwell's views on class and suggested that they
were shaped by the prevailing, mid-century, attitude to mass society. P
refers to "what we now call pop culture" - that "now" is important
because it establishes the difference between now and then. I would go
further and suggest that what Orwell had in mind was folk culture (there
is usually a distinction made between folk and pop, although P might
mean the same thing).

So far I have been challenged on my reading of Orwell (even though that
reading was clearly part of a response to P's text). I have been
challenged on my approach to reading per se. So far no one has commented
on what I wrote about P himself. Is that my fault?
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