NPPF - Canto 4 - Notes

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Mackin" <paul.mackin at verizon.net>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2003 10:29 PM
Subject: Re: NPPF - Canto 4 - Notes


> On Mon, 2003-08-11 at 18:04, The Great Quail wrote:
> >
> >
> > 977-978: "I'm reasonably sure that we survive/And that my darling
somewhere
> > is alive" -- Obviously meaning Hazel; a rather powerful admission at the
end
> > of the poem.
>
>
>
> The language of the poet seems particularly powerful and elegant in
> these closing lines. Unless it can be demonstrated to me that, in the
> over all scheme of the novel, John Shade's poem is completely and
> totally irrelevant, I have to believe that Hazel is in some sense alive.
> I think that much is expected of us.
>

This is what Boyd suggests too.

> >
> > 979-982: The irony of these lines is sharp, as Shade will be murdered
this
> > evening.
>

Yes, and since I've read it the first time, and then read Boyd's book I'm
wondering what to make of this sharp irony. Isn't it as if Shade is being
"punished" for the hybris of writing those lines? Isn't this sharp contrast
between Shade being sure to wake up the next morning and the "reality" of
the novel (being shot) mocking his belief of an afterlife?

Otto