VLVL 24fps: judging by appearances

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2003 5:15 AM
Subject: VLVL 24fps: judging by appearances


> Another point to note about this chapter is the way Pynchon emphasises the
> cultishness and unacknowledged prejudices of the 24fps crew:
>
>     They particularly believed in the ability of close-ups to reveal
>     and devastate. When power corrupts, it keeps a log of its progress,
>     written into that most sensitive memory device, the human face. Who
>     could withstand the light? (195.5)
>
> This is, of course, baloney, phrenological mumbo-jumbo just like Brock
> Vond's belief that "receding foreheads" and "theromorphic ears" are
symptoms
> of criminality, following on from the work of Cesare Lombroso (272-3).
What
> these chapters disclose is that 24fps, and the student "revolution" from
> which it was spawned, were primarily narcissistic, a cult of youth.
>
> best

There's one big difference between the two mumbo-jumbos:

BV's fascist mumbo-jumbo puts people behind bars while the narcissistic
youth cult has been relatively harmless.

Additionally I not sure if the assertion hasn't got some truth in it, when I
look, for example, at faces like Henry Kissinger's.

The text goes on:

"What viewer could believe in the war, the system, the countless lies about
American freedom, looking into these mug shots of the bought and sold."
(195.8-11)

Which is what the 60's youth rebellion really was about.

Otto