Pynchon & Jazz

[prozak at anus.com]

> These may be and usually are somewhat overlapped,
> fitted together in very complex movements. But one does not listen
> vertically, one listens sequentially. And this skipping back and forth
> among the instruments as they call and respond irregularly against the
> fundamental beat, not at all the rhythmically fixed chordal polyphony of
> Bach, is what gives jazz its particularity, authenticity, and immanent
> cultural anatomy among all the world's music. 

she means it's improvisation or social music; bach is an easy one to 
target, because of his intensely technical poetry. in rebelling 
against that, metal bands picked the riff salad. however, in 
rebelling against that they realized the only greater extreme was in 
tying together their songs in a narrative, giving the poetry back to 
music. 

> Jazz is a suggestive model for Pynchon as
> well as for Morrison. In the Introduction to Slow Learner Pynchon cites
> the "wide availability of recorded jazz" in the 1950s as a formative
> influence, a counterweight to the "undeniable power of tradition." 
> 
> ….jazz ultimately plays a minor role in the imaginative logic of
> Pynchon's texts. 

i agree about its role; i think it functions as metaphor in some of 
his texts, and influenced the design. or rather, the same thing that 
created jazz created what influenced his design, in a more immediate 
than cosmic sense of scale. deconstructionist constructionism, or how 
to scale down consciousness and scale up intensity of the moment. 
like rock music, blues and pop, the requirements of a fixed level of 
energy have entropic implications. for all pynchon's talk of the 
imaginary root notes of mcclintic sphere, i think in many ways he is 
trying to demonstrate how fundamental principles of a greater 
tradition than the immediate are more important than a categorical 
"on paper" understanding of reality.

-- 
Backup Rider of the Apocalypse
www.anus.com/metal/
DEATH AND BLACK METAL