Bongo's Aesthetics (WASRe: SLSL, 'UtR' Who won?)

[Mutualcode at aol.com]

In a message dated 2/24/2003 2:35:28 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
isread at btopenworld.com writes:


> He identifies with Moldweorp because (a) they are both gentlemen, (b) they
> have survived. The connection between (a) and (b) is quite arbitrary. This
> information is given in the early paragraph that begins and ends with a
> reference to "those who cared" (102). The first reference concerns
> Porpentine's 'disguise' as just another tourist waiting for a lady. He
> blends in with the scene, doesn't stand out or draw attention to himself. 
> He
> has succeeded if no one notices him. The concluding reference concerns his
> identity as a gentleman spy; the audience here includes posterity, in which
> case he has succeeded (established the right kind of reputation) if he is
> noticed. In each case, recognition functions differently and Porpentine
> poses in order to watch others watching him.
> 
> 

Interesting. If "haut monde" is a figure for "high" culture or art, with
its respect for the social hierarchy, what of Bongo's (as filtered through
Porpentine's p.o.v.) position within that metaphorical structure?

       Now the new ones read books: young lads, full of theory
       and (he decided) a faith in nothing but the perfection of
       their own internal machinery.

Is that modernist or postmodern? Or maybe just pynchonian. The
ability to switch off one's emotions, or,  just as bad, switch them on:
for abstract or arbitrary reason's, like skin-color, or some other
culturally determined aesthetic, is a problem, and something Pynchon
seems real concerned about.

But with the unremitting bombardment of information, not to mention
that which we choose to expose ourselves to, like art, for example. 
sometimes it seems like we're, each of us, at our own private siege
party. Perhaps lease-breaking party is more apt here. As the
pragmatic Meatball Mulligan mentions: "Discipline must be
maintained," at least internally. That seems to have gotten more
difficult for Porpentine, however, and the old rules of "caring" are
becoming blurry and indistinct; in a word, old.

Enter Bongo, like some abstract artist: reality is the canvas- who
has become adept at self-inducing a partial Kluver-Bucy syndrome,
by switching his amagdala on and off, and there is a new solution
to informational (historical) and emotional overload. Interpretation
has become "cleaner" or maybe sidestepped altogether. Keeping
cool or hot, as the case may require, but not caring.

respectfully  

Offlist until this evening
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20030225/aff72e83/attachment.html>