Bolingbroke Down in the Dumps

[Malignd]

<<he seems to load them with a deliberate but ironic
stereotypical weight -- Washington's slaves, the
Malcolm X crew from GR, and so on.>>

I think this is more or less correct.  It's a dilemma
of sorts when a writer--when anyone--chooses to
explore stereotypes.  The so-believed correct response
is to avoid and abhor them but, at the risk of
sounding like a neanderthal, stereotypes are often
very funny in their tasteless way and stereotyping is
a very interesting subject from many angles.  For a
writer to use them without seeming (being) merely a
perpetuator of them, requires some nimble dancing to
cross the distance to the protective embrace of the
appropriate irony.  But it can be done; i.e., one can
exploit a stereotype to a variety of artistic effects
without embracing it, although being misunderstood is
the risk of any such tactic.  

I think Pynchon's use of stereotypes is ironic in this
way.  The problem for me isn't that he offends, rather
that he's not particularly funny or subtle.  And the
question of whether he's grown in his attitudes over
the years is less interesteing than why he hasn't
become more skilled as a verbal humorist.  



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