SLSL 'Low-lands' racism?

[tess marek]

--- David Morris <fqmorris at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Tess seems to focus on the political in her analysis
> of Low Lands.  But Pynchon
> somewhere focuses on his recently found dreamscape,
> doesn't he?  It seems to me
> that this is a far more obvious aspect of this tale
> than politics.  The
> sea-dwarf girl is in the Pynchon V-ness tradition. 
> Flange is in his
> Profane/Slothrup tradition too.  What's THAT about?
> 
> David Morris

Yeah, I kinda wonder if MalignD is correct about P's
not developing a sense of dramatic humor or the skills
to write ironic comedy. I mean, the scene with the
girl/baby/lady/fantasy and the rat ("the midget
problem")  is lame, juvenile, smart assed kid, and it
does damage the story and the sympathy we have for the
protagonist, but the scene in GR where Slothrop meets
up with Geli and her Owl is full of funny shit and
Pynchon has obviously improved his skills as a writer
of these sorts of scenes. I think the meeting of Mason
and Amy or the scenes that involve Mason and the girls
at the Cape is also very funny and skillfully
developed. 

First comes love,  then comes marriage, then comes 
**** in the baby carriage. Love in the Western
Playground. Maybe Lolita and Dulcinea are not the best
characters to compare with Flange /  Cindy & the Gypsy
girl with the rat.  


Flange is childless. This is another reason to
consider the story a companion of SI.  childlessness
or the fear of having "dependents" is an issue for
Benny. It's interesting  that Flange tells the gypsy
girl that he's already married and Benny rejects Paola
and Winsome's wife (Randy?) because they are already
married. 


Flange seems to admire the gypsies life style  and
Bolingbroke's sea story because they both represent a
freedom that he's afraid he will lose if he stays with
Cindy and has children.    

It's interesting that having children or not is such
an important thing in P's stories. 

In this tale and in TS childlessness is important. In
V., Benny, Paola, several others are nearly aborted,
Esther and Rachel debate Esther's having an abortion.
Fena, I think, is sent off to have an abortion after
being gang-bang raped, Winsome is childeless, Paola's
mother is also nearly aborted. V's lover is a child
that has been made a fetish and never experienced
childhood because she was abused by her father. Rachel
was abused by her father. Sphere is still another
infantile sterotype who goes crying the blues to Paola
disguised as a prostitute. Paola is married to Pap,
but she is a child and they are childless. Frenesi is
advised to abort Prairie. Oedipa is childless. As are
her men. 

In GR, there are couples with kids, but Mothers are
not exactly nurturing and father's are always finding
ways to disappear or die. 




__________________________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now.
http://mailplus.yahoo.com