VLVL2 Preliminary: The Epigraph

[Jasper Fidget]

Around 135,000 years ago, humans culled dogs from wolf packs and teamed up
with them for a mutual competitive advantage.  It was a symbiotic
relationship: the dogs, specializing in teeth and noses, would keep watch
while the humans, specializing in brains and opposable thumbs, would acquire
food, and build tools and shelter.  Now dogs are more for making the kids
smile and maybe relieving stress and for picking up chicks, but could it be
that dogs have had an unrecognized influence on human evolution?  The bond
is certainly very strong.  Hell, maybe dogs *invented* loyalty and trust for
us.  And the human/god angle must have also had its influence on how humans
envision themselves in the world -- don't many religions imagine a god who
treats them much in the same way they treat their pets...?

akaTiredNow

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf
Of Tim Strzechowski
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2003 11:13 PM
To: Pynchon-L; pynchonoid at pynchonoid.org
Subject: Re: VLVL2 Preliminary: The Epigraph

> Pynchon waxes lyrical (and comedic) about dogs in
> _Mason & Dixon_, which he was also, apparently,
> working on while he wrote _Vineland_.
>

Very true, and having just finished re-reading GR, I was amazed this time
through by the references to dogs, not only in "Beyond the Zero" because of
the obvious Pointsman and reflex conditioning sections, but throughout the
entire novel.  Stray dogs are mentioned as background images in countless
scenes, perhaps reflecting the aimless wandering and isolation of Slothrop
(and always echoing back to the conditioning and reflexes of section 1).
Anyways, it's an image that I noticed because of Desmond and the epigraph in
_Vineland_.

"Lyrical" and "comedic" are two interesting words to use in describing dogs,
too.  Dogs are man's best friend, Paul McCartney wrote of "Martha My Dear"
and Robert Plant gave us "Bron yr Aur Stomp," and the Romantic notion of
growing old with your loving hound has given way to many a pub philosopher,
while all of us know the flea infested tail wagger loves to stick his head
comically out the window going down I-55 (Gary Larson cartoons come to
mind!)  Dogs are wonderful animals in that they embody the philosophical
qualities of loyalty, trust, obedience, even worship (for are we not gods to
dogs?), yet are just as silly, lazy, and slapstick-prone as humans.

A great book here, by the way:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0415267455/qid=1057806429/sr=1
2-1/102-3195596-1627355?v=glance&s=books

Got a used copy in a Naperville store a few years back.  Wonderful reading
for dog lovers out there.

Tim