VLVL2 (1) "More is Less"

[jbor]

Yes, I did read the link I posted, but I think the name of the shop derives
from Mies, rather than from Fuller or Browning's 'Andrea del Sarto' (though
a wonderful poem), however, for the primary reason that his use of this
phrase is the most well-known of the three.

The structure of and paradox in the phrase parallels Orwell's "Doublespeak"
constructions, I agree, but I can't see that there's any real semantic or
thematic connection beyond that. (In the same way that I can't see Orwell's
"Doublespeak" as an allusion to the Browning poem, for example.) But, yes,
it's possible there's a resonance there, particularly in the light of the
"1984" dateline in the novel's opening sentence. Perhaps there's a point
about the way that Orwell's "Doublespeak" has been appropriated by the
culture of capitalism as a commercial slogan and been sanitised of all of
its satiric force and the inherent political critique in the process. But it
does come across as rather more light and jokey than that in the context all
the same.

best


on 15/7/03 12:05 PM, Dave Monroe at monrovius at yahoo.com wrote:

> Actually ...
[...]
> http://www.abstractconcreteworks.com/essays/lessismore/ls_s_mor.html
> 
> But given Pynchon's longstanding interest in
> romanticism, modernism and G. Orwell's 1984 (and I am
> indeed counting that "slow learner" as a citation),
> you are nonetheless BOTH correct, sirs, and then some.
> It's a floor wax AND a desert topping ...
>