FW: VLVL2 (1) "More Is Less"�

[Dave Monroe]

Benjamin Franklin, Autobiography, Ch. VI, "The Art of
Virtue" (1757) ...

"Scheme of employemnt for the twenty-four hours of a
natural day" ...

http://www.ushistory.org/franklin/autobiography/page40.htm

http://eserver.org/books/franklin/bf5.html

In context at ...

http://www.bartleby.com/1/1/4.html

http://www.usgennet.org/usa/topic/preservation/bios/franklin/chpt6.htm

Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (Chicago: U of
Chicago P, 1958) ...

   "The hope that inspired Marx and the best men of
the various workers' movements--that free time
eventually will emancipate men from necessity and make
the animal laborans productive--rests on the illusion
of a mechanistic philosophy which assumes that labor
power, like any other energy, can never be lost, so
that if it is not spent and exhausted in the drudgery
of life it will automatically nourish other, 'higher,'
activities....  A hundred years after Marx we know the
fallacy of this reasoning: the spare time of the
animal lkaborans is never spent in anything but
consumption, and the more time is left to him, the
greedier and more craving his appetites." (p. 133)

As cited in ...

Thoreen, David.  "The Economy of Consumption:
   The Entropy of Leisure in Pynchon's Vineland."
   Pynchon Notes 30-31 (Spring-Fall 1992): 53-62.

An esp. good issue to pick up here, the first five
essays are all on Vineland.  I'll try to post
exceprpts, a bibliography when I get a chance ...

--- Bandwraith at aol.com wrote:
> 
> Given the little self-parody in the opening of
> the "Sloth" essay- with it's denial of guilt and
> rationalization of writer's sloth, not to mention
> the aspersions cast in the direction of the proto-
> typical workaholic, Ben Franklin, I can't help but
> believe that TRP is poking fun at himself, as well
> as, my man/dog, Zoyd.
> 
> I may as well warn yuz all early that I'm not
> buying any of what I'm sure some of yuz are loadin'
> up for, namely, that VL is somehow goin' to enoble
> the Labor Movement- you know, the foax that brought
> us the weekend- at the expense of the free-loadin'
> sixties revolutinaries ....

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