Children of the revolution?

[jbor]

on 18/6/03 6:38 PM, lorentzen-nicklaus at lorentzen-nicklaus at t-online.de
wrote:

> 
> it's not necessary to use harsh words like "ridiculous": compare the rather
> moralistic mode you and terrance are writing about this specific class issue
> with the way pynchon (who probably read herbert marcuse's essay on liberation)
> puts it in the introduction of slow learner:
> 
> "the success of the 'new left' later in the '60's was to be limited by the
> failure of college kids and blue-collar workers to get together politically.
> one reason was the presence of real, invisible class force fields in the way
> of communication between the two groups."

Just about all the 60's "college kids" of the "'new left'" depicted in
_Vineland_ - even as they were back then in the '60s, let alone what they
had all become by '84 - do seem pretty ridiculous, however. Pynchon portrays
them as being short on both integrity and insight (unlike their
grandparents), big on ego and self-gratification, and with zero in the way
of working class cred. And, in fact, Pynchon is quite critical of the
"hippie resurgence" (p.9) in the _SL_ 'Intro' too.

best