TSI, Notes 1: Tom and Sam (Mark) and Huck and Baby Tyrone

[Abdiel OAbdiel]

--- Michael Perez <studiovheissu at yahoo.com> wrote:


> Abdiel OAbdiel wrote:
> "One of the flaws in TSI is the inconsistency of the
> intelligence of the characters, particularly the
> kids.  Pynchon, while he says that that he can't
much
> remember these stories and so on...is quite apt at
> getting at the critical problems of the tales. To
> read  Jim as having inferior intelligence is to
misread HF. HF is a very ironic text. Is Tom smarter
than Huck. Is Huck smarter than Jim? No. How about
Grover? Is he smarter than Tim?"
> 
> It's not so much a limitation in intelligence as it
> is in experience, I believe.  There is also the
absence of the necessity
> for
> responsibility.  

I agree that Experience or lack of Experience is
important. However, I agree with Pynchon criticism of
the story:  "The kids, for example, seem in some areas
to be not very bright, certainly not a patch on kids
of the '80's." Like Twain's Huckleberry Finn, TSI is a
coming-of-age tale.  Innocence & Experience and
Innocence Lost are important ideas in both stories. As
in HF, in TSI, Pynchon explores the coming-of-age of
both the story characters and America: Reconciling the
child and the developing outer being, coming to terms
with the changing expectations for the developing self
in the world, balancing childhood and adult
responsibilities, making decisions which will have
tremendous influence on the shape of lives to be
lived…and the coming-of-age not only for the
characters but for the Nation, (and a "new beat
generation") as well.
> 
> My question is, though:  Is this what Pynchon
> thought about the beats?  Are Mailer's "White
Negroes" and the recent times'
> "Whiggers" childish, self-centered know-it-alls who
develop the mannerisms, cultural
> appreciation, dress, and speech of African Americans
> of either time (the 50s or the 90s)because they want
to be outside without experiencing the nastiness and
descrimination that provided the
> background for these cultural developments?  No
> matter how much appreciation Pynchon had for _On the
Road_, is this what he learned from the beats?

Right on. 

http://www.urbanthinktank.org/whiteboy.cfm

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