VLVL "the Movement"

[Dave Monroe]

Okay, thanks for the clarification.  Especially as
I've been at pains to forestall that all-too-easy leap
from "conservative" to "Conservative" here myself.  
I've pointed out more'n' a few times here, for
example,  that Jules Siegel's ex-wife (whose name I
can't recall) referred to Pynchon as a coupon-cliiping
"conservative" on this very list ...

I'm not entirely sure about "traditional views and
values."   I mean, say, casual marijuana use is still
not exactly what most'd call "traditional" in these
here United States.  Nor is the concentration of sex,
violence, and just plain weirdness he writes into his
books.  No matter how often happens nonetheless ...

But I do think "dissident Left" might well prove
correct, I believe that Pynchon generally takes his
occasional non-fictional moment to say a little
something about himself along with something about
whatever he's ostensibly introducing.  There are no
doubt Reasons why he wrote that 1984 intro ... 

And, certainly, at any rate, "condemn[ing] the
exploitation of the working class" is generally the
province of the left (which does not necessarily
include the Democratic Party) here.  No, I agree, and,
again, I think the ex-Mrs. Siegel, as well as that
Slow Learner intro, are my sources here, Pynchon,
sympathetic as he might have been to the various
countercultures of the 50s, 60s (beatniks, hippies,
student radicals, whatever) was nonetheless of a
slightly different generation, not to mention milieu,
was looking in from the outside, and didn't
necessarily like everything he saw.  Again, despite
Richard Rorty's disdain for Vineland in his Achieving
Our Country, I suspect the two of 'em have much in
common politically, though I think Pynchon's more
sympathetic to Ma and Pa Rorty's old-skool Lefty-ism
that their ingrate kid is (again, that upper-class
class-consciouness).  "Dissident," certainly, to the
Left as it's largely manifested himself throughout his
adulthood.  But dissident Left (vs. both Liberal and
Conservative) nonetheless ...

--- Terrance <lycidas2 at earthlink.net> wrote:
> 
> > >
> > > Dissident Left? Why? I can't imagine why anyone
> > > would apply this term to Pynchon.
>  
> > And I've some difficulty why anyone would read
> > Pynchon as politically conservative.
> 
> I never said I  read Pynchon as a political
> conservative. In fact, I said Pynchon is not a
> political conservative. That's obvious. Isn't it?
> What kind of conservative is Pynchon? He is a
> conservative in lots of different senses. For
> example, he's something of a Luddite. Isn't he?
> That's a rather conservative stance.  Pynchon
> defines a Luddite as an early Trade Unionist. He
> champions hard work and traditional working class
> American values.  Pynchon condemns the 
> exploitation of the working class. Again, a
> conservative American value. Favoring traditional
> views and values; tending to oppose change,
> traditional or restrained in style, a moderate and
> cautious and conservative person.  That's Tom.

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