How is Pynchon a conservative?

[Terrance]

Paul Mackin wrote:
> 
> One reason Pynchon might have wanted to hold himself apart from the
> beats was that in theory the beats were supposed to stand for being very
> spontaneous, writing from direct experience, with little or no revision,
> etc.

That wouldn't have worked out well for Tom. Tom's too much of
counterfeiter and researcher, dictionary and encyclopedia dependent  to
start and he writes and re-writes and re-writes and so on, looks for
just the right words and maps his worlds out over and over again and
over maps and worlds.  It's become his forte. M&D almost fails because
it's over-researched and over-written and over-mapped at times. 



> 
> The exact opposite of P's approach.
> 
> Of course in practice the beat writers were probably more systematic and
> studied than they pretended, say as in a work such as "On the Road."
> 
> Another thing, the beats were generally apolitical. Didn't believe in
> trying to change anything through left politics or such.
> 
> Would P have reacted negatively to this stance. Terrance would say no
> and that the 50's P was politically conservative.
> 
> Might this have been so but he was later infected by the New Left? My
> memory of his age cohort makes me believe such an outcome would be
> likely. Revolution was in the air.

Pynchon's no fan of Revolutions.