VL to SL: Pynchon's Self-Characterization

[Terrance]

jbor wrote:
> 
> >> 2) The sentence about values is an endorsement of what the Beats stood for;
> >> it's *not* an endorsement of "conservatism", however that might be defined.
> >> (I.e., he is saying that the Beat movement was "a sane and decent
> >> affirmation of what *we all want to believe about* American values"; my
> >> emph.)
> >
> > The Beats stood for conservative American values or what we all want to
> > believe about America.
> 
> Then what did the "modernist tradition" and the college academics stand for,
> and why were Pynchon's loyalties, and those of the other "post-Beats" (who
> dat? Fariña?), divided between the two?
> 
> I agree that in writing "what we all want to believe about American values"
> he's preaching to the choir, though there does indeed to be some confusion
> surrounding precisely which choir that is.


Again, we need to toss out these categories because we can't talk about
the Beats like this. Keruoac or Butowski. Since P mentions the former we
should do well to remember that Jack was a conservative Catholic
American patriot who supported the war in Vietnam.