VL to SL: Pynchon's Self-Characterization

[jbor]

on 12/4/04 10:35 PM, Terrance at lycidas2 at earthlink.net wrote:

> 
>> 
>> But they're the categories Pynchon sets up and it's the way *he's* talking
>> about the Beats. He refers to "Kerouac and the Beat writers" (6-7). He's
>> talking about his "divided" loyalties, about ultimately seeing "deeper" into
>> the "Beat sensibility" as a "sane and decent affirmation" of "American
>> values", about the initial years of the "hippie resurgence" being a
>> "vindication". I don't accept that the Beat "values" he's referring to are
>> consistent with "conservative" ones; if they are, then why were his
>> "loyalties divided" between what he was reading and "the more established
>> modernist tradition we were being exposed to in college"? The "Beat
>> sensibility" was an anti-Establishment one, surely?
>> 
>>> 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.
>> 
>> I can't see how this has anything to do with the _SL_ Intro, or Pynchon's
>> own attitude towards the Vietnam War.
> 
> 
> My point here is that Pynchon describes himself as a rather conservative
> young man 

I think that in the _SL_ Intro he characterises himself as becoming more
socially, culturally and politically aware through his exposure to Beat
culture and ideas, and as maturing from being an "unpolitical '50s student"
into someone who "saw deeper" into the Beat sensibility of the times and who
embraced both its trappings (jazz music, drugs) and its "values"
(anti-Establishment). I can't see how the first wave of the "hippie
resurgence" could possibly have "vindicated" any brand of conservatism.

best

> and those on this List who argue that he was a Beat or Beatnik
> or pot-smoking hippie are talking through their hats or confusing the
> author with his characters. Moreover, there is simply no evidence that
> Tom Pynchon was or is a member of some sort of dissident Left (P
> describes Orwell as a member of the dissident Left). Those claiming this
> political characterization appear to be assuming that his interest in
> Orwell is proof of his political affinity.  Lots of conservative
> thinkers were opposed to the war in Vietnam and to racism. Lots of
> catholic or ex-catholic conservatives  supported civil rights and the
> working class struggle during the 60s. These labels and categories
> (poorly defined) are worthless. The loud left and the radical left tends
> to get the press and hog the spot light, but the there are always
> Catholic clergy and Quakers marching in the anti-war parades, marching
> for civil rights and worker's rights, against USA imperialism. The Left
> in America left conservative thinkers by the road side. Catholics,
> Quakers, Asian Americans. The Left is Bankrupt. In VL. Pynchon shows us
> how the Left spent its money.