VLVL2 Vineland & V. WAS re Re: Shutting down New York

[pynchonoid]

T:
[...]Pynchon doesn't permit us to let the kids off the
hook because they never grow up.And, like Benny, they
have not learned
a thing. [...]

Now don't go blaming Pynchon for your own reaction. If
you compare the endings of V. and Vineland, I don't
think you can reach this conclusion.  Benny hasn't
learned much, and the Whole Sick Crew seem to remain
mired in their stuff.  But the group gathered at the
end of Vineland has grown and developed a lot --
Prairie, especially, as she's learned about the '60s
through DL and Frenesi, and her parents have finally
managed to get past some of the bitterness and have
arrived at some sort of reconciliation, the adults are
well along the path to being all grown up with jobs
and partners and kids and doing their best to make it
all come around as best it can. They've managed to
create an extended family/community that promises to
abide even though danger lurks beyond the circle of
fire,  they're more or less tight and together,
they've weathered the storm. Even the Thanatoids are
using the tools and services at hand to try to work
through their unresolved issues.  Very different from
the way Pynchon leaves things at the end of V, and GR.
IMO you're trying too hard to give Pynchon your
hard-on for the hippie and radical Boomers, when in
fact, for each barb Pynchon also provides a touch of
understanding and compasiion when it comes to his
brothers and sisters from the 60s, and their parents,
and their children. It's quite a life-affirming tale,
after all, with the really nasty satire reserved for
the ex-Nazis and neo-fascists who work for the
Reagan-Bush Administration. Look at what happens to
Brock Vond, for heaven's sake, and compare that to the
fate Pynchon has created for Frenesi and Zoyd and
Prairie.



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