VLVL What is Pynchon's attitude towards 24fps?

[Bandwraith at aol.com]

In a message dated 1/5/04 6:48:41 PM, jbor at bigpond.com writes:

<< I realise that you and others have a problem with Pynchon's satirical
representation of the counterculture in the novel. >>

Your facile "realization" is the problem. You should be disabused of the 
rather fixed notion you have that we don't like Pynchon's parody of the 
"television version" of America, during the period of the novel. And, while 
I may think Vineland a great work, I realize that you do not share my 
fondness for the novel, nor hold it in such high regard.

I think, for example, that Brock Vond is a great characterization. I do 
not, however, see him as a satirical version of a real federal prosecutor, 
but as a parody of how television would have hyped such a character.

Brock's characterization doesn't work as satire because it's too 
heavy handed. For many people, I think, who read Vineland when 
it first came out, it was a disappointment for just that reason. They 
felt it was badly done- or, as DF Wallace confessed in the interview 
recently posted here- superficial.

http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0401&msg=87879&sort=date

I don't agree with that. Rather, I think DFW's reading is superficial because 
it misses the main point of the novel- the insidious way that the televised 
version of the times- effortlessly and endlessly available to the couch 
potato- has come to be accepted as reality. Not surprisingly, while Pynchon 
is able to reference the tv culture, even as he is parodying it, by 
gracefully 
and artistically including it within the body of his text, Wallace appends a 
numbing series of footnotes to the brick-like IJ, in a clumsy attempt at 
creating the same sort of self-referential parody.

The adventures of Brock and the rest of the characters are not a satire of 
reality but a parody of how reality has been glossed over and dumbed down 
for prime time. Uncovering the story of what was actually happening back  
then- like trying to catch a glimpse of the hidden reality behind a gnostic 
text- requires work. 

The current reading of Vineland is a rather stunning example of how easy 
it has become to follow Wallace's lead and avoid that work. Although,
as he readily admits, he may have some egotistical reasons- not too 
mention jealousy- for his intellectual laziness.

respectfully