VLVL Is it OK to be a misoneist?

[jbor]

on 7/3/04 12:21 PM, Toby G Levy wrote:

> The point as I see it is not that misoneism is either good or bad, but
> that it is used by the establishement to retain and increase its power.
> Its been my experience that misonesim is normally found among the senior
> citiczens to varying degrees.

Pejorative stereotypes and ageism here aside, the point made in the text
(272-3) is not that Brock uses misoneism, merely that he sees it as an apt
description of what was happening at the time. That he's right, and that
Pynchon makes him right, isn't the same as saying that he "loves" Brock.

> They don't like modern art, the sports
> aren't as good as when they were younger, the new politicians are not as
> stately as the ones in the old days, etc.

... machines are taking away all the jobs, computers are a blight on
society, the robots are going to malfunction and take over the world ...

> Brock Vond likes it because it
> suits his politics.

Where does it say he "likes" it? It "got his attention" (272.35), that's
all. Nixon was elected by the people, democratically, not by virtue of
anything Brock does.

> My slow motion re-read of Vineland with the p-list has not changed my
> opinion that Brock Vond is a very evil man and Frenesi is a very bad
> person.  If you come away from reading this book liking these people, I
> would seriously consider seeing a psychiatrist.

Not being able to get past this sort of knee-jerk hatred -- not being able
to take seriously a person or public figure, let alone a character in a
novel, because you perceive them as "bad" and "evil" -- is one surefire way
of allowing them to get under your guard.

I don't think that liking or not liking Brock or Frenesi is the point of the
novel at all; in fact, it seems to me to be a pretty superficial and dull
way of engaging with the text. It's not something I've expressed an opinion
on either way -- I don't really have an opinion either way.

And, by the way, wouldn't Pynchon, at 66, qualify as a "senior citizen"?
 
best