VLVL Is it OK to be a misoneist?

[jbor]

on 8/3/04 12:25 AM, Paul Mackin wrote:

> Like everyone else I flit back and forth between the real and fictional.

There's nothing wrong with that, of course. I don't think the membrane or
partition separating these two categories is always or necessarily a stable
one, however -- particularly when considering Pynchon's work. I'm more
interested in Pynchon's attitude to the fictional and real world events he
presents in his works; I don't have a problem if someone disagrees with his
emphases and takes him to task him for not mentioning Hubert Humphrey in the
context of what was happening in America in 1967-9, for example. But
referring to Hubert Humphrey or Charles Manson to support or dismiss an
interpretation of Pynchon's text doesn't seem valid to me. You might
disagree.

> Writers pepper their fictional worlds with real world events. Perhaps I
> misread you but but I saw an implication that Pynchon's aim was
> analyzing real world events for real world application in the future. I
> don't think he does that in his fiction.

I agree that black humour and nostalgia are elements within Pynchon's
fiction. I think there's more to it than just that, however, and I think he
even self-consciously subverts these two modes on occasion. But you're
right: I do see more than these two in his work -- Prairie is the character
upon whom the unenvisaged future hinges in _Vineland_, for example -- and I
do think there's room for many more responses to what he writes than you
allow.

best