VLVL "the old Yurok story" (379-80)

[umberto rossi]

In data 30 May 2004, verso le 10:50, jbor si trovò a scrivere su VLVL 
"the old Yurok story" (379-80):

> But I don't think that a narrow Eurocentric reading is actually warranted
> in the context of (what I assume is) a faithful retelling of an authentic
> Indigenous North American myth. (The River Styx isn't mentioned in
> Pynchon's text, by the way.)

Narrow? Eurocentric? It's narrower than that, it's Italo-centric. 
Which is a bit wider than what many postcolonial critics do, that is 
taking into account only texts coming from former British colonies 
(the old Empire may have disappeared, but the language of the Empire 
is still there). 

Anyway, here is the old NA story...

"Vato told an old Yurok story about a man from Turip, about five 
miles up the Klamath from the sea, who lost the young woman he loved 
and pursued her into the country of death.  When  he found the boat 
of Illa'a, the one who ferried the dead across the last river, he 
pulled it out of the water and smashed out the bottom with a stone.  
And for ten years no one in the world died, because there was no boat 
to take them across . . .  "

It is quite similar to the old myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. And you 
even have ol' man Charon, who ferries the dead across the last river 
(Styx for the Greeks and Dante). I can't believe Pynchon is not aware 
of the similarities of the two stories, and the fact that the Yurok 
story conflates elements of Dantesque geography of Hell and the 
Orpheus myth. 

Now, may I point out to you that your answer smells a bit of PC 
bigotry, in that it seems bad to connect a text to other Western 
texts while it is good to preserve the NA story in its "purity"? Btw 
this is an alleged purity, because you said that you *assumed* 
Pynchon's text is a faithful retelling of an authentic
Indigenous North American myth. Or is this a way to tell foreigners 
that America belongs only to Americans (be they red, white or black)? 
Tell me, we're getting into an interesting question here. It's 
difficult to understand where multicultural openness ends and 
nationalistic closure begins...

Otoh, Pynchon never cared about those boundaries: like all great 
writers, he recklessly ransacked whatever literary source he liked or 
needed, regardless of its nationality. There are tons and tons of Non-
English European stuff in his novels (from Rilke to Musil), as well 
as intellectual goods imported from China, Namibia or South Africa. 
So, what reading is narrow, dear jbor?

umberto rossi
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