Organ-eyes Crime

[Paul Mackin]

On Mon, 2004-11-01 at 22:37, joeallonby wrote:
> > 
> >> And the "when I listen to Beethoven, I feel like invading Poland" line is
> >> one of the funniest in the book.
> > 
> > The referent here would seem to be not merely the invasion of Poland,
> > but Modernism and Seriousness.
> > 
> > 
> > 
> So is he equating Rossini with Modernism?

No, Rossini would, in some respects anyway, have affinity with the
post-modern.

warm vs cold
irrational vs rational
comedy vs tragedy
diversity vs totalizing

Possibly running counter to the scheme would be Beethoven's harmony's
tending toward polymorphous perversity, all notes equal at last. Not
sure which side of this bed Norman O. Brown sleeps.

>  Is he equating Modernism with fun?

No post-modernism is more fun. Play of the signifier. Modernism is
serious, holding high culture, meaningful experience, above the pop.


> Is this a value judgement? If so, is it Pynchon's value spoken through the
> character of the drug dealer? Or is it just character development of the
> drug dealer? Is it intended to show the triumph of low culture or its
> essential simplistic shallowness? And/or a clever putdown of a pompous ass
> who is full of himself?
> 
 Just idle speculation.


> 
> 
>  
> 
>