Barthelme intro

[Paul Mackin]

pynchonoid wrote:

>--- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
>
>  
>
>http://www.themodernword.com/pynchon/pynchon_essays_barthelme.html
>  
>
>>"[...] The rage behind it, provoked by the
>>ongoing spectacle of national politics in the U.S.
>>as
>>presided over by anybody, is natural enough if you
>>look at the regimes Barthelme happened to be working
>>under. [...]"
>>
>>That'd have to include JFK and LBJ too, wouldn't it?
>>    
>>
>
>
>Which regimes did Pynchon mention by name in the
>essay?
>
>" Nixon by then had already mutated into a desperate
>and impersonal force"
>
>"Among many sad consequences of his passing is that we
>won't know what he might have done with Bush as a
>subject, although "Kissing the President," in its
>consideration of Reagan, may give off premonitory
>hints."
>
>Barthelme raging against Kennedy?
>
>http://www.eskimo.com/~jessamyn/barth/kennedyarticle.html
>"Robert Kennedy Saved from Drowning", by Donald
>Barthelme
>
>[...]  In the final scene, the narrator finds Kennedy
>in the water, drowning. The narrator throws a rope to
>him and pulls him to safety.
>
>[...] Secretaries, an aide, an administrative
>assistant, a friend, and a former teacher tell brief
>anecdotes about Kennedy, anecdotes that highlight
>something special about him. Often, they stress
>Kennedy's emotional effect on the people around him.
>The teacher recalls Kennedy's compassion as his
>defining and unusual characteristic. One secretary
>lauds Kennedy's ability to remember his employees and
>their personal problems, exemplified by his bringing
>her tulips when she was in the hospital. The
>administrative assistant tells how Kennedy resolved
>both a mounting crisis and the general nervousness of
>his staff with a single phone call. Kennedy's friend
>explains how difficult it is to know Kennedy, because
>he does such unexpected things. Ironically, the friend
>reports, Kennedy has an unshakable faith that things
>will do what they are expected to do. [...] 
>
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Though not about a president but a president's brother it sounds like a 
quite a funny satire or parody.

Here's what Gore Vidal said of "Robert Kennedy Saved From Drowning" in 
the 1976 Plastic Fiction article:

"The reader brings to the story an altogether too vivid memory of the 
subject. We learn from the interview in Bellamy's book that, though the 
story "is, like, made up," Barthelme did use a remark that he heard 
Kennedy make about a geometric painter (" 'Well, at least we know he has 
a ruler' "…high wit from Camelot). Yet the parts that are not, like, 
made up are shrewd and amusing and truthful (relatively, of course). 
Also, the see-Jane-run style is highly suited to a parody of a 
contemporary politician on the make as he calculates his inanities and 
holds back his truths (relative—and relatives, too) and rage. "