Discussing TRP's Watts Article

[Paul Mackin]

On Tue, 2004-09-28 at 09:42, Ghetta Life wrote:

> 
> That said, I really have a hard time beliving the following "conversations" 
> he describes:
> 
> >>Others remember it in terms of music: through much of the rioting seemed 
> >>to run, they say, a remarkable empathy, or whatever it is that jazz 
> >>musicians feel on certain nights:  everybody knowing what to do and when 
> >>to do it without needing a word or a signal:  "You could go up to anybody, 
> >>the cats, could be in the middle of burning down a store or something, but 
> >>theyd tell you, explain very calm, just what they were doing, what they 
> >>were going to do next.  And thats what theyd do; man, nobody had to give 
> >>orders."
> 
> Like I said in my earlier post:
> 
> >I have my sincere doubts about anyone telling Pynchon such things, mainly 
> >because it sounds like something hed write a story about.  Its something 
> >hed LIKE to have happen.  Does anybody really believe that there was some 
> >sort of unspoken, but commonly felt, coordination of action during the 
> >riots?  But if one were to believe this description it would lend a certain 
> >spirituality or inherent nobility to the rioters.  This is Pynchons noble 
> >Street action which he describes so often (in GR & Vineland) as a 
> >wonderful/horrible dance where pure action supercedes thought.
> 
> I think it's too coincidental that Pynchon's Jazz obsession and his "Street 
> Action" obsession would converge so perfectly in conversations he had in 
> Watts.  It just doesn't ring true to my ears or mind.


This was in the closing paragraphs of the essay, when P was talking
about the "restructuring of the riot" as myth. P's language with respect
to the quote is a bit ambiguous but I think it's reasonable to read the
reported dialog as something he imagined out of his feeling for the
situation, rather than as something he actually heard said. Perhaps P
wanted to contribute a little himself the the myth, which he had called
perhaps Watts' only "drift away from reality."