Safer: Humor and the Absurd in Vineland

[jbor at bigpond.com]

And, continuing with the extensive catalogue of critical approaches to 
Pynchon's work by female readers, Elaine Safer's essay (pdf) views 
_Vineland_ (with reference to Pynchon's earlier novels) in the context 
of her "black humor" thesis regarding contemporary American fiction:

'Pynchon's world and its legendary past: Humor and the absurd in a 
twentieth-century Vineland' by Elaine B. Safer.
_Critique_ 31.2, Winter 1990, pp. 107-125.

Abstract
Presents an interpretation of the novel _Vineland_, by Thomas Pynchon 
focusing on its insights about the modern American society. Humorous 
quality of most of the scenes in the novel; insights on the American 
dream and its loss; metaphorical implications of the shopping mall and 
Zen Buddhism in the novel; negative tone of the novel's conclusion.

Excerpts:
"... The novel, which begins in 1984, suggests connections with George 
Orwell's vision of a world whose people are directed by a television 
screen, but in Pynchon's world the viewing is voluntary. ..." (108)

"... At first we laugh at the Thanatoids and their bizarre situation, 
but our laughter falters when we begin to appreciate that we are really 
looking at a microcosm of our own twentieth century society and thus 
share the dilemma of the characters at whom we have been laughing. ..." 
(113)

"... In _Vineland_, Pynchon's message is more ambiguous [than in _V._]. 
One reason for the ambiguity is that ... Pynchon seems to encourage the 
reader to believe that the book ends positively. ..." (121)

The range of references Safer has included with the essay really opens 
up the reading of Pynchon's text - it's another discussion well worth 
reading.

best