Action, Jackson!

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

I probably should give "V." another chance, although it always has been my least favorite Pynchon Novel. I suppose the ugliness is uglier and the funniness is less funny than in any other book by TRP. There's that nose-job, and the whole skin-crawlingly creepy simulacra stuff. Perhaps I wasn't really cynical enough for it before, though the last 5 years have probably moved me closer in "V"'s direction than anything in the years before. 

Something I posted a few days before throws a arclight on what I dislike in "V":

"I was operating on the motto "Make it literary," a piece of bad advice I made up all by myself and then took".

But there are some interesting co-relations twixt "V" & "GR", and I should give "V" another pass, considering there wil be considerable overlap between "V" and "ATD".


 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: Paul Mackin <paul.mackin at verizon.net>> 
Interesting

Might a slight elaboration be allowed

V. contains within it the seeds of future shapes to come
 
Stencil's journey is parabolic in that he never gets any closer or  any farther away from what he is FOCUSing on. (definition of a parabola)
 
The North/South (uptown/downtown) line Benny meaninglessly follows in his yoyoing  is destined to metamorphize into the East/West  line that is said also to mean ultimately nothing.

Stencil's journey is circular in that he ends up right where he started--"I haven't learned a goddamned thing." he sez