AtD and morbid, diseased conditions #2

[terrance fitzgerald]

Well, it works out great in fiction, but it doesn't hold up to an historical inspection. Unless, of course, we treat history and fiction as narratives all the same. The obvious problem for anyone interested in looking at P's fiction through this lens is that exceptionalism is simply not something P's fiction treats as exclusively American. Or even Western. In any event, exceptionalism is a useful card to have on the table as we start P's latest.  
  
David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
  Wow!

This is really great stuff. We know from GR Slothrup's roots back in
Puritan New England where Pynchon focuses on the preterite/elite
dichotomy. If the New World is the place for the "pure" religion to
flourish, mixing that idea with (manifest) destiny places, as you
note, "The Western" becomes the fiction of righteous conquest, and one
of its heroes the pumpkinroller, or naive tenderfoot, who will
prevail...

But with Pynchon, the preterite will have an other than place in the drama.

It's an interesting succession of ideas.

David

On 8/17/06, Paul Nightingale wrote:
> More on the Western, from Deborah L Madsen (1998) American Exceptionalism,
> Edinburgh UP ...
 		
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