ATD SPOILER p 262-269

[Tore Rye Andersen]

>From: "John Pendergast" <jpender at siue.edu>
>Or
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>Is it possible Pynchon is using Lake (and using her he certainly is) to
>suggest that their revenge is misplaced, a relic of an older, now 
>antiquated
>way of doing things? As the novel continues (spoiler break)
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>the motivations for revenge peter out, lose momentum, and finally get lost
>in the larger issues of the novel's world. In this reading (granted, just 
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>initial one, based on one far from satisfactory reading), Lake is the hero
>of the bunch in the sense that she does not waste time pursuing "pagan" 
>wild
>justice, as Bacon called revenge somewhere, in one of his essays that I
>think is about to become important to all of us. I'll get back to you on
>this.
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>jp

I certainly have a hard time seeing Lake as the hero of AtD. I fully agree 
with you that the violent sex-scene with Deuce and Sloat can be profitably 
read as Pynchon's critique of "an older, now antiquated way of doing 
things," but that Lake is victimized in this scne hardly makes her a hero. 
Frank, Reef and Kit aren't heroes either (as always in Pynchon's novels, if 
there are heroes, they're often to be found in the margins), but Pynchon 
doesn't seem to extend the least bit of sympathy to Lake, and why should he? 
She doesn't participate in the revenge machinations of her brothers, but her 
actions are at least as problematic as theirs, and her final fate is 
certainly a bleak and arid one.

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