ATD SPOILER p 262-269

[pynchonoid]

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Coupla tings. "One big novel" if that's what his works
add up to, probably happens retrospectively.  I
suspect that part of what Pynchon may have been doing
in the interval between Gravity's Rainbow and Vineland
is  that he was figuring out how to go ahead and
articulate and work out some of the things suggested
and hinted at in the first three novels.  I get the
feeling - and I think it has been at least partly
corroborated by close reading and study of the novel
since its publication - almost that Pynchon wrote M&D
with the first three novels open on the desk in front
of him, in part PERHAPS (SHEER SPECULATION FOLKS, PUT
AWAY YOUR FLAMETHROWERS, PLEASE) to "fill in the
blanks".  Again, as I read through Against the Day, I
get a similar feeling, only this time Mason & Dixon is
on the desk with the other three, too.  If this is
anything at all like what Pynchon did, it's no wonder
he takes so long for each book, such a lot of "blanks"
to fill in, and of course each new book just raises
more issues to address and new story lines to follow
and single up,unless he closes off all those doors and
avenues with this one....

Also, I don't mean to suggest that Pynchon is above
falling victim to cultural biases, that he's purged
himself of whatever it was he saw in his writing that
caused him to make those statements in the Slow
Learner intro.  But I do think that, having raised the
issue, I can read ATD assuming he's trying to deal in
some way with patriarchal values and not let them
influence the   novel in a way that's beyond his
control.  A balancing act.





> >From: pynchonoid <pynchonoid at yahoo.com>
> >Actually, no, I don't get that feeling about
> Pynchon
> >relative to this material, not at all, and
> certainly
> >didn't mean to suggest anything like that, not at
> all.
> >I don't see him as a stern patriarchal moralizing
> >judge when it comes to sex, and I wouldn't expect
> him
> >to parrot the voices  of conventional morality that
> >might seek such an interpretation. Since I haven't
> >finished the novel, I don't know what ATD has in
> store
> >for Lake.    I expect that close reading of this
> >scene, in its various contexts within ATD, and
> >relative to similar scenes (as Robin suggests)
> >Pynchon's other novels, will reveal a lot going on
> >beneath the surface.
> >
> >Pynchon is dealing with sensitive material here,
> and
> >were it not for the way he has specifically
> addressed
> >issues of how he dealt with women in his early
> novels
> >(In the Slow Learner intro), it might be tempting
> to
> >assume  patriarchal values on the author's part
> might
> >be coming into play here, with a scene intended to
> be
> >read as you suggest.  But having made it an issue
> that
> >addressed in such a public way, I'm expecting close
> >reading to uncover references and allusions that
> will
> >provide other ways of looking at these passages
> with
> >Lake, Deuce, and Sloat.
> 

--- Tore Rye Andersen <torerye at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Good points. The context defined by Pynchon's other
> novels, essays, etc. is 
> extremely important for a nuanced reading of AtD,
> especially if one 
> considers all the overt and covert interconnections
> between this novel and 
> the previous ones. I wouldn't go so far as to call
> it one big novel, as 
> you've done a couple of times - the stylistic
> differences between each novel 
> are simply too pronounced for that - but the
> different novels definitely 
> belong to a unified conceptual aether and a scene
> like the gruesome 
> threesome with Lake, Deuce, and Sloat resonates so
> much more when read in 
> the context of previous similar constellations like
> Blicero/Katje, 
> Katje/Pudding, or Frenesi/Brock.
> 
>
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