ATD sex (WAS ATD verdict?)

[David Morris]

On 12/28/06, Tim Strzechowski <dedalus204 at comcast.net> wrote:
> Well, I'll assume for a moment that your term "focus" relates to the mood of the passages in question, and there are different moods an author can evoke when writing sexually charges passages.  The mood of, say, Slothrop and Bianca's sex (GR, 468-70) is obviously different from that of the Domina Nocturna scene (GR, 232-36).
>
> In the GR passage, a younger Pynchon seems to delight in the savory details of the act itself as well as its significance to the whole work (which we obviously don't get in the limits of what I've quoted).  But the smaller details -- the positioning of the movements, the uses of verbs -- enhance the eroticism here.
>
> In the ATD passage I don't see those details.  The focus here is on the significance of the act itself rather than the details of that act -- the positioning of the movements, the uses of verbs here lean more toward the overall significance of the act (i.e., symbolism) rather than delighting in its savory details.
>
> Maybe it's a sign of Pynchon's having matured as a writer.  His erotic passages as a younger man gloried in the fleshly details, whereas now sex is, well ... something other than mere sex.


Maybe it's difficult relating his use of poetic descriptions of scenes
with his descriptions of sexual acts.  What I meant by lacking focus
was that he uses his elaborately intricate descriptions of scenes in
places which seem haphazard, not places of import, and maybe too
often, so that the emphasis they could convey seems watered down.
Also I said they seem to lack the kind of energy such scenes evoked in
GR.  So when you said the sex scenes seemed "rote" I thought there
might be some connection in our observations.

David Morris