Pynchon's New Book?

[bekah]

Has no one mentioned the Frontier Thesis of Frederick Jackson Turner? 
He presented his paper to the historians gathered in Chicago at the 
1893 World's Fair.   Fwiw,  1890 is also the year the  census bureau 
declared the Frontier closed.  (The territory in what was then the US 
was, for all intents and purposes,  settled - there was no edge 
anymore, no boundary to civilization as  we knew it.)

Turner basically said that this frontier had helped to establish 
American democracy and ideal and our way of life.
So the historians loved that and that's what was taught in schools 
and history departments across the US for the next 75 years or so. 
The alternative theory was that the American democratic spirit  had 
arrived from Greece and Rome somehow and was filtered through the 
Magna Carta etc.   Turner,  from Wisconsin (as opposed to Yale)  said 
it was home-grown.

Well,  then school times changed and it was kind of out of fashion to 
think that the "frontier" had anything to do with the development of 
American democracy and culture.   So. onward to some revisionist 
thinking until - oh - 7 or 8 years ago when  post-revisionism came 
forth  and renewed some  interest in  "The New West" (Turner's book.

If I was the betting sort,  I'd bet on this as a real possibility for 
a Pynchon tome.

Bekah


At 1:58 PM -0500 6/17/06, rich wrote:
>there was a case of a UFO-like incident in Chicago in the late 1890s 
>about rumors of sightings of airships
>the sausage king of Chicago was accused of killing his wife and 
>using her body as part of his livelihood; as u can imagine people 
>didn't eat alot of his product in the city
>the opening of a famous observatory right over the border in Wisconsin
>dracula was published in 1897
>
>more to come..shit i eve dreamed about chicago last night
>
>psyched
>
>rich
>
>On 6/17/06, S. S. <<mailto:ethocin at gmail.com>ethocin at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>On 17/06/06, <mailto:kelber at mindspring.com>kelber at mindspring.com 
><<mailto:kelber at mindspring.com>kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
>>  "Turn of the century" also misses the events of 1886 in Haymarket 
>>Square -- The first May Day march, anarchist rallies, bomb thrown 
>>at the police, riots, execution of anarchist leaders -- seems 
>>surprising Pynchon would want to miss out on all of that.
>>
>>  Laura
>
>Yes, in the same way that "California in the eighties" leaves no room
>for the zany hippiedom of the sixties, and yet, somehow, it's all in
>Vineland anyway.
>
>S.
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