ATD: NO SPOILERS NO PAGE # Re: Rocketmen and Wastelands

[bekah]

At 8:09 PM +0100 11/1/06, Tore Rye Andersen wrote:
>I think that the flat characters was an early weakness of Pynchon's, 
>especially evident in V. Both Benny Profane and Herbert Stencil are 
>somewhat cartoonish, and are clearly meant to represent The Street 
>and The Hothouse, respectively.


I don't think that flat characters are necessarily a weakness.   Flat 
characters can be meant as stereotypes to one degree or another and 
they can set off a satire extremely well.   They lend themselves to 
the comic more readily than the "well developed" character. 
"Rounded"  (fleshed out)  characters can end up driving a narrative, 
flat ones get driven by the plot or theme or something else. 
Rounded characters are built on their emotions and motives (I think) 
and Pynchon doesn't usually go there in much depth;  he has other 
places and things to visit.

The characters in GR and M&D were more fully rounded than the ones in 
Vineland or TCoL49 or V.   Actually,  I'm wondering if the characters 
in ATD will be more cameos than anything.   Pynchon is not writing to 
develop believable characters,  he's writing to develop some 
enjoyable thinking and consideration of the circumstances we find 
ourselves in and what drives the circumstances.

Of course there are always exceptions - the above is not a "rule."

Bekah