Round and Flat

[Paul Mackin]

On Nov 4, 2006, at 3:03 PM, Tore Rye Andersen wrote:

>> From: Paul Mackin
>
>> Question for discussion: Describe instances of character surprises in
> Pynchon:
>
> - Independent Prairie asking for Brock Vond to return and take her  
> away (VL, 384)
>
> - Graceful asskicker DL trying to flee her responsibility after  
> applying the Vibrating Palm to hapless Takeshi (VL, 155)
>
> - Pökler finally facing his culpability after having been willfully  
> blind to what went on around him (GR, 433)
>
> - Paranoid, crypto-racist and callous Slothrop developing into an  
> antiparanoid gentle soul in the Zone (GR, passim)
>
> - Slothrop screwing Bianca in GR (or at least dreaming of doing so)
>
> - Impulsive and irrational Dixon exclaiming that Newton is his  
> deity + Dixon turning into a bitter old geezer (M&D)
>
> - And (a special case): Would-be rapist and unsympathetic slob Pig  
> Bodine from V. developing (backwards, kind of) into the graceful  
> and caring countercultural hero in GR - and, via, his ancestor  
> Fenderbelly Bodine, reverting to type in M&D. I wonder how he'll  
> turn out in AtD.

So, Pynchon CAN create complex characters after all.

It's not just MATTER that undergoes transformation.