Bianca

[Paul Mackin]

On Nov 9, 2006, at 4:39 AM, mikebailey at speakeasy.net wrote:

> having been a kid, I remember having a scale of values that I still  
> consider sane: being molested is bad but being injured or killed is  
> worse.
>
> So I kind of agree with Paul Mackin's perspective: shocking to  
> write about such things, but come on, war is much much worse.  And  
> people write about it all the time, and (shockingly) commit it.
>
> And war grinds down human values - so that Slothrop loses the  
> automatic self-censorship; his ass-banditry in Part One being  
> confined to adult women, and in fact it's Pointsman who (wouldn't  
> you say?) owns the train station reverie about picking up little  
> kids -- interesting distinction, Pointsman's reverie is all about  
> the counterfeit of benevolent protective love and not a word about  
> the sinister pleasure he's really anticipating, whereas preterite  
> Slothrop actually gets the fleshly description but I think we see  
> this as a stress-induced broaching of his innate decency...
>
> still, yes I recoil from it in GR; and in Vineland it's a definite  
> character flaw in Zoyd to go out with high school girls...but in  
> both cases, it's seen as such.  QED.  We're supposed to be  
> uncomfortable with it.
>
>
>
Yes we are. And no real harm is done readers.

The Bianca and Illse scenes are brilliant and very much in the main  
steam  of the novel.

There is nothing that needs apology or to be explained away, as a few  
critics apparantly have tried to do.

It seems to me that applying Theory (one theory or another) to a  
great novel actually gives us  less rather than more to appreciate  
and think about.

Same is also often true of movies (relating this thread to another  
current one), which explains why people as they mature tend to be  
less and less
interested in a certain kind of film criticism. They also may go to  
fewer movies, but probably for different reasons.

P.S. I have nothing against Theory. I just don't want it around while  
I'm reading or watching a movie.