Boomer myopia

[Monte Davis]

 > The closing moments in that novel, despite their warmlooking glow, are
some of the coldest Pynchon has ever written. 

Right on, maaan. The kids baste barbecue sauce at the Traverse get-together,
Brock gets his comeuppance, DL and Takeshi get it on, Prairie finds love
(no, rilly), Desmond gets a piece of bluejay tail, in every hopeful heart
there's a Wobbly anthem re-set to Jefferson Airplane licks.... 
 
And it all has about as much impact on the world outside the Magic Forest as
a half-forgotten Yurok legend. 
 
It's easy to see Pynchon's preoccupation throughout his career with
Beautiful Losers. It's apparently harder to see that he puts exquisitely
balanced emphasis on *both* words. So the reviewers' own mote of Boomer
myopia is taken for a beam in the author's eye -- which is in fact very
clear, unblinking, and (despite its indulgent twinkle at mindless pleasures)
no more inclined to forgiveness than that of old Judge Pyncheon.   
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20061121/9ba9ac4c/attachment.html>