Vineland criticism

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

I was particularly "taken" by the delineation of the raptor metaphors in Vineland, something I was aware of only on a rather murky level---those nasty Jays, "Death From Slightly Above"---and equating Brock Vond with the Eagle/Gargoyle architectural features of "Fascist Architecture" (is TRP a Elvis Costello fan, or maybe listens to Bruce Cockburn?):

"It's tempting to reduce Pynchon's allusion to "any of the sleek raptors that decorate facist architecture" to a very specific reference: the gigantic eagles that appear on buildings that were designed or constructed in Nazi Germany between 1932 and 1945. Pynchon refers to these very raptors -- "Eagles cast in concrete stand[ing] ten metres high at the corners of stadiums where the people, a corrupted idea of 'the People,' are gathering" -- in Gravity's Rainbow. Ancient symbols of tele-vision, independence, speed, and power, these sleek raptors are easy to visualize. Not only did the Nazis perch them at the entrances to highways and at the tops of stadiums, government buildings, train stations, and buildings that overlooked public squares, but they also used them in their songs, banners, sketches, models, paintings, photographs and propaganda films. (Though the Italian fascists didn't share the Nazis' obsession with eagles, the German fascists were hardly the first conquerors to us
e them as symbols or emblems of their military power. Eagles have been used in this way at least since the time of the ancient Egyptians.)"

Simply as a side note (a little context here), my Mom got "Camped" in the early 90's, given the helicopter and machine gun treatment for growing what turned out to be gopher purge.

The chapters I've read (so far) of "Babies of Wackiness" will probably be very useful for April to find the contexts for all those pop-cult references in Vineland. I'm certainly glad to have access to these resources.
 -------------- Original message ----------------------
From: "John Carvill" <JCarvill at algsoftware.com>
> Couple more - if you haven't already got them:
> 
> 
> One of the best things I've read about Vineland:
> 
> 1. Raptor, Rapist, Rapture:
> The Dark Joys of Social Control in Thomas Pynchon's Vineland
> 
> http://www.notbored.org/vineland.html
> 
> "Pynchon clearly believed that, just because the year 1984 didn't bring
> actual 'telescreens' into every home in the country, this didn't mean
> that Reaganism wasn't an American form of fascism."
> 
> 
> 2. Babies of Wackiness
> A Readers' Guide to Thomas Pynchon's Vineland
> 
> http://www.mindspring.com/~shadow88/
> 
> Particularly the intro:
> 
> http://www.mindspring.com/~shadow88/intro.htm
> 
> Makes the crucial point (sometimes overlooked even on the p-list) that
> "People read Thomas Pynchon because he's fun".
> 
> 
> Cheers
> JC
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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