Webb Traverse

[Chris Broderick]

Laura sez:

What I wonder is, did TRP mean Webb's death to be so
central to the 
story, or did it become that because of the laconic,
reader-friendly 
writing style of the Western episodes?  Any thoughts
on this, anyone?

So I say:

I think this is a major element of the way Pynchon
works with plot.  He takes our
well-honed-by-pop-culture expectation for resolution
as insta-reversal of circumstances and qwik karmic
realignment and thwarts it.  Webb's murder haunts many
of the intervening pages of this book, but many of the
expected resolutions are, to say the least,
contingent...

In a previous post, I averred that Webb haunts this
narrative in much the same way that Frenesi Gates
haunts Vineland.  That novel features an especially
brazen act of pop-cult-plot-con (copyright 2007!) (I'm
referring to the fact that Zoyd & Frenesi are going to
meet again after so many years apart, before Reagan
cuts the funding on Hector's escapade & cuts short the
resolution, not the fact that Prairie longs for Brock
Vond to take her away, and is instead confronted by
Desmond, though it's the same idea...)  Webb's own
death is freighted with as much, if not more symbolic
weight than Frenesi's turn from 24fps to the feds.

What I'm curious about is the linguistic freight of
the term 'Jeshimon'.  It just strikes me as a nice
piece of pseudo-biblical westernism, but I confess
ignorance.  I'll admit that the whole section made me
think of Cormac McCarthy, particularly the parallel
between the governor in AtD, and the judge in Blood
Meridian.  For what that's worth.

-Chris







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