ATDTDA: That graceful ending

[Paul Mackin]

On Apr 20, 2007, at 5:20 AM, Monte Davis wrote:

> Paul M:
>> Hate to sound flippant,  but judging from the  paragraphs leading up
>> to it, it can mean just about anything you want it to mean.
>
> Not flippant at all to my ear (neither you nor TRP)... keeping in  
> mind the
> staggering richness of detail and hyper-super-overdetermined  
> implication he
> has built up on each side of the coin:
>
> A) The Chums are our best, truest selves, rising above the detritus  
> of all
> our mistakes and carelessness and sloth into something unimaginably  
> better
>
> B) The Chums are our most glozing, neutered, self-deluded selves,  
> still
> telling pretty stories about a cosmic song as they rise to meet the
> screaming across the sky
>
> To me it's as far as can be from an abdication of some authorial
> responsibility to tell us how it turns out ("So, Tom, whaddya *really*
> think?").
>
> Much more like "Mesdames et messieurs, les jeux sont fait."
>
> Or, if you like:
>
> "Now, everybody--"
>
>
>



I can live with inconclusive endings.

Just because meaning is unstable doesn't mean it can't be  
affectionately rendered.

In this latter respect Pynchon is a  winner.

P.