ATDTDA: That graceful ending

[Mark Kohut]

Paul Mackin <paul.mackin at verizon.net> wrote:  
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.











       
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