ATDDTA (3): Control issues, 54-56

[David Morris]

Spoiler Below Tore's post:

On 2/16/07, Tore Rye Andersen <torerye at hotmail.com> wrote:
> Welcome at the helm, Monte. That issue of control is an interesting one, and I'd even go so far as to call it a central one - certainly not the first time it has reared its ugly head in a Pynchon novel.
[..]
> I think we find the same oscillation between the concrete and the abstract in AtD:
> When They remain faceless - in the guise of giant robed figures, or Fate, or History - it is all too easy to submit oneself to Their power, to the inevitability of Fate, etc.
[...]
> Many of Pynchon's characters may speculate who They could be, but I'm not really sure they want an answer to this question, because it is so much easier to submit oneself to an abstract principle of power than to someone with a face and a name.
>
> "All very well to talk about having a monster by the tail, but do you think we'd've had the Rocket if someone, some specific somebody with a name and a penis hadn't *wanted* to chuck a ton of Amatol 300 miles and blow up a block full of civilians? Go ahead, capitalize the T on technology, deify it if it'll make you feel less responsible - but in puts you in with the neutered, brother, in with the eunuchs keeping the harem of our stolen Earth for the numb and joyless hardons of human sultans, human elite with no right at all to be where they are--" (GR, 521).
[...]
>The interesting thing of course it what happens when this Authority
simply absconds towards the end of the novel and leaves the Chums to
their own devices - but I think I'll save that discussion for a later
post: This one has already gotten out of control....

Great post Tore!  I think you've really nailed this issue, at least
some of its aspects.  By no means out of control.

As you point out, avoiding the pursuit of Who They are allows for a
passive peace of mind.  And this issue is delved into quite deeply in
the episode where the Chums face up to the issue of their Faceless
bosses having been infiltrated by the evil visitors from the future.
Can the Chums allow themselves to trust the hierarchy of command any
longer?   So instead of facing this issue head-on they pursue a
meta-life, the fantasy of a harmonica academy, (a really strange trip
within a trip)which itself devolves into a twisted power game complete
with an opiated headmaster and a privileged informant.  And then just
like that they find themselves back in their own selves and Their
control again, and the Chums just "decide" to let all these question
fade from consciousness...

Pynchon couldn't make this choice of passivity by the Chums any
clearer.  And the Chums motive (besides "peace of mind")?  To remain
infantile, children forever, a belief, not a fact, which soon starts
to fray around its edges.

David Morris