ATDDTA (3): Control issues, 54-56

[Tore Rye Andersen]

>Well Pynchon was a contemporary (maybe just a bit before) this
>generation, and I think he has his sympathies along with his
>critiques, just as he likes his schemiels and his Whole Sick Crews (at
>least I think he likes them).  They aren't heroes, except accidentally
>from time to time, but they're marginal status makes the defacto
>rebellious of the control of the Bad Guys.  The rebellion on the
>campus in VL really is accidental, especially so its leader, and had
>no chance of standing against the Powers That Be.  I'd say it's more a
>sad fact than a critique.

Oh yes, Pynchon definitely loves his marginal and preterite characters with 
a passion, I couldn't agree more, and he probably even wishes that they 
could be heroes (and some of them are: I'd call the GR incarnation of Pig 
Bodine a hero, for instance), but despite his fondness for these characters 
I think Pynchon retains the ability to see their flaws as well and reserves 
the right to show them to us. So sad fact, yes, but definitely also a 
critique, and perhaps the critique is sharper in VL since it points to real 
people in real historical events as opposed to semi-real/semi-ficititious 
characters (the Chums) in real historical events - even though these 
historical events are of course more cataclysmic in AtD than in VL.

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