ATDDTA (3): Control issues, Chums, They

[Paul Mackin]

On Mon, 2007-02-19 at 09:38 -0500, Monte Davis wrote:
>  I
> believe AtD and the whole TRP oeuvre are better for their never-resolved
> tension between:
> 
> These values bring out the best in us as individuals
> 
> and
> 
> These values are hard -- maybe impossible -- to embody in political action,
> to put to work in history
> 
> 

This dislocation (if that's the right word) seems very important in AtD.

My question is, how does it (this unresolved tension) distance Pynchon
from 60s New Left ideology, which tended to identify personal happiness
and any kind of meaning in life with political action? 

One would never of course view the working people of AtD as "cheerful
robots."