ATDDTA (3): Control issues, Chums, They

[robinlandseadel at comcast.net]

         David Morris:
         I tend to agree with your stance that Pynchon does champion (take
         sides?) with kooky rebels, folks living beneath the radar in pursuit
         of their dreams, which just might be illegal.  But I've never thought
         of that as "Anarchism."  I think of Anarchism as an unrealizable
         ideal, and underground existence as an acknowledgement of 
         that fact.

Well, I've spent lot of time with people who choose to call themselves
Anarchists, and God knows how long I've hung out with those sorts of
folks---I can't remember a time when they didn't congregate around 
my family. And yes, it's Underground: "It's always night. . . .", ain't it?
That's just the way it is, save for Wednesday nights at the "Long Haul".
Governments don't like people who are against governments, do they?

   I don't think the author considers leftist activism 
   as a failure but as a constant, necessary, struggle.

          David Morris: 
          I agree again, but I think Monte's sentiment of "Pynchon brings to
          life tough questions that may not have answers" isn't contrary to your
          statement.  

Correct, of course.

           David Morris: 
           His activism in GR isn't frontal assault on Them, it's
           taking out the carburetor of that tractor in the woods:  

I demur, it is, it really, it really is. It's Byron the Lightbulb methodically
flickering a Barber with a straight-razor into an epileptic fit.
It's Geli Tripping casting a spell on Tchitcherine. It's Roger Mexico
taking a leak on everyone but Pointsman. You might think these
were empty gestures, but the author placed them front and center, 
didn't he?

           David Morris:
           "Keep Cool but Care" is a small scale underground resistance.  
           It seems to me that any character who mounts a "street action" 
           or any frontal asault on Them end up as martrys, a choice hardly 
           championed by Pynchon, but maybe admired.

Again, these things are in the books, the author documented them, 
these particular sorts of events are the stuff that Pynchon's fictions 
are made of, aren't they? Again, so much of what Pynchon was up
to in the seventies echoed the Yuppies and SDS, so much of the 
historical apocrypha concerning our beloved author points in the
general direction of various illegal activities: I'm left with no choice 
but to take the man at his word. And again, I've known so many 
people who have lived as outlaws, certain tics  of speech become 
recognizable over time. Pynchon always sides with the outlaws, 
doesn't he?