ATD First Section & Wood Review

[Joseph T]

P.O.V. =point of view?   Robin's contention that anarchy is an  
overarching theme and equally, that reviewers are avoiding this theme  
carries weight with my reading thus far, but some might want to  
substitute entropy for anarchy.  I think the moving point of view/ 
authorial voice enhances this contention.  It seems that whether we  
are reading a boys adventure novel, a contest between "pure alchemy"  
and the captains of industry, or a Greek tragedy in the form of a  
western, things quickly move toward some dark and badass chaos .  I  
see the novel as being mostly about possibilities lost through a kind  
of inevitable polarization of forces. Some try to stand outside these  
polarites or see their ultimate unity,  but this is a lonely,  and  
extremely vulnerable pursuit.

  Far from "tiresome", I see the Inconvenience and the Chums as  
fundamental and apropos to a time of dime novels, inventors, and a  
world suddenly made global by flight and electronic communication.  
This crew seems to embody the strange position occupied by any  
narrator/author: able to move from the macrocaosm to the microcosm,  
and travel through the center of the earth and see the inner workings  
if needed. There is a sense in which Pynchon always  embraces the  
role of novelist as  yarn spinner, offerer of cheap vicarious  
adventures into the darkest  regions of history and imagination. It's  
a heckuva ride , but getting off the balloon is a bit more  
problematic for some of us than others.

The figurehead debate I found particularly  comforting. I would  
contend it's a debate about identity through identification, and may  
hint at the unifying loyalties that bind the diverse aspects of the  
author's interests, ( or more broadly, of human interests.)   the  
various contender's are  a) curvy naked  babe- romantic/erotic  
fulfillment , the earth/ life as object of desire, erotic prize for  
Darby's dummy.  b) "the National Bird"- suggested by R St. Cosmo as  
"safe " and" patriotic".   Ah  yes the national interest symbolized  
in  the aerial king of predators, the earth as supplier of food,  
satisfier of hunting instinct,  The eagle as symbol of evolutiionary  
superiority, and the ultimate expression of team spirit.  c)" one of  
the Platonic polyhedra"- idealism, pure abstraction, scientific  
truth, put forth by Miles. I have only read half the novel but Miles  
is, so far, a rather different Pynchon Character. He seems to  
represent that rare quality of selflessness that recognizes its  
weaknesses but is mystically connected to the irrational and a  
conduit both of divine accident and sublime experience.

we are told that the fight is rancorous but compromise is reached  
around d) a draped maternal figure- Mother earth, earth as lover,  
sister, and mother, birthplace, grave, friend, that which takes care  
of us and to which we are assigned as caretakers,  ground of being,  
from which all balloons must ascend and to which all must return.

The reconciliation around this choice is clearly important as  
indicated on (113)  "Was it any wonder that...    "



On Jan 1, 2007, at 10:33 AM, robinlandseadel at comcast.net wrote:


>
>
>
> It's in the first meeting of Webb and Merle that we first encounter  
> the
> aforementioned "Ritual Reluctance", and curiously it's at the juncture
> of alchemy and high explosives in the realm of pure anarchy. It
> seems that reviewers of AtD have their own "ritual reluctance", a
> reluctance to talk about Anarchy as the overarching theme of AtD.
>
> One of my P.O.V.s of AtD is of Oedipa Maas looking into a  
> collection of
> anarchist stamps into an anarchist world that terrifies her, an  
> outsider
> looking in. In AtD we are inside that world, anarchists looking into
> the world of the privileged with terrors of their own, on the other  
> side
> of a fixed equation.
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20070101/4b7abe48/attachment.html>