AtDTDA (2): 31 (34) Vegetarian

[John BAILEY]

I'm utterly confused by the vegetarian stuff in AtD; mainly as a vego
myself, since I don't imagine it would really stick out to
non-vegetarians, but to place that song where Pynchon does... Well, it
just seems to accord the very idea of vegetarianism a particularly
privileged space.

But then I suppose it's not surprising that the novel can be read as
both pro- and anti-veg. Pynchon's long included lavish descriptions of
meaty meals along with non-, and has just as often offered dire passages
described the human slaughter of animals. Nail down his politics? I'm
not even going to try.

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On
Behalf Of robinlandseadel at comcast.net
Sent: Wednesday, 31 January 2007 6:46 AM
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject: Re: AtDTDA (2): 31 (34) Vegetarian

Oh, yeah sure, but I'm pointing to several front-and-center topics in
AtD; Buddhism, Anarchism and Vegetarianism, and showing, really early
the links between activist/anarchist folks and the vegetarian/vegan
movements. It's important to remember that Gandhi proclaimed these sorts
of views and the folks that showed up at WTO in Seattle a few years back
come from this matrix.
There's that whole "You're not a vegetarian now, are you?" thing that I
get all the time, and then I turn around and see all these activists
that get their wardrobes from the hemp shack and know they are a big
part of the growing Traverse clan.

---Sure.  But lots of those animals are not so magnanimous to one
---another.  Just sayin'...

On 1/30/07, robinlandseadel at comcast.net wrote:
> Many Buddhists live vegetarian or vegan lives because of the mercy 
>they feel for the animals.