ATDTDA - petroleurs, p.19

[Joseph T]

Before ATD I would have agreed with the statement that Pynchon  
doesn't preach, but he seems to be taking that liberty , albeit  with  
restraint, in this novel. Some moral lines are drawn here.  There is  
a range of characters and actions from S. Vibe and others on one hand  
to Miles Blundell  on the other with most somewhere in between.  The  
scene with Vibe, Vanderjuice, and Ray Ipsow typifies a structural  
arrangement that appears often. Ray Ipsow, light itself, brings  
illumination to the corrupt and corrupting Vibe , and the indecisive  
but failing professor seduced by a chance at money and a comparison  
to one of the greatest scientists of the time on a mission  to bring  
universal free energy.

Most humans, like Vanderjuice, Webb, and Erlys are compromised but I  
think Pynchon 's view is a bit more redemptive than to dismiss them  
as  "bad parents" or "bad" people.  In defense of Webb for example,  
it is easy to say he should not have gotten married but should no  
soldier get married? Also how does he share a hidden life, the very  
knowledge of which will endanger his family? How many can be passive  
or pacifistic in the face of violence against the weak, and is that  
another kind of neglect and betrayal? From the outside we can see  
that Webb is fucking up and taking more on himself than he can handle  
or than he would ask others to handle.  But to put all the blame on  
Webb  as Lake does, and we sympathize with her sense of betrayal is  
to justify and even join with his killer. The conundrum of violence  
and vegeance is focal and the answers far from simple.
On Jan 31, 2007, at 10:07 AM, David Morris wrote:

> On 1/30/07, Monte Davis <monte.davis at verizon.net> wrote:
>>
>> Pynchon doesn't preach --  like all writers, he's god in his own  
>> creation. But like very few, he's really really good at it --  
>> making *our* judgments about that world damn near as challenging  
>> and problematic as they are Out Here.
>>
>> For example, if you're at p. 380, I can suggest without spoilage  
>> that few things about the book are more interesting than the very  
>> different moral consequences for Webb and for Erlys of "being a  
>> bad parent." I mean, talk about "taking your living presence away"  
>> -- how 'bout falling in love with the magician and abandoning both  
>> your infant daughter and sweet solid Merle, who took you in when  
>> you were pregnant, and raises Dally alone quite splendidly? So now  
>> you and Dally are making friends, calmly talking it over as you  
>> fold bedsheets? This is the same book, the same author, the same  
>> moral *universe* as Webb's story? Well, yes -- and the fun is in  
>> figuring out how he pulls it off.
>
> Right.  Thank God Pynchon doesn't preach.  He constructs moral and
> emotional quandaries, and he relishes in dichotomies.   And then he
> doubles and morphs then, as you

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