Kick-Ass Thank You: on Laura on Lake

[rich]

Pynchon is very much concerned with systems of control including sexual
ones. That Frenesi and Lake are turned on by uniforms and bad dudes doesn't
surprise me. But many of his other characters exhibit an attraction to
bondage, submission, dominance.
what i'm saying is that if it is considered an abstraction then it's a
pretty constant one throughout his ouevre and not a sexual one solely

rich

On 6/4/07, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Just to be clear (because I'm not sure I've been so), I think Frenesi
> & Lake *represent* some abstract aspect of some power/sexual dynamic
> for Pynchon, but don't ask me to explain what.   And I think that they
> suffer as characters because they are burdened to portray that
> abstraction.  THAT is what I consider Pynchon's Achilles heel,
> producing characters like Frenesi & Lake (who I think it was Tore that
> called them parallel characters) that most people struggle for an
> understanding of their motives.  Some here think they've figured their
> "complexities."  I think their complexities are really their
> incomprehensibilities as human beings.
>
> David Morris
>
> On 6/4/07, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
> > come on dave, achilles heel?  I strike it up in the case of Lake of
> having somewhat difficult relations with her Dad, Frenesi as well.  Them
> Traverse families, eh?   would u say the same about Cyprian's choice in the
> Balkans with the double-crosser dude--cyprian's choices ain't that too good
> either. the heart is inscrutable remember
> >
> > rich
> >
> >
> > On 6/4/07, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > I don't know about the specifics of representative roles of Lake (and
> others) in AtD, but I suspect some sort of political and/or  psychological
> dialectic is at work.  How else can one explain characters behaving so
> incomprehensibly?  I'm sure that's also why I've never been able to
> understand Frenesi's motives in VL (and why her character seems such a
> dead-ender).  In both cases I think they represent a massive Achilles heel
> in Pynchon's fictional world.  His theories can produce characters and
> scenarios that leave one cold and scratching one's head.
>
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