ATDDTA(10) A Screaming Comes Across The Creek [294-295]

[Paul Mackin]

On Jun 9, 2007, at 9:39 AM, bekah wrote:

> You're both suggesting that I'm being over-sensitive,  perhaps I  
> am. (I've been called worse.)   If the the humor was aimed at  
> Indians, which would have been appropriate to the geographical  
> area,  (a few drunken Indians in the barrooms or along Main Street  
> or selling stuff)  it probably would  not have been funny.  Would  
> the response to someone noticing that  have been,  "Comedy can be  
> cruel and life unfair. "?    I doubt it - but perhaps.    Yes,  I  
> understand the difference - Indian history since 1492  has not been  
> a success story and that group cannot afford continued character  
> assassination or stigmatization in any form.



I don't know the answer.

Probably there isn't any.

I don't think you're being overly sensitive.

It wouldn't  surprise me if you (or others of us)  got good and mad  
about things Pynchon and his characters say.

Or  be unhappy with bad behavior on the part of his characters..

The thing  of it is, however, serious fiction writers can't be  
primarily concerned with the personal feelings of readers or groups  
of readers.

These writers merely have to write well.

Nor does bad behavior in characters (good guys as well as bad)  ever  
have to serve as a 'horrible example.' (it can but doesn't have to)

The interaction between serious fiction and its readers need  have  
nothing  in common with amicable and loving relations between  
citizens of a nation, or within neighborhoods or families.

Completely different realms.

Hope I'm not overstating my case too much.

Needed saying, however.

P.




>
> So I'm not really that aggravated.  It was basically something I  
> noticed and thought "wait a minute, here. What's with the Finn- 
> jokes?"    The Finn humor does come up over and over (unlike the  
> Japanese) and it's directed toward them as a group,  not as  
> individual characterizations of stereotypes (Oscar Wilde/ N & N).    
> I guess he poked the Jews via a character  with the scene in  
> Africa. I can't remember the Russian humor - was there a whole lot  
> of it? But I mentioned the ski thing to my mom and sister on a long  
> car drive yesterday and they both thought it was hilarious.
>
> Bekah
>
>
>
>   I understand the logic that it's okay to poke fun at success -  
> but this is at minority success.   And with the Finns it goes on  
> and on and on.  Do you have any "jokes" about Japanese than than  
> the one about cameras?  With the British it's not a  
> generalization,  it's a characterization of individuals.
>
> Bekah