ATDTDA (5.1) - The Etienne-Louis Malus

[Carvill John]

Mark Kohut:

<<Isn't this a kind of statement by TRP that The White City, the whole 
Columbian Exhibition---America's whole proclamation of its own 
ideals......was a "dayllit fiction" compared to what life was really like in 
America then?
>>

I think so, yes, and a lot of teh book's later episodes come spiralling out 
of the Chicago Fair. There are also a lot of technology connotations. This 
links to the Chums in 2 key ways, one being - as alredy pointed out - that 
we're told the Chicago fair is 'sufficiently fictional' for the Chums to set 
down at, another being that the Chums are very keen on technologies, their 
baloon is festooned with cutting edge gadgets, including the 'Tesla device', 
and they are firm frnends with Prof. Vanderjuice etc. So this links them 
firmly in with teh question of how new technologies are used - in broad 
terms, for good or bad, which fits in with teh broader matter of 
technology's role in shaping history, a key Pynchon theme.

And as you say, the Chicago Fair is regarded by Pynchon as a fiction, and 
not a very benign one - there are overtones of racism for one thing. So, if 
the Chums are partially or wholly fictional, and they mesh well with the 
partially fictional world of teh fair, does that make them a negative 
fiction too?

This all ties back in with whether teh Chums 'exist' within the 'reality' of 
the book, and also with whether they are 'good guys' or not.....

Cheers
JC

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