ATDTDA (5.1) - The Etienne-Louis Malus

[Carvill John]

Laura:


<< In the opening C of C in The Windy City sequence, the Chums behave very 
much as the heroes of a boys' adventure novel.  After leaving (entering the 
"real" world), Darby becomes rude, Miles starts speaking tongues, there's 
worry about suicide, etc.  As if the Chicago Worlds Fair marks America's 
transition from naive enthusiasm about the future, with its amazing gizmos, 
to a growing dread of the future and the coming war. >>

This is a realy interesting suggestion, that in witnessing the Chums' 
arrival at the Chicago Fair, we may also be party to their transition from 
fiction into reality. Of course the lines are blurred, but if we accept your 
idea then are we saying that the Chums have now entered 'reality' and tat's 
that? Almost certainly not. BUt perhasp they can only cross over between the 
'real' and 'fictional' worlds at suitably fictional points such as the 
Chicago Fair and, eg., the Tugunska event?


Probably the only ting we can say with any certainty about whether the Chums 
are 'real' or not, is that they reside somewhere in between the real and the 
fictional and that the point at which they reside does not remain static.
I think Tore put it best when he described the Chums as 'sliding back and 
forth along a scale between fiction and reality' (I'm paraphrasing him).

It's posssible that the Chums had a chance at taking up permanent residence 
in the 'real' world, and tried several times to cross over, not on a visit 
but permanently, but the way in which the world was heading - WWI, WWII, 
etc. - meant that the Chums couldn't exist in our graceless atmosphere, thus 
they sailed off into a fictional, fairy tale existence instead.

>I get the feeling that the Chums are stand-ins for "us" -- Americans as a 
>whole.

Not so sure about that one. Pynchon's outlook is very much an international 
one, and attempts to confine him to the subject of America always fall 
flat...

Cheers
JC

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