AtDTdA (9): 245: CHUMS SPOILER

[Mark Kohut]

David Morris:
  What is it the Chums fear: growing old.

Somehow they've been led to believe their status as flying Chums will
allow them to remain youths, and that's what keeps them obedient. And
the parallel to this illusion of eternal youth is that, yes, they
won't remain young if they start acting like adults and take
responsibility for their own actions. Such personal responsibility
has its costs, but so does shirking the imperative to grow up, because
death will still find them, and when it does they'll find their youth
was illusory.

  I would add that as adventure heroes they are eternally ageless, i.e. young....
  but, yes, when they 'grow up' near the end of the book, they leave the author/narrator
  have families, work for themselves then "fly off into grace", etc.

David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
  On 5/15/07, Jasper wrote:
>
>"those invisible levels 'above', where orders, never signed or
attributed, were written and cut"
>"whoever issues Padzhitnoff's orders is intimate with whoever issues ours"
> "Long as we just keep on doing everything we're told [...] we'll never know. Wages of unquestioning obedience"
>
> See also p. 246, especially Randolph's comment about "fear" keeping them at their duty.

We've discussed previously Pynchon's repeated focus on personal
responsibility for following orders versus the natural tendency to not
want to know their origin or the consequences of obedience (as well as
the personal consequences for disobedience). And the Chums seem a
perfect example of this moral quandary.

What is it the Chums fear: growing old.

Somehow they've been led to believe their status as flying Chums will
allow them to remain youths, and that's what keeps them obedient. And
the parallel to this illusion of eternal youth is that, yes, they
won't remain young if they start acting like adults and take
responsibility for their own actions. Such personal responsibility
has its costs, but so does shirking the imperative to grow up, because
death will still find them, and when it does they'll find their youth
was illusory.

David Morris


       
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