P-Lit>GR!

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Thanks for the reference, Paul.  It sounds like an interesting take on Pynchon.  

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Paul Nightingale <isread at btinternet.com>
>Sent: Apr 25, 2008 12:31 AM
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: P-Lit>GR!
>
>Leaving aside AtD for obvious reasons, this is indeed the approach taken by Samuel Thomas in Pynchon and the Political (Routledge, 2007) ...
>
>Guided by the novels themselves, I have pinpointed specific moments of crisis and transformation in Western linear history. a roll call of our finest and unfinest hours. They are the junctures in which categories of law and organisation intrude on people's lives in startling fashion, where the logic of a system either implodes or asserts itself as never before. The novels are themselves organised into a chronology but not the type of chronology one would usually expect. They appear in order of the historical periods that each novel purports to represent. Within this schema, Pynchon's novels (and the shape of this study) can be divided as follows:
>
>Chs1/2: M&D
>Chs3/4: V and GR
>Ch5: CoL49
>Ch6: VL
>
>The long journey of politics, from the 18th century to modern systems of production, distribution, bureaucracy and policing is mapped out through Pynchon's body of work.
>
>There follows a passing reference to AtD: "... its setting in the years leading up to and following World War One provides further justification for employing such a structure".
>
>Pynchon and the Political, Introduction, 15-16.
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf Of kelber at mindspring.com
>Sent: 24 April 2008 18:40
>To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: P-Lit>GR!
>
>If we put them the books in chronological order in terms of subject matter(something which doesn't make much sense in Pynchon's universe -- certainly not the one portrayed in ATD):
>
>M&D
>ATD
>GR
>V
>COL49
>VL
>
>there doesn't seem to be any natural progression in terms of theme, i.e., we're not getting a straightforward history of the western world or anything like that.  There's a theme in M&D, ATD, COL and VL of the perils of civilization imposing borders or order of any kind on nature, but I don't think this carries through in GR and V, other than in the theme of technology usurping humanity.  On second thought ...
>
>Laura
>
>
>No virus found in this outgoing message.
>Checked by AVG. 
>Version: 7.5.524 / Virus Database: 269.23.4/1394 - Release Date: 23/04/2008 19:16
> 
>
>