Pynchon/Roth

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

Michael schrieb:

>
> anyway, as the Doc says at the end of _Portnoy's Complaint_ - "perhaps
> we can now begin"
>

Funny you mention it. I thought about this psychoanalytic framing
of "Portnoy's Complaint" recently. (In the house I have only a German copy
from which I will quote). In German the end, as tranlated by Kai Molvig,
sounds like this:

"Die POINTE [= the punch line.kfl]

So (sagte der Arzt). Dann wollen wir mal anfangen. Ja?"

Interestingly enough, the book starts with a (fictional) quotation
from a psychoanalytical publication where Portnoy's complaint is
described in terms of symptoms. So we have a framing! No matter how
scandalous the content (sexual and otherwise) by the time of publishing
may have appeared, it is all still inside the boundaries of institutional
control. On the level of the narrative meta-structure.

Don't get me wrong: I like "The Counterlife" very much! Also "Operation
Shylock" and a couple of others by Roth. But since I read "Portnoy's
Complaint" later, I was --- taken its 'offical canonical status' ---
a little disappointed. Probably my own problem with exaggerated expectations.

While Pynchon is very critical of scientists in general and psychologists in
particular (didn't he re-coin the word "Shrink" as a, well, non-respectful
word for psychoanalysts in Col49?), Roth has real trust in official
institutions. The opening quote is, as far as I can judge it from translation,
also making fun of science, but in a very harmless way ... Frame is there,
the Rebel is not Roth yet Pynchon!

The name Dr. Spielvogel reminds me of the German speaking psychoanalysts
seeking during the Nazi years exile in America. Heinz Kohut comes to mind.
And also Otto Kernberg whom I once had the pleasure to listen to at the
world-congress for psychotherapy in Hamburg somewhen in the mid 1990s.
A seen-it-all, if I ever saw one. He was pretty relaxed while talking. Slow
but VERY clear. A-and in German which was a surprise, since the official
conference-language was English. Actually --- I can't help it! --- he made the
impression being glad to talk to a (largely) German audience: "Guten Tag, mein
Name ist Otto Kernberg, und ich komme aus New York". The theme of the panel was
'resistance-work' and Kernberg reported about a woman he once treated and who
always when she didn't like a question or interpretation did not use the ashtray
but the carpet ... "Das war noch in der Zeit, als es in den USA noch kein
Kapitalverbrechen war zu rauchen". (This was at a time when it still wasn't a
capital crime to smoke [tobacco] in the USA). With this little joke --- you
should have seen his subtile smile --- Kernberg had the audience all on his
side ... No offfence intended, but funny it is, no?

Kai


----------------------------------------
> Date: Wed, 17 Dec 2008 12:47:40 -0500
> From: michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Subject: Re: Vineland Wiki
>
> oops, not an auspicious day for Sea World after all...
>
> however, about the priest/congregation thing, see...
>
> this isn't the entire charm of the book for me, but
>
> what a lot of people think about the unions is "that was a good idea,
> but it got spoiled because..."
> (various things)
> Even Dylan, in Sundown on the Unions "sure was a good idea, till greed
> got in the way"
> Whose greed, though? I can't demand a full exegesis from a song, of course...
>
> anyway, the IWW had among its founding members a priest, Thoms
> Hagerty. I find his career interesting in that he was inspired by
> Marxism and Catholicism, sort of like the Liberation Theology movement
> later on...and in fact was suspended (though, according to Wikipedia,
> not defrocked http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_J._Haggerty ) just
> as Liberation Theology was discredited energetically through the
> offices of Ratzinger (currently Pope Benedict XVI
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Benedict_XVI
>
> I know, I know, who gives a flip about all this Catholic stuff?
> (though echshually, ecclesiastical history is rather fascinating) --
> yet I find myself wondering if Catholic values do not imbue OBA'a
> work...nah, let me revise that to, his vision of goodness may be (for
> whatever reason) largely not incompatible with them...
>
> so anyway, Rerum Novarum posits a new element in the social ontology.
> While defending the existing institutions viz. family, church,
> business, government, nonetheless he slips in a new element = unions
> although the slot he fits them into is that formerly occupied by
> guilds.
>
> So he signals his willingness to "bless off" (as they say in
> corporate-land) on the labor struggle. The reason he does so is that
> he sees that unions can be of help to the bodies and souls of those
> who work. And the Church, which presumably loves people, thinks that
> is a Good Thing.
>
> Now I ask you, is Zoyd's attraction to Frenesi not terribly dissimilar
> to the love of the Church for the participants in the struggles for
> labor and social justice? In offering her refuge, and binding himself
> to her by public declaration (marriage, Rerum Novarum) and in keeping
> a torch burning for her and feeling great sadness about her absence -
> and in seeing her taken away by the forces of reaction (in accordance
> with law, which she has in fact broken) - is it not moving that he
> still loves her but doesn't share her willingness to break civil law
> or her ambition to overthrow institutions thru violence?
>
> Even his vices are similar to those seen in the Church:
> the Good - well I think it's a good vice, the use of psychedelic
> sacraments...obvious parallel to Church
> the Bad - a certain, well, extra-laid-backness, a falling-away from
> his true calling as musician...
> (not so obvious, but the Church
> doesn't always manifest the true grooviness
> of the Gospel (sez
> Mike who himself fails similarly to leverage his talents/gifts))
> the Ugly - again obvious, the craving for young flesh...
>
> anyway, as the Doc says at the end of _Portnoy's Complaint_ - "perhaps
> we can now begin"
>
>
> --
> --
> "...the one about the postmodern gangster who makes you an offer you
> can't understand..." - Charles Stross