Interlude: If James Wood Supposes...

[David Morris]

On Feb 7, 2008 9:09 AM,  <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
>
> >On 2/5/08, Paul Mackin wrote:
> >> Last evening I watched a dvd of "Children of Men."
>
> Personally, I thought it was over-hyped.  The contrived plot device was too distracting.  I think a lot of people responded on some level to the Madonna-and-child aspects of the story.

I thought its portrayal of a world in pure existential crisis was
pretty good.  One of my favorite scenes was at the Battersea Power
Station "palace" complete with Pink Floyd's floating pig, and inside
the recovered Michelangelo's "David."  It was the perfect portrayal of
the ultra-privileged resigning themselves to comfortably going down
with the ship.

[...]

> TRP's novels aren't psychological studies, so, in theory anyway, realistic characters aren't required (though they sure wouldn't hurt).  He sort of has generalized types: hedonist, seeker, no-nonsense sanguine types (Merle, Dally, Frank, Stray).  Actually, it's hard to think of any of the last type in TRP's earlier works.  A sign of the "mature" Pynchon?

Right.  His novels aren't psychological studies, and they do portray
character "types."  But now and then a character goes through a
convincing extreme experience (Slothrop).  I've said it before:  GR
was the high point.

David Morris