Repost: "The Big One"

[malignd at aol.com]

<That's funny sh^t, man, but, umm, just for the record, when I said "morally 
flat," I did not mean morally void, I meant morally un-nuanced.>> et al




My note was in response to Paul Mackin, not you.  So far as I can tell from the rest of your post, we agree.




-----Original Message-----
From: David Payne <dpayne1912 at hotmail.com>
To: malignd at aol.com; pynchon-l at waste.org
Sent: Sun, 13 Jul 2008 4:12 am
Subject: RE: Repost: "The Big One"








On Fri, 11 Jul 2008 (17:18:29 -0400), malignd at aol.com wrote:

<Very little reading into is called for.

That's funny sh^t, man, but, umm, just for the record, when I said "morally 
flat," I did not mean morally void, I meant morally un-nuanced.

Like, for example, a moral vision that collapses everyone into Nazis or Abbie 
Hoffman--that's morally flat. As is a vision that sees Capitalism as the Right 
for all Wrongs. Or a vision that sees Lex Luther as the archnemesis of Superman. 
Or a vision that sees the Jews as the evil that must be exterminated by the 
Supermen.

Flattening morality is a common trick, practiced by revolutionaries (Public 
Enemy? Bush? ), the status quo (Reagan? Bush?), satarists (Bush? Dante?), and 
simpletons (Homer Simpson? Bush?).

Moral nuance is also a common trick, supposedly practiced by con men, lovers, 
and novelists.

I am perfectly willing to concede the point (i.e., Pynchon creates novels that 
place characters in a morally-flat universe) if faced with a nuanced (or 
sinister) argument, but--my thinking right now--it seems to me that Pynchon 
often flattens morality into good guys vs. bad guys as a satirist's (sp? -- one 
who creates satire?) tool in order to issue moral clarity and comic relieve.

I dig Pynchon, but I do not turn to his novels for solace when I feel 
temptation, a morally gray world tugging me on all three sides ... his 
characters fight the powers that be, or they die, or they *are* (gasp!) the 
powers that be. 

So till sweet death do us part, may Dog have mercy. But don't tell nobody.
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