Repost: The Big One

[Paul Mackin]

Mark Kohut wrote:
> A few obs. 
>
> I have often thought that the non-rounded characters in much of Pynchon's work is because we real human beings aren't too "round" in our current degraded world,in Pynchon's worledview.
>   
You may be on to something, Mark.

I remember back about 40 years ago being told that we were 
ONE-dimensional men.

In Pynchon's world, however, we are surely more like hyper-paranoid men.

What kind of distinctive character trait would required for that?

Guess I'm talking about GR--don't know what the hell happened after that.

Perhaps characters in the True Land of Paranoia don't need much 
character--we can pretty much forget shapes.

Getting buffeted around by all those interconnecting forces (everything 
connects) doesn't leave much room for individual discretion.

I have long suspected that reading too much Pynchon can make people act 
kind of peculiarly.

For example, some of us adopt the phrase "everything connects" as sort 
of a motto.

That gives me pause.  A little tiny pause anyway.

What if the satirical origins get lost?

It might be wise to take a lesson from the case of the cover of this 
issue of The New Yorker.

Some folks may not realize they aren't in Kansas anymore. (not too many 
I hope)

But getting back to "everything connects," yes a lot of things ARE 
connected, and we should we conscious of this,  but there are still a 
lot of other things that are not.

To believe that everything is connected can be the mark of a psychotic. 
(a real one)

A well-meaning sane person who thinks too inclusively here runs the 
danger of not picking up on the connections that really exist.

I duuno where this is going  . . . . except I did want to let Mark know 
I liked his idea.

P.