AtD (37) pp.1040 ff. Thoughts on Lew Basnight, detective.

[Mark Kohut]

Lew Basnight in AtD is most like Slothrop in GR?

 


--- On Sat, 7/19/08, Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Dave Monroe <against.the.dave at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: AtD (37) pp.1040 ff. Thoughts on Lew Basnight, detective.
> To: markekohut at yahoo.com
> Cc: "pynchon -l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Date: Saturday, July 19, 2008, 3:59 PM
> On Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 10:00 AM, Mark Kohut
> <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> > "The detective is a metaphor for the writer: the
> isolated figure trying to comprehend a disordered world,
> constructing a narrative that makes sense, and trying to
> persuade others to believe in his or her account."
> 
> "It seems probable that if we were never bewildered
> there would never
> be a story to tell about us ....  Therefore it is that the
> wary reader
> for the most part warns the novelist against making his
> character too
> interpretive of the muddle of fate, or in other words too
> divinely,
> too priggishly clever.  'Give us plenty of
> bewlidement,' this monitor
> seems to say, 'so long a there is plenty of slashing
> out in the
> bewliderment too.  But don't, we beseech you, give us
> too much
> intelligence; for intelligence--well, endangers ....  It
> opens up too
> many considerations, possibilities, issues ...."
> 
> --Henry James, "Preface," The Princess
> Casamassima  (1886)
> 
> http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0701&msg=114339
> 
> I'd venture that the history of "Western
> thought," literature, what
> have you, is a series of detective stories, attempt to
> reveal truths
> occluded by appearances (e.g., Plato's Parable of the
> Cave).  Then's
> there's Poe's "Purloined Letter," hidden
> in plain sight ...
> 
> http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0701&msg=114275
> 
> Not to mention Robbe-Grillet's Erasers ...
> 
> http://www.groveatlantic.com/grove/bin/wc.dll?groveproc~genauth~625~1158~DESC
> 
> Then ...