Another way to categorize TRPs oeuvre

[Mark Kohut]

Whatever counter-culture flirting TRP was doing, he did call those characters The Whole Sick Crew. 

First time I read V., decades ago, when I was as young as the characters,
I stopped at the chapter where Pig acts worse than a "pig." I thought I was supposed to identify with them hip guys. And didn't.

Years later, I came back and got it closer to right, I think.

Satirizing in TRP runs even deeper than paranoia, imho.

--- On Fri, 10/3/08, kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:

> From: kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com>
> Subject: Re: Another way to categorize TRPs oeuvre
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Friday, October 3, 2008, 4:07 PM
> In V, TRP was trying to find his voice and was flirting with
> not just writing about the hipster counter-culture, but
> BEING a hipster counter-culture writer (which was a pretty
> sexist scene at the time -  Norman Mailer, Joseph Heller,
> etc.).  Fortunately, he moved on.
> 
> Laura
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> >From: David Patty <navan.ghee at gmail.com>
> >Sent: Oct 3, 2008 3:52 PM
> >To: Heikki Raudaskoski <hraudask at sun3.oulu.fi>
> >Cc: pynchon-l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> >Subject: Re: Another way to categorize TRPs oeuvre
> >
> >Having just finished 'V.' and poring over Kerry
> Grant's companion volume
> >now, I agree w/ the assessment of the gender relations
> in the work being
> >less than embarrassing--  if anything, they're
> fairly accurate in describing
> >the changing / conflicting mores, morals & sexual
> codes of the times &
> >places described.  The Pynchon behind 'V.' was
> certainly a few thousand
> >steps ahead of his one-time hero Kerouac when it came
> to talking honestly
> >about love & lust...  Much more so than the younger
> man who wrote
> >'Low-Lands'.