ATD vs. V.? Overcoding or metaphor?

[Mark Kohut]

i see the hollow earth as metaphoric of our inner selves, as one of its meanings.


--- On Wed, 9/24/08, David Patty <navan.ghee at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: David Patty <navan.ghee at gmail.com>
> Subject: ATD vs. V.? Overcoding or metaphor?
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Wednesday, September 24, 2008, 11:01 AM
> What do you kids make of Pynchon's return to the
> Shaver-esque hollow earth
> theory in 'ATD'?
> 
> Re-reading 'V.' (7:VIII) I was surprised to note
> that he'd discussed it
> before, albeit peripherally.  It's for entirely
> different purposes in 'ATD'
> than in 'V.', I think; *cf.* the Chums of
> Chance's 'shortcut' through the
> hollow earth, fending off Deros (cementing the association
> w/ Shaver),
> trying to escape out the other side before man's total
> exploration of earth
> invalidates yet-another fictional possibility***, whereas
> in 'V.' Vheissu
> seems to have been posited as merely one more theory for
> the soup, something
> to spice up the confusion.
> 
> * Pynchon's commentary on hard SF eroding
> scientifiction?  Singling up all
> lines / narrowing down of potentials / psychic
> thermodynamism in-action, if
> you'll pardon the pun... Also, *cf.* this allegorical
> technique w/ Michael
> Moorcock's Jerry Cornelius.
> 
> What do you-all think?  Did Pynchon see something
> unexplored in the idea and
> re-visit it, or--  as a certain wag on The Fictional Woods
> might suggest
> --did he forget having written about it altogether &
> decide to tackle it
> anew?  Not that anything's ever either/or...