Too Rebel

[Joseph Tracy]

Actually Ray, the substance of what I said was drawn from the text.   
The 24 fps is all young and some of their disagreements and  those of  
the earlier film collective from whom they got the equipment reveal   
several naive and youthful ideas.  Even  Frenesi is at first in an  
elated state of naive hopefulness about the" revolution". She is the  
only 24fps 'er who has lefty roots to some degree, but  she grew up  
in LA hollywood movieland. When she realizes her own danger and  
vulnerability she takes refuge with the powers.
Prairie is much more saturated in her own history and place, much  
freer to make her own mistakes and taste the allure of mallworld, and  
is part of an extended left leaning clan. Much of the book is devoted  
to outlining this inquiry into the personal-historic roots of her  
situation.  I think this clearly empowers her to resist Vond.

DL starts out as the object of patriarchal abuse. She connects to the  
eastern tradition of self defense to protect herself , sees the  
patriarchal abuse of the larger society,  is tempted into  aggressive  
vengeance, then connects to a fuller healing aspect of eastern  
tradition with Kunoichi, and Takeshi and Karmic adjustment.. I think  
the parallels of these stories are similar. Youthful rebellion and  
self reliance must connect to a kind of larger family, deeper roots  
or one gets trapped in  a cycle of  abuse/vengeance.

So I don't see that part of my thoughts  as extra textual  
supposition,  I find them strongly embedded in the text and am  
listening for a text based refutation.

I have, at times posted thoughts that are simply my own reflections  
on the time but again , I think Pynchon's  basic political and  
philosophical  sympathies are pretty obvious and are stated with  
equally clear force in his several essays: Watts, Luddite, 1984  
intro, blurbs for other writers and book reviews.  The Buddhist and  
eastern mystical influence seems to me to grow strongly from VL  
through ATD.

Finally part of  Pynchon's appeal for me and most of his readers  is  
that he is not interested in falsifying or Pollyanaficating the grim  
warnings of the historic momentum in which we live.  Neither does he  
reserve his satirical critique for one side. But it seems to me that  
the same author who ends GR with the  ominous belated arrival of  
atomic payback , has VL end with a Dog with a mouthful of fascist  
feathers,  an extended family hanging onto their freedom , and some  
warmth between our young American lefty and a young Russian rocker.   
For me a core message of the book is that we can learn from history  
and we can learn from our mistakes and that we must pass on what we  
know and learn to the next generation, despite the sea of Tubal  
effluvia, which can be an instrument of mass mind control or itself  
occasionally provide some entertainment, information and inspiration 
( this is supposition and memory, since I have no TV and don't miss  
it. )




On Apr 9, 2009, at 11:27 AM, Ray Easton wrote:


> Joseph Tracy wrote:
>
>> Anyway to interpret Pynchon's critiques of misdirected rebellion  
>> as an endorsement of conformity would, I think, be way off.
>>   poester
>>
>>
>
> Certainly Pynchon does not endorse conformity.  And equally  
> certainly, he favors rebellion.  I entirely agree with what Paul  
> has said about this.  And in particular I think the reference to  
> Camus is quite apt (can't recall now who first introduced it).  And  
> the reference you made to Buddhism also seems on the mark.
>
> My question was meant to suggest that in several recent posts, the  
> authors are mistakenly attributing to Pynchon their personal  
> political "optimism" (for lack of a better word).   Several posters  
> take the view -- "well, if they had done this, instead of that...  
> if they had marched, instead of smoking dope... if they had studied  
> lefty thought, instead of shoplifting..."   The post to which I am  
> now responding seems at times to adopt such a view.
> I've no quarrel with such views -- I don't share them, but I have  
> no desire to argue against them.  But I do not see such any such  
> view present in Pynchon's writing.  On the contrary, such a view  
> seems to me distinctly un-Pychonian.
>
> Ray
>