VL-are we ready for some sort of wrap-up?

[Paul Mackin]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robin Landseadel" <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 6:50 PM
Subject: Re: VL-are we ready for some sort of wrap-up?


> On Apr 22, 2009, at 3:09 PM, kelber at mindspring.com wrote:
>
>> I agree with what Joseph says about McConnell:  I don't think  Pynchon is 
>> saying the Movement was DOA, for the reasons Joseph  gives.   I also 
>> think McConnell's calling VL a fairy tale strays  away from the more apt 
>> Tubal comparisons.
>
> By "The Movement"  Frank McConnell is pointing to activism in a post- 
> tubal world—a world where the folks in the movement were expecting 
> resolution to problems as quick and easy as an episode of Hawaii 5-0  or 
> the Brady Bunch. It think that's right, and I think Isaiah when he  said 
> that Zoyd & company underestimated the power of the tube. Pre  "movement" 
> action is also on display, and some of that was more  successful and 
> rational than "the Movement."

Aside from possibly being deluded by the Tube, the youth movement was 
mortally compromised by the fact that it did not have support of the masses, 
to use an old fashioned word.  The working class tended to consider it a 
bunch of over privileged kids.

If you remove from the movement any idea of actually  changing power 
relations in America it didn't turn out so bad.



> While fairy tale seems to drift away from tubal comparisons, the 
> comparison points back both to the fairy-tale expectations the Tube 
> brings on and also to a number of fairy tales the author throws in for 
> good measure.