on The Family---for possible discussion re Vineland/TRP

[John Bailey]

I've always taken the supposed Vineland/M&D/AtD focus on family in a
pretty general sense - nothing to do with blood ties, more to do with
the family you create around you. Mason and Dixon are (often sparring)
brothers; Prairie's sister Che isn't necessarily the source of great
advice but they have their capers; AtD sees individuals battling with
the problems of their blood families and forming new alliances that
become new families.

The old "you can choose your friends but you can't choose your family"
seems to be revised here. More like "you can't choose your birth
family, but - maybe - you can choose the family that really matters".

Every dog has its family. A good dog might just have two families.

On Thu, Apr 23, 2009 at 10:48 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Right.  I hate the "family values" term.  For me the most important
> family value is education, including all the things the religious
> right hates, like tolerance and science.
>
> Here in New Orleans (sin city) we celebrate Mardi Gras in a big way,
> and our neighboring suburb Metarie, of white flight origins, is a bit
> jealous of our fun.  So they started promoting an alternative which
> they call Family Gras, as if Mardi Gras isn't a family event (the only
> non-family Mardi Gras is on Bourbon Street).  But someone pointed out
> to me that "Family Gras" means "Fat Family," which is just right for
> Metarie.
>
> David Morris
>
> On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 5:19 PM,  <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
> > I was talking about moral generalities.  The loaded phrase "family values" manipulated so successfully by the Republicans, for example.  Calling someone a "family man" implies that he's automatically more morally upstanding than a man who doesn't have a wife and kids.  Such as the recent rash of family men who slaughtered their wife and kids before committing suicide.  I think that's what the original McCauley quote was getting at.
> >
> > I've never understood Tolstoy's happy families quote.  My mother loved that quote, but as a sullen, disaffected teen it seemed counter-intuitive to me:  if there were any happy families in existence, surely they must be the oddest, quirkiest people on the planet.
> >
> > Laura
> >
> > (as a sullen, disaffected oldster it still seems counterintuitive, come to think of it)
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> >>From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> >>Sent: Apr 22, 2009 2:57 PM
> >>To: kelber at mindspring.com
> >>Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org
> >>Subject: Re: on The Family---for possible discussion re Vineland/TRP
> >>
> >>Individual families cannot provide generalities about Family or
> >>families in general, just as individual people cannot provide general
> >>rules for understanding human beings in general.  That goes without
> >>say.  But that does not imply that there are no such thing as
> >>generalities about people or families that are meaningful.
> >>
> >>David Morris
> >>
> >>On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 1:17 PM,  <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:
> >>> Since every family really creates its own oddball culture, saying that family, in general, is admirable or restrictive or anything makes as much sense as saying that culture, in general, is admirable, restrictive, etc.
> >
> >
>