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

[Mark Kohut]

I just wanted to offer these kinda meta remarks on Ms. Macauley's words.
that have occurred to me. 

Some metaphysicians say we cannot even conceive of the universe without
having the concepts of space and time, at least.

The human animal cannot survive without care by elders for a good part of its 
earliest time in the world.  Let's call those caretakers Family, whether biological or
otherwise.

The greatest novelists cannot, analogously to metaphysicians,
 even conceive their vision without a concept of the human?

Therefore of the human Family?

I think Ms. Macaulay's remark might be part of the reason she is a minor British novelist.






 


----- Original Message ----
From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2009 10:27:06 AM
Subject: on The Family---for possible discussion re Vineland/TRP


As to the family, I have never understood how that fits in with the other ideals — or, indeed, why it should be an ideal at all. A group of closely related persons living under one roof; it is a convenience, often a necessity, sometimes a pleasure, sometimes the reverse; but who first exalted it as admirable, an almost religious idea? 
 — Rose Macaulay (1881-1958), British novelist