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

[Paul Mackin]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mark Kohut" <markekohut at yahoo.com>
To: "pynchon -l" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Friday, April 24, 2009 10:39 AM
Subject: Re: on The Family---for possible discussion re Vineland/TRP


>
> 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.
>
>

Rose Macaulay apparently could see the good side of a thing as well as the 
bad.

Related to the family issue I would think, she is quoted in her wikipedia 
writeup as follows:

"Adultery is a meanness and a stealing, a taking away from someone what 
should be theirs, a great selfishness, and surrounded and guarded by lies 
lest it should be found out. And out of meanness and selfishness and lying 
flow love and joy and peace beyond anything that can be imagined."
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- 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
>
>
>
>