When the Smog Cleared Thirty Years Later--Methland

[rich]

one of the annoying things about Pynchon is his oblivious take on the
some of the bad effects of drug-taking; I think he sees it as mostly a
positive thing and when he alludes to the bad shit and whatnot he does
it in a hackneyed way (Mucho in Vineland; the whole Coy and his wife
substory in IV which I think is very weak)
But in his defense its not relevant to what he's doing--he can't write
a gritty novel about drugs like Robert Stone, for example. I.e. he can
write about the corporate connections, government shennigans, and
global trade w/r/t to drug policy and the like but he can't do the
realistic mindfucks and small tragedies and shit in the life of an
addict--say like Herbert Selby, e.g.--its not his thing which is OK
but it does lessen any impact he way want to make in say writing about
the heroin addicts in IV (by reading it you wouldn't think heroin was
all that bad) imho, of course

with that in mind, I doubt Pynchon could write about a drug like
methamphetamine on any human level.

or so I think

Rich

On 8/18/09, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I want to say that TRP has pointed to your themes in Vineland and, even in
> Inherent Vice a little......
>
> --- On Tue, 8/18/09, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> From: rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com>
>> Subject: When the Smog Cleared Thirty Years Later--Methland
>> To: "“pynchon-l at waste.org“" <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>> Date: Tuesday, August 18, 2009, 11:11 AM
>> Hi all--
>>
>> IV ends on a somewhat anxious note, Doc wondering about
>> what will be
>> revealed when the fog clears (or words to that effect)
>> Well, California (Salton Sea) being one of the homes of
>> metamphetamine
>> one could safely say what was revealed 30 yrs down the road
>> when the
>> fog finally cleared was Methland.  a perfect drug for
>> the working
>> poor, stressed out to the max, gotta work double shifts to
>> make ends
>> meet, meth made them feel good, one of the few good things
>> in their
>> lives, as the small Midwestern towns shrunk and decayed,
>> who offered
>> only shit jobs with no benefits, the perfect drug for those
>> scuttling
>> under the heels of  BigAgra, the Pharmaceutical
>> industry, the Mexican
>> drug cartels, the US government, law enforcement, and other
>> disturbed
>> tweakers.
>>
>> This is surely great fodder for a great novel that can
>> encompass so
>> much of what is wrong, tragic and downright evil about the
>> forces of
>> control in post-cold war capitalism; corruption, violence
>> (sexual and
>> otherwise) the drug wars and drugs, like meth.
>>
>> Hopefully, someone (Vollman's Imperial pbly covers some of
>> this but we
>> need a better novel) will write it some day. In the interim
>> I
>> recommend reading Nick Reding's book.
>>
>> No Doc Sportellos here folks...
>>
>> Rich
>>
>
>
>
>