VL-IV role reversal in Vineland in a general sort of way

[Mark Kohut]

looser weave but still.......

deeper than my first readings now to me...



----- Original Message ----
From: "kelber at mindspring.com" <kelber at mindspring.com>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Sent: Friday, February 6, 2009 11:34:43 AM
Subject: Re: VL-IV role reversal in Vineland in a general sort of way

I like Vineland for what it is, but it lacks a lot of what I love about Pynchon's work:  the densely packed, arcane references, amazing connections, cool and fascinating settings that all create the general urge to Google-search or otherwise look stuff up.  Baedeker's is cooler than Hawaii 5-0.  Chapter 9 goes on and on.  It's entertaining and well-written and has lots of great turns of phrase (softoff, for example), but it never fascinates or mind-blows.  Pynchon certainly has a right to write about things that are more in our scope, less arcane, but he runs the risk of being less interesting when he does so.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
>Sent: Feb 6, 2009 11:13 AM
>To: P-list <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: VL-IV role reversal in Vineland in a general sort of way
>
>trying to share some more of the reasons I love this book so much...
>
>it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to say that a stereotype exists,
>wherein the male goes off to war or to work, and the female (hestia,
>Penelope) keeps the home fires burning, and that some of the (quite
>justifiable) anger in early feminism derived from a dissatisfaction
>with it.  In Vineland, the roles are switched and the attendant joys
>and pains of each role (to some extent) fall to the unaccustomed.
>
>To wit, Zoyd keeps the house and the child, while Frenesi gets the
>adventure and long absence, the infidelity.
>He's the one who "marries up", has less education, and isn't taken
>seriously.  Her people are the brawling "Wild-Westers" and he is the
>schoolmarm.  Not only F/Z, but also the DL/T axis has this bias: DL is
>the one who inspires at first physical fear in Takeshi, and then
>protects him.  And it's her spiritual mentor who binds them together.
>
>These characteristics are nowhere (that I can think of) remarked on in
>the text, just worked from as postulates.
>Taken for granted as other stereotypes in other tales are.
>
>
>-- 
>--
>"Frenesi's eyes, even on the aging ECO stock, took over the frame, a
>defiance of blue unfadable."