Pynchon/Roth/Bellow/Updike on the 1960s

[Guy Ian Scott Pursey]

When you combine it with the focus on technology in Pynchon's oeuvre,
that "living in the now" thing starts to sound less like Buddhism and
more like primitivism*.

But, quickly and before I bore you, I'd like to focus on this potential
primitivist note I'm picking out among all this harmonious discussion
and try and imagine constructing the musculature, the arm, the man; try
and link it back to the beginning of the thread...

(1) Language evolved not to construct truth but to tell lies.
(2) In my understanding of fiction, we are deliberately told lies and so
fiction is the peak achievement of language.
(3) Realist fiction is actually a regression from what is possible.
(4) "Postmodern" authors, whatever you want to call them, authors like
Pynchon (are there any?) are tapping into this potential.

Quick and dirty "reasoning" I know - though I have started to piece
together my ideas on this in a more coherent fashion. Ironically, I like
rounded characters and think Pynchon includes plenty - if you want
really archetypes of the inhuman**, try Bret Easton Ellis (who I wrote
my undergrad paper on) and David Foster Wallace. As it looks to me to be
part of the discussion we're having anyway, I'd be interested to know
what people think about any of this (if only so I don't drive myself
mad).

Sorry if I've sidetracked,
Guy

*Incidentally, I want to start writing a thesis on this kind of thing in
the next couple of years. (When I can justify the money/time I would
need to spend, justification which ironically would require a
significant organisation of my thoughts such that a thesis might not be
necessary...)
**I don't mean the authors, I mean their characters, though with Ellis
it's questionable...



-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On
Behalf Of David Morris
Sent: 26 February 2009 16:00
To: Mark Kohut
Cc: pynchon -l
Subject: Re: Pynchon/Roth/Bellow/Updike on the 1960s

Yes, sort of.  Remember the laboratory rats that do an extended Busby
Berkeley dance about leaving their cages?  One of their messages is "If
only man could forget that he is going to die!"  It's sort of a "living
in the now" kind of thing, sort of Buddhist consciousness.
Not that I know what that really means.

But GR is a lot about N.O. Brown's take on Freud, death-wish, reality
principle (denied gratification), etc.  And Slothrop's transcendence is
an escape from typical human consciousness.

David Morris

On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 9:47 AM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
wrote:
>
> We must lose ourselves to find ourselves, as the religious phrase
goes?
>
>