VL--IV Passivity, more active thoughts

[David Morris]

Sorry, Michael.  I don't buy it.

"Random" actions are not random.  They are the result of multiple and
conflicting motivations.  And the art of fiction is largely a plumbing
of the depths and interactions of such conflicts.  And I don't think
Pynchon's major goal is "ringing true" characters.  He is much more
interested in the dynamics of power structures and the origins of such
structures in the hard-wiring of the human psyche.  His characters are
often manifestations of abstract concepts in the dynamic of political
and human-psyche power dynamics.  Sometimes he juggles these in a
compelling manner (GR & V).  Other times he is flat-footed, loosing
his characters altogether in his abstractions.  To me it is obvious
that "ringing true" is not his primary goal.  He is plumbing after
deep and conflicting universal meaning.

David Morris

On Tue, Jan 6, 2009 at 3:35 PM, Michael Bailey
<michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
> David sez:
>
>> I agree that they're as deeply developed as "the next" Pynchon character.  That "cardboard" issue has been tossed around here sufficiently.  The problem with Frenesi &  Lake is that they take  life-path choices that **require** some deep explanations ( because they significantly & negatively affect their own families as well as the major plot turns of the books), but the author doesn't sufficiently supply them.
>
> but that's one of the things that rings most true.  Isn't it?
> Hmmm?  Hmmm?  Eh, wot?
>
> Why do our lives take the courses they do?   We have a little control
> over some things, but as Eliot said, we often surrender to "a moment's
> abandon that an age of prudence can never undo" Freud couldn't answer
> "What do women want?" even to his own satisfaction.
> Why *did* Kissinger carpet-bomb the Montagnards?  Hitchens found a
> meeting transcript where Kissinger said "I'm not getting a kickback
> [on the bombs])"
> Why did Rockefeller get such a kick out of putting other oil companies
> out of business?  He was already making a good living!
> Why do some people like to smoke pot? You can get plenty of good
> feelings other ways.
> Why do other people think it's worth a lot of government money to
> persecute those who do smoke pot?  Don't they ever feel a bit sorry
> about that?
> Why have so many marriages broken up?
>
> Not only hippies ride the waves of life without knowing everything
> that's swimming under the surface...I don't think Pynchon is shirking
> by not offering explanations of stuff in his books that reflects
> unknowables in real llife. The characters have plenty of the partial,
> working understandings that we come up with to get by; and the text
> also offers takes - including critiques - on various theories that are
> floating around.
>
>
> I still think the choice of details, and a seemly agnosticism as to
> final motivation, makes these characters some of the richest , most
> savorable ones around.
>