C of L 49: "That's how it is..most of the time."

[Paul Mackin]

On Mon, Jul 13, 2009 at 5:11 AM, Campbel Morgan<campbelmorgan at gmail.com> wrote:
> Any system that fines individual members when they do not participate or use
> the system a certain number of times per month or year or whatever is an
> obvious target of satire in this work and in others by this author. It seems
> to me that shifting the critique to individual workers or groups of workers
> or types of workers or types of radicals (anarchists, luddites, beats ...)
> is to misread a central theme of the author's writings: the workers are
> caught in a double-bind; they need to organize, but any system they device
> will, by design, restrict their freedoms and impose the will of the system
> on the individual worker.

But doesn't the satire seem particularly directed at the anarchist types?

I am also thinking about the two addle-headed ones believing that the
government is worried about people thinking they won't die.

Pynchon's characterizations are very funny.

P





>
> On Sun, Jul 12, 2009 at 9:53 PM, Rob Jackson <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
>>
>> On 12/07/2009, at 6:55 AM, pynchon-l-digest wrote:
>>>
>>> Fallopian at this point isn't yet anywhere near as unlikeable as he
>>> becomes later on in the narrative, and I think I've always taken the
>>> substance of this letter and the bitterness which "Mike" expresses
>>> about the inanity of the W.A.S.T.E. communiques he receives, along
>>> with Metzger's incredulity towards him and the burgeoning cabal, to
>>> reflect a satiric impulse on Pynchon's part. Perhaps, though, the
>>> satire is directed towards the specific clique/s - Yoyodyne (i.e.,
>>> Boeing) workers, science-y and tech-y types, anarcho-radicals, et al.
>>> - - and those two characters, rather than the "principle" of
>>> communicating "sub rosa" ... yes, the "social cement" idea seems to be
>>> a valid and pertinent one.
>>
>> ... on second thoughts, the rule that members of this particular
>> W.A.S.T.E. group must send one letter per week is an authoritarian one, and
>> ironic considering Fallopian's political leanings.
>>
>> Representations of the Trystero or Tristero System in the novella are
>> largely satiric, and the overall attitude towards such cabals seems
>> ambivalent at best.
>>
>>
>>> It's remarkable how detached, non-judgemental and research-oriented
>>> Oedipa is in this scene too. It's only gradually that she starts to
>>> lose it.
>>>
>>> with best regards
>>>
>>>
>>> On 11/07/2009, at 1:07 AM, pynchon-l-digest wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>   "It's the principle," Fallopian agreed,
>>>>> sounding defensive. "To
>>>>>   keep it up to some kind of a reasonable
>>>>> volume, each member
>>>>>   has to send at least one letter a week
>>>>> through the Yoyodyne
>>>>>   system. If you don't, you get fined." He
>>>>> opened his letter and
>>>>>   showed Oedipa and Metzger.
>>>>>
>>>>>   Dear Mike, it said, how are you? Just
>>>>> thought I'd drop you a
>>>>>   note. How's your book coming? Guess
>>>>> that's all for now. See
>>>>>   you at The Scope.
>>>>>
>>>>>   "That's how it is," Fallopian confessed
>>>>> bitterly, "most of the time."
>>
>
>