The revolutionaries of May

[Carvill, John]

Just two wee points, Janos:

(1) This stuff about what IV reveals (or hints at) about how GR might be 'about' 70s LA/America/etc., is far and away the most intriguing reading I've seen so far, and I can't wait to see how you develop it further.

(2) The more I think about it, and factor in your comments, this popular critical idea of Inherent Vice being part 3 of a California trilogy makes less and less sense. If anything, I'd say that IV is (obviously) very close to Vineland, in a lot of ways, yet seems (to me, right now) relatively distant to COL49. Which would mean, if there's any kind of LA/California trilogy to be triangulated, then it's GR/VL/IV, rather than COL49/VL/IV.

Cheers
J

-----Original Message-----
From: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org [mailto:owner-pynchon-l at waste.org] On Behalf Of János Székely
Sent: 26 July 2009 09:45
To: pynchon -l
Subject: The revolutionaries of May

Now that the motto for IV is public (Sous les pavés, la plage in the
original French, one of the most famous Situationist graffiti in May
1968, Paris), thinking it over, it seems to reaffirm my hunch that IV
can also be read as kind of a connoisseurs guide to GR. I mean to
reading much of GR as a topical commentary on "the roach end of the
sixties" in the West (meaning both Reaganite California and the
Western World).

I don't know if there are any studies on the influence of Situationism
here, but not the beginning of Part 2, "In the Zone", with the most
unusual use of  "We" for a point of view ("We are safely past the
"Eis-Heiligen"), ending the metaphorical sequence with an explicit
reference to "the revolutionaries of May". Which makes no sense in the
end-of-the-war situation of May 1945 of which it is supposed to be a
description, but makes perfect sense in the post-revolutionary
(post-May 1968) mood of, say, late 1969, or 1970, which can easily be
the real subject of the description.

János