The real estate developer motif in TRP and a Vineland stream

[rich]

agreed.
I don't think the mob is given a wink/nod in Lot 49 as in Vineland
where the place is saturated w/ that gooey, cartoony flavoring.

I think you can pick out  those characters Pynchon 'respects' the
most-- who are not subject that gooey-ness:  the older generation of
the Beckers and Traverses (the descriptions of their meet-up and
journey forward before/during the War and after are some of the best
things in the book) for one
(and yes, they have their faults-Sasha's love for the a man in
uniform, e.g. (cue Gang of Four)

Pynchon loves the schlubs, too don't get me wrong.

rich

On 7/29/09, Campbel Morgan <campbelmorgan at gmail.com> wrote:
> I say it doesn't much matter because it's just another daisy on the
> chain of managerial capitalism and cartels, the railroad and
> electricity monopolies, mafia, those who control, the Systems of
> Control ... and the like. These are the targets of P's satire. In this
> sense, obviously, he is compared with Dickens, but he is not a
> European author, but an American writer, and there are major writers
> (including Henry James) who influence his works far more than any
> European author (including Nabokov, Dickens, Stearne, Cervantes,
> Burton).
>
> On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 12:13 PM, Mark Kohut<markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>
>> That Zoyd did not, that preterites did not, is not beside the point in
>> explicating Pynchon's Vineland, I think. This newly learned (by me)
>> historical fact added resonance to another Vineland stream. Coupled with a
>> lifelong motif of real estate, including in The Secret Integration as you
>> reminded.
>>
>> I think there is decent circumstantial evidence, mostly from AtD and M &
>> D, that Pynchon does not look favorably on owning more than you need to
>> live.
>>
>> Yea, thanks for the correction re parable. I could have sworn there was a
>> Russian Dancing Bear in my translation of How Much Land Does Man Need?
>> Smile. :-)
>>
>> --- On Wed, 7/29/09, Campbel Morgan <campbelmorgan at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> From: Campbel Morgan <campbelmorgan at gmail.com>
>>> Subject: Re: The real estate developer motif in TRP and a Vineland stream
>>> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>>> Date: Wednesday, July 29, 2009, 11:22 AM
>>> I wrote, what *investment group* did
>>> not make money.
>>> To contrast such groups with the preterite or Zoyds is
>>> beside the
>>> point and a given.
>>>
>>> BTW, Tolstoy's work is not a fable, it's a parable.
>>> I note this because, as P critics have pointed out,
>>> parables, with all
>>> their religios connotations, are what we often get in P.
>>>
>>> or see Tolstoy's Anna K. (Levin and Real Estate)  and
>>> Pearl S. Buck's
>>> The Good Earth (Wang Lung and Real Estate). Both are
>>> religious, moral
>>> tales.
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>
>