The real estate developer motif in TRP and a Vineland stream

[Campbel Morgan]

Well of course, we are discussing what Wood brilliantly identifies as
"the broken estate" and how Pynchon, master of the American brand of
hysterical fiction of the past 50 odd years can be said to Both write
such fiction and AND not write it.


The irony, of course, is that those readers here who hate James Wood
for his honest, old fashioned, post-Chicago School reading of the
Pynchon texts, apply the same methods or standards themselves, even as
they reject his terms and reach an antithetical conclusion. How do
they do that?


First, the novel, they insist (applying what Faucault calls the St.
Jerome school of literary criticism),  like the bible, needs a Lord
and Master who is, the source of all texts.

Second, the ambiguity in said texts allows for such loose and often
contradictory readings (even the  Both/And claim). The preacher man
can has the good book in his hand, he's got verses marked and
memorized; he says one thing about killing ...thou shalt not kill
...contradict himself with his next breath...the capitalist infedels
must be made to pay as the Egyptians were made to pay ...And as long
as he's holding that book in his hand and can point to the verse
...well...killing is evil but killers aint.

Now, one needn't study Aristotle to see how the approach is less than rigorous.


The claim that we have a novel of ideas that closes qualitatively and
beats practically is absurd.

That said, the novel of ideas, hysterical or not, does allow for some
human or practical characters, scenes, moments, passages (such as
those involving children, although these are quite limited by the
authors rejection of master of characters) and some of the same on the
quakitative level, although these are quite limited by the resistance
to cause and effect.




On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 6:25 PM, Paul Mackin<mackin.paul at verizon.net> wrote:
> This thread makes me think of how certain people speak in the American Bible
> Belt.
>
> They don't read Pynchon that much, but there is a lot of talk about how the
> Lord feels about this or that.