Prising some Character and Emotion out of Pynchon's Books

[Campbel Morgan]

In Pickwick, Dickens has a minor character--Joe - the "fat boy" ; he
consumes great quantities of food and he constantly falls asleep in
any situation at any time of day, even falls face first into his meal
and sleeps; Joe's sleep problem is the origin of the medical term
Pickwickian syndrome which ultimately led to the subsequent
description of Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome.
A Minor character, he only appears in one chapter of one novel.


Oblomov is the protagonist of Russian writer Ivan Goncharov's novel of
the same name  (published, 1859). Oblomov, not a minor character,  is
the protagonist of the novel, and he is often read as the "ultimate
incarnation of the superfluous man,"  a symbolic character in
19th-century Russian literature.

Two Satires. Both 19th century fictions.

V. is a 20th century American Satire.

Benny Profane can be read as a combination of the two characters.
Benny is not a minor character. He is not the protagonist.
V. is a 20th century postmodern fiction, Benny is a parody of modern
characters who exhibit the anti-hero elements of American picaresque
(i.e. On the Road).

Yes, and he is clearly an allusive character. But the game is kute
because Pynchon does not have an audience that knows the "bible" or
intertextuals or allusions that the character, in this case Benny,
connects. That's the Stencil Game. And it's a cul-de-sac of history
and books from the past that can not be recovered.

That characters can be instructive even though they are heartless
characters we can't care about seems a difficult argument to make, but
I'll listen. That the novels, despite having heartless characters,
have a didactic purpose, are satires, corrective satires with targets
and advocate specific reform measures that should be implemented, is
also a diffiuclt argument to make. But not impossible.