VLVL (13) p. 272 - "misoneism"

[Mark Kohut]

Well, Brock is a kind of man-of-one-influence bad guy.......Finding his justification
for 'moral profiling', so to speak in Lombroso's ideas.......
 
So, I think he would use it since he learned it to justify his pre-emptive judgments
and I think it is very ironic of him to apply it to 60s hippies: Brock's pre-emptive judgments
do not allow anything new into judging others.....they are what they are said to be.....
 
whereas 60s types were what was new in the culture.....
 




----- Original Message ----
From: "richardryannyc at yahoo.com" <richardryannyc at yahoo.com>
To: Pynchon-L <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 14, 2009 8:47:08 AM
Subject: VLVL (13) p. 272 - "misoneism"


"What really got [Brock's] attention was the Lombrosian concept of 'misoneism.'"

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/misoneism

Main Entry: miso·ne·ism Listen to the pronunciation of misoneism
Pronunciation: \ˌmi-sə-ˈnē-ˌi-zəm\ 
Function: noun 
Etymology:
    Italian misoneismo, from Greek misein + neos new + Italian -ismo -ism — more at new 
Date: 1886
: a hatred, fear, or intolerance of innovation or change

See also:

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/misoneism

[which cites its appearance in "Vineland" as the only exemplary use of this term....]

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Quoth RR: In my (admittedly limited) web browsing for this term I have been unable to find more than a few passing examples of its use.  It's appearance on this page represents Pynchon at his most lexicographically obscure; one certainly understands why Brock would embrace this concept, but how likely would he be to use it?