AtD post...the Chums, misc. and even more misc

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Thanks, JT.  This is a really thought-provoking analysis of the Chums of Chance and their development through the novel.  One has to wonder if there are any real-life parallels (or if TRP at least thinks there are) to the stage the Chums attain by the end of ATD.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net>

>
>>> Ian L writes:
>>>
>>> "Maybe Wilber is near the heart of the matter when he says that  
>>> people
>>> all start out at the same developmental stage and progress along  
>>> their
>>> particular developmental path until they get off and say "that's
>>> enough.  I'll just stay at this stage."  Most commonly that stage is
>>> the stage of ethnocentric values in which "my group" is the right one
>>> and everyone else is wrong."
>>>
>>> Q: Could this summarize, in a tangential way, where the Chums are  
>>> at the end of AtD?
>>> Western Civ-centric historically?
>
>I see this  "my group" is the right one
>and everyone else is wrong." as where the chums start out, not where  
>they end up.  Their journey has paralleled western civ in some ways  
>but  they start out authority-male centric, trusting that they are  
>working for the good guys, accepting the pay( economic) arrangements  
>without questions, and full of the cliched presumptions of  
>Christanity /western progess through gee whiz science and being on  
>the right side.   By the end of the story  they have seen the dark  
>soul  of the  future, most of their presumptions have been challenged  
>and overturned  the power structure has changed radically and they  
>have given a very equal status to the feminine, the eastern, the  
>collective, the democratic.   The style is still boys adventure  
>story  but they are no longer in a "my group is right" frame of  
>mind.   The problem is that their  positive send-off takes place in  
>the most fictional of the 3 worlds Pynchon is juggling in this  
>book:   history ( a good portion of the characters, setting,  
>background  and events)- a fictional interpretation of history( the  
>journey of the Traverse clan)  - and  imaginary mythos  (  the  
>adventures of the chums of chance)  .  But I think Pynchon  finds the  
>changes in the chums to be evident in the real world too.
>
>
>