drugs in Vineland---and drug laws

[rich]

Hey Heikki--

wouldn't you say that is true for all of Pynchon's post-GR work?

I suspect IV will be alot more of the same in that respect

rich
On 3/31/09, Heikki Raudaskoski <hraudask at sun3.oulu.fi> wrote:
>
> Agree.
>
> On a slightly different note: is stoner humor, perhaps, too phlegmatic
> to describe metaphor OBA's humor? Well, VL is quite relaxed,
> admittedly. But GR, especially, seems more upper-informed. (Not to
> forget Slothrop's digital uppers...)
>
>
> Heikki
>
> Lainaus kelber at mindspring.com:
>
>> Because pot smoking isn't, in and of itself, an effective form of
>> political protest, doesn't mean it's a bad thing.  Back in the
>> sixties, though, the hippie image (long hair, groovy threads,
>> joint-in-hand)was often confused with genuine political analysis.  I
>>  remember my mom at anti-war demos arguing with Hipster types who
>> had  a muddled world-view:  they wanted the US to withdraw from
>> Vietnam  but didn't want the commies to win -- that kind of thing.
>> Not every  pot-smoker is politically or counter-culturally
>> enlightened (the  opposite is more likely to be true).  Neo-nazis
>> and Hell's Angels  like a toke too.
>>
>> Laura
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: Robin Landseadel <robinlandseadel at comcast.net>
>>> Sent: Mar 31, 2009 2:40 PM
>>> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
>>> Subject: Re: drugs in Vineland---and drug laws
>>>
>>>>> Mark Kohut:
>>>>>
>>>>> Contentious perspective for discussion:  drug use, despite our
>>>>> freedom to,  is "part of the problem" in Vineland????
>>>
>>>> Laura:
>>>
>>>> Drug use is a form of social protest in a society where it's
>>>> outlawed.  But it's an easy, ineffectual, and basically self-serving
>>>> substitute for real protest (strikes, demonstrations, civil
>>>> disobedience, riots, organizing, alternative media, education
>>>> campaigns, etc).
>>>
>>> And it turns a sandwich into a banquet.
>>>
>>> Far as I can tell, TRP is one of the all-time-greats of stoner humor.
>>> Far as I can tell, he quacks, walks and talks like a duck. There's an
>>> elephant in the room and he just took a toke off the bong.
>>>
>>> There's no red-blooded, all-American evil fascist stoner in OBA's
>>> stuff. In fact, going from front to back of the dude's oeuvre you find
>>> some good stoners, some value-neutral stoners but no bad-guy stoners.
>>> And while Pynchon has said a lot of favorable things about weed in his
>>> work, I don't recall him saying anything negative about weed.
>>>
>>> If you are looking for a post-modern writer that delves into negative
>>> aspects of marijuana allow me to recommend the late, lamented David
>>> Foster Wallace. "Infinite Jest" goes there.
>>
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