COL49 - Chap 1: Roseman

[Mark Kohut]

yea, good pondering stuff......

Misc. From the Shadow post I just sent, we see that Jung thought the shadow, the dark side, was what caused us to blame
others for our unadmitted inadequacies and weaknesses....we PROJECT onto them....?????

Just sayin',  this kind of stuff coats TRPs mind.  Seems too oblique/simplistic here as explanation...... However, Misc. We know TRP in GR developed some such "depth psychology" notions from Freud, Jung and N.O Brown, that father killing sons international-wide stuff...... 

Laura writes:
some similar thing of needing to vanquish authority (the safety of being an affluent Kirsch-sipping housewife) to explore/find her own freedom.......The 'authority' being that "outside, malicious magic"....that kept her in the tower......Yes....
She is hunting for The Shadow but doesn't know it yet?   



----- Original Message ----
From: "kelber at mindspring.com" <kelber at mindspring.com>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Sent: Wednesday, May 6, 2009 2:28:13 PM
Subject: COL49 - Chap 1: Roseman

What can you say about Roseman?  Perry Mason incurs his wrath not because the show is contrived schlock (Mason's defense strategy often resting on the REAL murderer bursting into the courtroom and confessing at the eleventh hour), but because Perry's successful (famous?).

"...towards which Roseman cherished a fierce ambivalence, wanting at once to be a successful trial lawyer like Perry Mason and, since this was impossible, to destroy Perry Mason by undermining him."

Kind of oedipal:  Roseman wants to destroy the father Perry to win the affection of mom (public adulation).  Makes me think of some other quasi-oedipal (metaphorically, anyway) stuff in the book.  Mucho's feelings for Funch, his boss.  Funch, authoritarian and establishment, prevents Mucho from connecting with those little chicks out there (again, public adulation).  Mucho wants to be a "young father, a big brother" to those chicks, i.e. anything but the stern father figure.

So maybe Oedipa's own oedipal struggle is some similar thing of needing to vanquish authority (the safety of being an affluent Kirsch-sipping housewife) to explore/find her own freedom (not in the form of a person, but in the form of Tristero, the shadow, other authority figure).  She's ruled by fierce ambivalence at every step.  Isn't she safer in the tower?

Back to Roseman:

"'Run away with me,' said Roseman when the coffee came.
'Where?' she asked.  That shut him up."

Roseman, being in therapy, at least gets that there's nowhere to escape to - the tower is seemingly everywhere.

By the way, it's interesting that there are few (not one? - correct me, someone) named female characters outside of Oedipa (and Remedios Varo)in the book.  She journeys from man to man looking for answers.  Is there a reason for this, other than Pynchon falling into the easy sexism of the pre-feminist '60s?

Laura