COL49 - Chap 2: San Narciso as a circuit board

[Paul Mackin]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <kelber at mindspring.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 12, 2009 10:10 AM
Subject: Re: COL49 - Chap 2: San Narciso as a circuit board


>I don't know.  I can't think of any specific descriptions of technology in 
>ATD that are as riveting as the ones in V, COL49 and, to some extent, GR 
>(think of Gottfried at the end of the book). Think of Profane and Rachel 
>sleeping together, which Pynchon describes as rotating 90 degrees, as if 
>they were part of a machine. In the earlier books, Pynchon is exploring the 
>love/hate relationship between humans and technology.  The outcome of the 
>struggle is uncertain.    In ATD, no matter how frightful the technology, 
>humans are separate from it; they use it but aren't ONE with it.  Humanity 
>has won.  Can anyone come think of an example from ATD, where humans are 
>physically subsumed by technology (not just killed or blown up by it)?

True, the more surrealistic portrayals of inanimation have been mostly laid 
aside by the author/\.

Yet the machinery of the modern world remain an inseparable part of the 
lives of the characters. The Traverses are significantly defined by their 
losing battle with industrialization.





P.
>
> Laura
>
>>----- Original Message ----
>>From: Tore Rye Andersen <torerye at hotmail.com>
>
>>
>>
>>Natalia:
>>
>>> In AtD there are elaborate descriptions of technology AND of characters 
>>> and their psychological
>>> conflicts... That's one of the reasons the book's so thick - Pynchon 
>>> focuses on both themes, and
>>> emphasizes the last one a lot more than he did in GR ou V.
>>
>>Good point, and I think you're absolutely right that Pynchon wants to have 
>>it both ways in AtD.
>>Still, I'd contend that the characters in AtD are much thinner than the 
>>main characters in VL and
>>M&D. Lake, for instance, is but a shallow version of Frenesi.
>
>