Environmental Nightmares

[Mark Kohut]

Sounds like you've touched (some of) Pynchon's meanings with this, imho. 

--- On Mon, 11/30/09, kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:

> From: kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com>
> Subject: Re: Environmental Nightmares
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Monday, November 30, 2009, 12:02 PM
> What is it about building a city in
> the desert that appeals to autocrats, from Ozymandias to
> Hughes to the "ruling Maktoum family"?  The
> environmental impact, in terms of water, not to mention air
> conditioning and trucking, is clearly devastating. 
> Does anyone other than low-tech indigenous people even have
> a right to live there?  To partially quote King Faisl
> in Lawrence of Arabia:  Why do you like the
> desert?  There's nothing here.
> 
> http://www.dubaitourism.ae/WorkingWithDubai/GatewaytoGlobalBusiness/tabid/318/language/en-US/Default.aspx
> 
> Out of the vast expanse of the Arabian desert, the emirate
> of Dubai has created a city that ranks as the commercial and
> tourist heart of the Middle East. A small trading and
> fishing community only four decades ago, Dubai is now a
> modern city where glass and steel office blocks line broad
> concrete roads and championship grass golf courses attract
> the finest players in the world. The ruling Maktoum family
> has invested the emirate's wealth from oil in infrastructure
> -  Dubai's sophisticated telecommunications and
> transport facilities are unmatched in the region, one of the
> many reasons it serves as the storage and distribution hub
> of the Middle East.
> 
> Thanksgiving in Las Vegas?  Sounds like a bad movie
> with Sinatra and Bing, maybe Vera-Ellen and Mamie van Doren,
> a cameo from Xavier Cugat, and of course all those
> show-girls Mickey Wolfmann loves so much.
> 
> Laura
> -----Original Message-----
> >From: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>
> >Sent: Nov 30, 2009 11:07 AM
> >To: P-list <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> >Subject: Environmental Nightmares
> >
> >Having just returned from Thanksgiving holiday in Las
> Vegas (not my
> >idea - the two kids decided that their families and my
> wife & I should
> >converge there this year), I was reminded of
> Sportello's venture
> >there.  And I remembered the real estate thread of
> that trip, the "old
> >strip" about to be redeveloped into a brand new casino
> (am I
> >remembering correctly?).  Then I thought about how
> Mickey's
> >residential development that is the scene of the
> initial murder is
> >called an "environmental disaster" or something to that
> effect.  Why
> >is it that Pynchon seems to ignore the environmental
> disaster that is
> >Las Vegas?  And similarly, wouldn't Mickey's
> "putting up a whole city
> >from scratch someday, out in the desert" for people to
> live in for
> >free also have been an environmental disaster in terms
> of water
> >supply?  And later, when Doc is discussing
> Mickey's development with
> >that "old money" guy (I forget his name), it seems
> Mickey's
> >development is an environmental disaster only because
> it brings the
> >riff-raff out into the domain of the more
> aesthetically-minded
> >old-money crowd.
> >
> >It just seems that real estate, development, and the
> environment have
> >a large place in IV, but I just  don't see how the
> integrate into a
> >coherent picture...
> >
> >David Morris
> 
> 

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