Thomas Pynchon's schlmiels

[Dave Monroe]

Thomas Pynchon's schlmiels

The first Thomas Pynchon book I read was V. Benny Profane became my
hero because he was clumsy, becausehe was clumsy, but his clumsiness
was explained by such a brilliant convention: he was clumsy because he
was a schlemiel, and schlemiels were at war with the world of
inanimate objects. I was an ungainly guy, and all my life I’d
struggled to be able to do the physical activities that came naturally
to other kids.

Profane was just the first in a line of schlmiel heroes of Pynchons,
heroes who, I think, are self-portraits. Not every book has one, but
most do. Tyrone Slothrop of Gravity’s Rainbow; Zoyd Wheeler of
Vineland; and now Doc Sportello of Inherent Vice.

Pynchon’s relationship with these characters has evolved. Tyrone
Slothrop, especially, seemed to be the butt of all the world’s jokes.
The narrator of GR kept reminding us that Slothrop’s main flaw was
that he just didn’t feel much, didn’t have many emotions. Sportello is
also pretty cut off from his emotions, lustful at times, lonely,
frightened that his world of surfers and hippies is going to be stolen
away by the new Ronald Regan mindset; but never really subject to
moments of passion. But whereas Slothrop’s emotional neutrality always
seemed to be a character flaw, Sportello’s character is just a given
circumstance of the book. There’s a sense that it’s too late to change
it, and maybe it doesn’t need to be changed.

http://diastoleslowreader.blogspot.com/2009/10/thomas-pynchons-schlmiels.html