[Mark Kohut]

Accepting very differing judgments of IV's quality, I still say: he is showing us how we LIVE in this pop, fetish, world, NOT parodying a parodic culture.    He shows us this parodic culture as the world of Vineland and IV, say.....

Does a more traditional satirist/parodist----pick one---simply show (up) the world he satirizes?  Pynchon's deeper vision (than many) shows how we are already parodies of the human----and live in that parodic culture like fish in aquarium tanks. 

--- On Thu, 10/22/09, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re:
> To: kelber at mindspring.com
> Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Thursday, October 22, 2009, 11:25 AM
> but i think u noted this already
> Laura, and it bears repeating that
> parodying something that is already the object of so much
> parody or is
> a parody itself (TV, movies) is really is annoying,
> unoriginal and
> pointless and really sinks IV
> 
> Pynchon seems to have a problem with being super smart
> which is OK and
> he usually is good at balancing the dumb and the smart but
> if Vineland
> was a half-hearted attempt compared to the monster works,
> IV is dead
> on arrival--its mostly chaff or better yet the sticks and
> seeds
> 
> rich
> 
> 
> 
> On Thu, Oct 22, 2009 at 9:10 AM,  <kelber at mindspring.com>
> wrote:
> > The movie reviewer-style referencing of movies and,
> perhaps, the used car-sellers referencing of cars, add a
> layer of pop-culture cheesiness (Velveetification?)to the
> story.  We're not getting the simple view of the omniscient
> narrator, we're getting the view filtered through a lens
> clouded by crappy pop culture.  The TV parodies are part of
> this.  Pynchon is using a filter of crappy culture, like
> fog moving in, to show us why the budding idealism of the
> 60s went under.
> >
> > Laura
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> >>From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
> >
> >>
> >>Clement Levy writes:
> >>Cars are quite an issue in IV, maybe, because
> they're an issue in LA area. We may have another word about
> it.
> >>
> >>I DO have another word about it. P and the cars in
> IV are noticed more (and described differently) than most
> realist writers, other detective novel writers do. First,
> noticed all over the place in the prose. So many did not ALL
> have to be seen, right?
> >>
> >>But most, they are described by make, model and
> year.....Now who else getting down cars in LA describes them
> this way just about every time?
> >>Most writers might say 'yellow chevy';
> such-and-such Camaro.........
> >>There is some kind of 'lovingness' [my word. find a
> better.] goin' on in the descriptions, yes?
> >>
> >>It reminds me of the way he, uniquely it seems,
> indicates so many movies with the date. For some reason he
> wants us to 'get' the whole NAME, Year of a car.  That that
> 'defines' it or something?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> 
>