IVIV BIG DISCUSSION [spoiler] Compare & Contrast section, P. 32

[Joseph Tracy]

On Sep 4, 2009, at 12:24 AM, Joseph Tracy wrote:

>
> On Sep 3, 2009, at 8:53 PM, alice wellintown wrote:
>
>> Well, IV is a crappy book. Not just because we expect so much more
>> from this author, but because it fails to do anything well.
> I thought it was funny. I also think it may be an attempt to write  
> a Raymond Chandler, Cheech and Chong type movie and cash in a  
> little. Sorry you are so bitterly disappointed, perhaps your fiery  
> invective will burn down the phony capitalist house of Pynchon once  
> and for all. Even socialists have to pay the bills.  Don't give up  
> on your quest to set everyone straight too easily. A person of your  
> astounding moral purity  and intellectual intensity is bound to  
> succeed. Maybe he should hire you to write his next one.
>> It's no
>> mystery why so many are interested in Bigfoot; he provides the few
>> good laughs and the little bit of human feeling a reader can scrape
>> out of this bottom of the beach bucket jellyfish on LSD pretending to
>> parody a half-boiled potbroiler.
> Maybe he was actually trying to write a potboiler. Or maybe he was  
> just writing a pot smoker. You seem to have bought a copy. I hope  
> you won't be fooled again.
>> It disappoints a good reader more
>> than VL did. That, of course, excludes you, Robin. You have to read a
>> few great  novels before you can separate the crap from the
>> masterpieces. IV is crap.
> Maybe he should just get his approved reading lists straight from  
> you, along with interpretive notes, so he won't go astray and start  
> thinking for himself, you know,  enjoying literature without proper  
> guidance. .
>>   As to the moral vantage point, IV is
>> re-tread. It too is focused on the end of the 1960s and the Turnings
>> and Snitches and idealists who smoke and dope themselves into
>> believing that they were not like everyone else and could, despite  
>> all
>> the death that was raining down on other people's heads as they  
>> wasted
>> their youth distancing themselves from any practical or pragmatic
>> effort to help.
> What are you doing to solve the problems of the world? I hope it is  
> both practical and pragmatic. I wish we had had you back in the days.
>>  Blame it on Luck or Fate or God or Government, but
>> never grow up and take responsibility. That's the message in those  
>> two
>> California novels.
> I must have read the wrong version of VL.
>> Hard for some old hippie to take in the ass, but
>> Pynchon rams it right up their Tubes.
> Charming.
>> Almost cut my hair,
>> It's getting kinda RFK-looking long
>>
>> As to the labor stuff: the kids just couldn't handle the reality of
>> the school of hard knocks off the college campus. Campus activity
>> don't even bust your cherry, kid. The real struggle was always a
>> worker struggle, always will be.
> Yes, I remember all the workers demanding an end to the War, while  
> the "kids" sat around strumming their guitars. Are you a worker?  
> What do you do? I'm sure your example would be a light all our paths.
>> That the kids, for a bunch of
>> reasons, decided that it was their struggle, was their own failure to
>> see the reality, not labors.  It's not a matter of labor being clean.
>> Nobody is clean. It's politics. It's dirty and bloody. It's a matter
>> of maturity.
> How old are you? And how did you get to be soooo mature.
>> The kids were too into drugs and stupid kid shit.
> Thank God none of the adults were taking drugs or drinking to excess
>> Frenesi was right. She nailed it. They were just playing little  
>> kid games with
>> Death.
> Actually, as I remember, there was nobody else to play with.
>
>