LRB Review of IV, & Pynchon's Characters

[Mark Kohut]

Yes, very worth reading and thinking about but I think he gets a few things wrong.

As janos commented, There are sympathetic characters.

Children ARE largely innocents in P's oeuvre.

Doc half knows the 60s are over. WE see him note the differences. He, like Quixote, maintains the honorable values, well, quixotically. 

Is it 'capitalism" that is the inherent vice, or something else? P specifically has the Mafia, [criminal capitalists(?)--or is that the metaphor at work/] and barter,---trading dope for information--- a means of exchange in society far older than 'capitalism"in IV and Vineland.



--- On Fri, 9/4/09, Carvill, John <john.carvill at sap.com> wrote:

> From: Carvill, John <john.carvill at sap.com>
> Subject: LRB Review of IV, & Pynchon's Characters
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Friday, September 4, 2009, 5:20 AM
> Thanks to whoever posted the LRB
> review. Robin? Apologies for not having
> time to check...
> 
> http://www.lrb.co.uk/v31/n17/jone01_.html?utm_source=3Dnewsletter&utm_me
> diu=m=3Demail&utm_campaign=3D3117
> 
> 
> A brilliant piece, and made me think, re. this bit...
> 
> "Something that people who don't like Pynchon often
> complain about is
> that his 'characters' aren't really characters, in the
> sense that
> developed over the course of the 19th century: basically,
> there's never
> anyone to sympathise with. For his fans, there's always
> enough else
> going on for this not to be a problem. But it's also the
> case that
> Pynchon's fiction reveals something bogus, even sinister,
> about the very
> idea of 'sympathetic characters'. As readers we may rely on
> our liberal
> humanist ability to 'empathise' with immaterial strangers,
> but we can
> still tolerate with bland equanimity the manifold suffering
> of the
> wretched of the earth when we put down our novels and turn
> on the
> evening news. That's OK: if we couldn't, we'd all be
> suicide bombers.
> Still, in this respect, Pynchon's alienating novels are
> altogether more
> 'realistic' than any number of finely wrought explorations
> of individual
> consciousness."
> 
> ...all true of course. But you could always have argued
> that the
> ever-present, central 'character' with whom we readers can
> sympathise,
> was Thomas Pynchon. And in the case of 'Inherent Vice',
> this line is (as
> pointed out here) blurred even further, because we know
> that, just set
> slightly to one side of Doc, is Pynchon, writing that great
> behemoth of
> a book we all so cherish.
> 
> 
> I thought I was bored with IV reviews now, but this one's
> refreshed the
> experience. 
> 
> Cheers
> J
> 
> 
> 
> 
>