IVIV amethyst is resilient. There is too much kindness in the room all of a sudden.

[Mark Kohut]

I'd say Pynchon here fell into his self-expressed weakness.....
Amethsyt and family were conceived as symbols first, embodiments
of an idea TRP wanted to present.....

Unlike other parts, the 'life', the observations, the richness in 
making us believe...........ain't there.

I read in my local paper a human interest story about a still-struggling woman, making it (at the moment) after one of the toughest of lives, having been born addicted.....

When we get there, we can all riff on WHAT TRP wanted this family to represent thematically, no matter what you think of it.

--- On Sat, 9/5/09, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: IVIV amethyst is resilient. There is too much kindness in the  room all of a sudden.
> To: kelber at mindspring.com
> Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Saturday, September 5, 2009, 6:09 PM
> ditto. that whole scenario is so
> schmaltzy as is Doc's parents
> mindbarf
> makes one pine for the anubis and pointsman's spermy bed
> 
> 
> On Sat, Sep 5, 2009 at 5:00 PM, <kelber at mindspring.com>
> wrote:
> > Pynchon kind of glosses over the damaging effects of
> the heroin Amethyst has been exposed to in utero and as a
> young, addicted infant.  I found the description of her
> baby pictures pretty disturbing.  This isn't a moral issue,
> it's a physical and mental health issue.  Hope, Coy and
> Amethyst as a family unit isn't a very appetizing picture.
>  TRP clearly knows how fucked up families can be, and that
> fucked up families have to be accepted and forgiven, but he
> still goes overboard in sentimentalizing this particular
> little family, IMO.
> >
> > Laura
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> >>From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
> >>Sent: Sep 5, 2009 12:49 PM
> >>To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> >>Subject: IVIV amethyst is resilient. There is too
> much kindness in the room all of a sudden.
> >>
> >>Hope, symbolic name for the mother of the child in
> the book, yes, asks about Shasta's relationship to Doc. He's
> touchy; projects jealousy?
> >>
> >>Amethyst looks great, not like her baby picture.
> Sits up as if a grown-up would tell her a story (another
> internal metaphor for what the narrator does, ala Tore's
> argument for rooms bigger inside [like the many-mansioned
> house of fiction]?
> >>
> >>But, she doesn't get her story. This is when the
> room was filled with too much kindness and Doc had learned
> that "kindness without a price tag came along only rarely,
> and when it did was usually too precious to accept".
> >>
> >>Without abusing it, which Doc 'was bound
> to"....Why?
> >>
> >>If Doc is the hippie of good will Everyman, why
> does TRP give him this aspect, this lack of character? Part,
> along with the entry of heroin, of the inherent vice of
> hippies (in gneral)....Bound to abuse the kindness shown
> them?
> >>
> >>Or is Doc "unreliable" here?
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> 
>