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

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Symbols/embodiments of what, Mark?  I'm not being snide, I really don't know what you have in mind.  Pynchon's books from VL on have been called by some (including me) his "family period."  I think Coy/Hope/Amethyst were tossed in as a family-affirming riff, but I agree with Rich that it didn't work as well as it did in, say VL and M&D, and the sentimentality did kind of set one pining for the good old unabashed hedonism of V, COL49 and GR.

Laura



-----Original Message-----
>From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>

>
>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?
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >
>> >
>> 
>> 
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