IVIV (2) Hope

[alice wellintown]

I agree with Doug's reading of that bleak observation. I thank Tore
for reminding us to re-read that 1984 Introduction. I know we argued
over it at length and could never quite agree about the tone. The fact
that Pynchon says that we are allowed only *a moment*  to swear that
we will not betray our most sacred and human bond, does not support
the sentimental reading that Tore advanced. However, once we accept
that Larry is not a Hero, he doesn't save the family, we can explore
another more important theme that revolves around the families in this
novel: the State as Big Mother and the Tube as Big Baby Sitter.
Remember Prairie watching Clara Bow VL14? Now that's a biography that
might interest Hope's daughter, sucking her juice, watching her Tube,
already dreaming of saving the day. In the films in VL, the State,
like BV, takes children away from their Mothers. Who saves the Day?



On Tue, Sep 8, 2009 at 11:15 AM, Doug Millison<dougmillison at comcast.net> wrote:
> Tore quotes Pynchon's intro to 1984:
> "a faith so honourable that we can almost imagine Orwell, and perhaps even
> ourselves, for a moment anyway, swearing to do whatever must be done to keep
> it from ever being betrayed."
>
> I read this as one of the bleakest observations in Pynchon's writing. We --
> the world, the adults in the world -- including the author, know that the
> child's faith is going to be betrayed and we know that we are going to
> betray it, and there's nothing to do be done about that except hope that it
> might turn out otherwise.  Yet hope -- personified in Doc's latest client?
> --  abides all the same.  Inspiring, and painful. The way I read it, Pynchon
> refuses to let us off the hook.
>