IVIV Hope Harlingen: a wacky theory (possible spoilers)

[alice wellintown]

Tony Tanner
http://www.americansc.org.uk/Reviews/AmericanMystery.htm

&

Deborah Tannen
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deborah_Tannen

Brian McHale

http://home.foni.net/~vhummel/Image-Fiction/chapter_4.html

Richard McKeon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_McKeon

After long and deep research into VL and its sources, after teaching
it to very bright college students who have, if only because they were
born after 1984, very insightful and sophisticated reads of media
(although they have blind spots), I'm convinced that, although Pynchon
must include himself as a target of his satire, VL is, many things,
but definitely a novel about how TV has changed how we live, how we
work and how we love. It's a jeremiad and the Tube is what it screams
across the sky about. IV is even more grave.

BTW, although I think P a very grave and negative author, this has
nothing to do with how he may actually feel or think about things.
When I say, P, I'm talking about the implied author of the texts (all
of them, but specifically the novels), and not the man. I'm not
against biographical criticism, I just don't like it. Thomas R.
Pynchon of NYC may watch TV 12 hours everyday. It seems he either
spent a lot of time in front of the Tube, a reasonable conjecture
about anyone his age who grew up in America, or spent a lot of time
reading about it. My guess is, he did both. It's not hypocracy it's
only yarn spinning. He does it well. IV has lots of laughs. I don't
think the fact that IV has no, none, not one, moment of tenderness,
says anything much about Thomas R Pynchon's philosophy or his view of
the CIA or anything like that. He just doesn't do tenderness without
irony.
.