More Misc. V-2nd. The profaning of The Street

[kelber at mindspring.com]

Yes, it's odd that Profane sees some archetypical Street as a symbol of alienation, loss, hopelessness, rootlessness, etc.  The New York streets were/are teeming with life, activity, culture, spontaneity, multiculturism.  Not the best metaphor.

LK

-----Original Message-----
>From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
>Sent: Aug 22, 2010 10:04 AM
>To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Subject: More Misc. V-2nd. The profaning of The Street
>
>The late Tony Tanner, great early Pynchon appreciator, in his introduction
>to Shakespeare's history plays, makes this literary "historical" observation 
>(paraphrase
>w addition, not a direct quote)
> 
>The Medieval morality plays, with characters named such as Mercy and Mortality 
>[Cf.]
>or even more Pynchonianly like Crafty Conveyance and Cloaked 
>Collusion.............
>took their show to the street, literally....................the street was 
>"holy' not profane then
> 
>later, when 'everything became theater", maybe...........plays went back 
>indoors..............
>Why am I reminded of the movie theater metaphor and film motif of GR?..........
>[I know.  I'm Kutely Krazy].....
> 
>Tanner also remarks that Shakespeare, who virtually invented History plays, 
>brought
>a plot, an imposed meaning on English history, when most historiography was, 
>more simply.
>chronicles [Hollinshead]......Although some historians started to see English 
>history as morally 
>
>meaningful, Shakespeare saw it with much greater richness and 
>'ambiguity'......................
> 
>Which leads me to reflect, uninsightfully, on Pynchon's seeing of history, 
>starting fully in V.  
>
>It is a kind of critical cliche to say: P sees NO moral meaningfulness, no unity 
>[thanks Henry A.
>and Alice] in history, in fact he sees a lot of evil multiplicity, yes?
>
>
>