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

[Page]

I am not a city person, and my take on the Street as a symbol of alienation, 
and so on is different from Laura's. One can be alienated from, and feel 
hopeless in, those teeming streets precisely because they are teeming. 
Somewhat like finding yourself at a big party where you don't know anyone. 
Everyone else is having a great time, but you don't know the inside jokes or 
the people about whom tales are being told. One could also feel hopeless, 
and rootless.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <kelber at mindspring.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Sunday, August 22, 2010 8:44 AM
Subject: Re: More Misc. V-2nd. The profaning of The Street


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?
>
>
>




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