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

[Mark Kohut]

I think Pynchon's small townness does pervade his vision...........but not quite 
as The Street's as you so lovingly describe it.....

I think in V., he would see even the Brooklyn NY streets you describe as 
profane-----------maybe because they are so full of multiplicty
and NOT small town, community unity-----to use Adams' distinction.............

I would argue that P shows Benny's schliemelness, out-of-it ness by having him 
unable to feel comfortable on The Street...it is full of strangers, not
neighbors.

I love(d) the NY streets as you do....I, very unpynchonianly, have had photo 
essay pics and notions re them...I walked them happily so much....trying to 
notice  everyone.........Did you ever play "tell their story"?,.....tell his/her 
story---- about people you saw?..............play at categorizing ala some 
psychologists or Proust on love?                  do you note the most 
interesting daily?
"Want these?", she said, as she pressed against him somewhere below Astor 
Place on Fourth Ave. down from the Joe Papp theater late one night, as she
opened her top. hardly noticing a couple guys walking toward her.....[See THAT'S 
PROFANE, much as I sorta loved it] 


This was too often my simulacrum for "living" and/or keeping me from work or 
reading/writing............

Only the less-than-two weeks w indoor work I have spent in London, and. yes, 
almost a week w/ work in New Orleans, has ever been close....(and Londoners on 
the street seem like a foreign language in many ways since I had few 
bearings..unlike NY) 


I can't find the Shakespeare couple-three lines I recently read about walking 
and watching the urban scene.................some scientist or 

non-fic writer also wrote about how such city variety works against boredom and 
passivity.......................




 



----- Original Message ----
From: "kelber at mindspring.com" <kelber at mindspring.com>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Sent: Wed, August 25, 2010 3:37:00 PM
Subject: Re: More Misc. V-2nd. The profaning of The Street

Pretty amazing situation you live in, Ian.  I think I'd go the way of the 
Taiwanese nun early on.

Pynchon wasn't a city kid, he was a small-town boy.  The Glen Cove he grew up in 
was pretty homogenous and upscale (a model for the town in The Secret 
Integration).  His concept of The Street, as lonely and alienating, something to 
be faced up to, is very much in keeping with his small-town perspective (his 
college town, Ithaca, being no great metropolis either). Having lived in NYC for 
many years now, he may well have lost that outsider's perspective.  Judging from 
our various posts on the subject, crowded streets seem welcoming if you're used 
to them, alienating if you're not.

Laura

-----Original Message-----
>From: Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
>Sent: Aug 25, 2010 2:08 PM
>To: rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com>
>Cc: David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>, kelber at mindspring.com, 
>pynchon-l at waste.org
>Subject: Re: More Misc. V-2nd. The profaning of The Street
>
>Like Page, I am not a city person. My nearest neighbor is six miles
>west. However, I live as caretaker to a community of Buddhists who
>live in almost complete isolation from one another and from me. And,
>
>Oh. We just had a nice little earthquake. Felt like about a 4.0.
>
>Where was I? Oh, yeah. The thus individualized Buddhists go through
>very interesting periods of adjustment when they enter retreat, and
>some never manage to make the transition into solitude. Some have gone
>quite mad, talking to people not present and receiving instructions on
>how to do retreat from an "inner guru" who has them doing very
>unlikely practices. One Taiwanese nun actually died as a result of
>listening to that "inner guru." Still others take out all their
>insecurities and personal resentments on the caretaker, who is their
>only point of contact with the world. Each one adapts according to his
>or her personal history, emphasizing to me the proposition that no
>matter how alone we are, we remain a part of society. I think that can
>be turned around quite successfully. Having spent a few periods in
>cities (Minneapolis, New Orleans, Seattle), burbs (Burien, Aptos), and
>towns (Vermillion, SD; Stevens Point, WI; Merced and Ben Lomond, CA)
>and in a number of rural and remote locations, I have also had the
>opportunity to watch how my own mind responds to changes in population
>density. I much prefer solitude to the loneliness of anonymity in
>crowds, but I know that it has quite a lot to do with the state of
>mind in which I enter each mise en scene, as it were.
>
>The street once entranced, and later revolted me. Now I feel somewhat
>indifferent to it. The street is a tool, a way of getting things done,
>that's all. I know streets where no one walks and others where no one
>drives, everyone walks.
>
>Pynchon was a city kid, and I think his view of streets would reflect
>that. To Benny, it seems a point of reference. The middle way. There
>is an above the street, the street, and a below the street. What does
>that tell us about P. and the street?
>
>On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 6:28 AM, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Stoop sitting was a big thing in Brooklyn years ago within generally
>> homogeneous communities and in some communities it still is. I'm
>> guessing its pbly been a part of the culture in New Orleans alot
>> longer with alot more mixing going on.
>>
>> rich
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 8:46 AM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> New Orleans is a much smaller city than Brooklyn, but it's people
>>> aren't anonymous, and people are everywhere you look, even in the hot
>>> humidity of the Summer.  I've lived in cities and suburbs across the
>>> US (Air force brat), but I've never lived in a place so open or been
>>> this close to so many of my neighbors.  New Orleans is the most
>>> neighborhoody place ever, and has a tradition of being on the street,
>>> stoop-sitting, porch-sitting, corner-hanging, dog-walking.
>>>
>>> This video, "Stoop Sitting," is real New Orleans:
>>> http://vimeo.com/5526305
>>>
>>
>
>
>
>-- 
>"liber enim librum aperit."