Fw: V--2nd Chap 12, beginning, p.347

[Mark Kohut]

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
To: kelber at mindspring.com
Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Thu, December 9, 2010 1:42:00 PM
Subject: Re: V--2nd Chap 12, beginning, p.347

Ah, the 80s, not the 60s.................

A little research, always a--my-- dangerous thing, shows this: Before those 
later bulldozers,---there were still cobblestones and in a couple places there 
still are in NY!---- Moses did build expressways and such: 

"The opposition [to Moses] reached a crescendo over the demolition of Penn 
Station, which many attributed to the "development scheme" mentality cultivated 
by Moses[15] although the impoverished Pennsylvania Railroad was actually 
responsible for the demolition.[16] The casual destruction of one of New York's 
greatest architectural landmarks helped prompt many city residents to turn 
against Moses's plans to build a Lower Manhattan Expressway, which would have 
gone throughGreenwich Village and what is now SoHo. [17] This plan and 
the Mid-Manhattan Expressway both failed politically; to this day no 
superhighway goes through the heart of Manhattan. One of his most vocal critics 
during this time was the urban activist Jane Jacobs, whose book The Death and 
Life of Great American Cities was instrumental in turning opinion against 
Moses's plans; the city government rejected the expressway in 
1964.[18]....................

She was hugely indebted to Lewis Mumford's work, it sez, and we seem to know 
that TRP read himself some Mumford, right?

Jacobs' book began appearing and was much discussed before being pubbed in 
1961....She used Greenwich Village as a constant example of a kind of urban 
utopia and, of course,
the Village is where TRP now lived mostly as he finished V......

So, his immediate prophecy was wrong but sinusoidally he knew the pattern, yes?





----- Original Message ----
From: "kelber at mindspring.com" <kelber at mindspring.com>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org
Sent: Thu, December 9, 2010 12:38:55 PM
Subject: Re: V--2nd Chap 12, beginning, p.347

Would it help if I said "prior to the '80s"?  The point is that from the time 
urban developer Robert Moses came on the scene, urban renewal meant bulldozing 
warehouses and tenements. The good life was in the suburbs (except for 
hipsters). Pynchon (and it's he, the omniscient author speaking in '62, not 
Benny speaking in '56 here)didn't know that the downtown factory buildings would 

be gentrified, rather than bull-dozed.

Recall that scene in ATD where [is it Frank Traverse?] looks upon a Colorado 
mining town, little realizing that those humble shacks would be worth millions 
later on (or words to that effect).

Laura


-----Original Message-----
>From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>

>In book it is 1956....V. is published by 1963 early, so he had reality to about 


>mid-1962...
>
>And he writes, "Someday there would be cranes, ...bulldozers, etc.''
>
>What am I missing?
>
>
>----- Original Message ----
>From: "kelber at mindspring.com" <kelber at mindspring.com>
>
>If Pynchon's talking about anywhere in lower Manhattan, he got it wrong.  In the 
>
>
>'60s, urban renewal meant bulldozing and rebuilding.  No one could have 
>anticipated the whole gentrification-renovation bonanza, that converted 
>abandoned factories to artist-squatter lofts to renovated hipster lofts to 
>luxury residences for the super-rich. Continued recession, combined with a 
>terrorist attack or two, and the rich may flee, starting the cycle over again.  


>A sinusoidal curve rather than one of Fausto's discontinuous transformations.
>
>Laura
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
>>Sent: Dec 8, 2010 10:02 PM
>>To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>>Subject: V--2nd Chap 12, beginning, p.347
>>
>>old condemned warehouse not legal....another Pynchonian place....Low-Lands in 
>>the City, so to speak...
>>
>>Soon 'developed'--that IV theme here in mini w bulldozers, etc. 
>>
>>Constant in America.....what Pierce did............
>>
>>
>>      
>
>
>