V--2nd, a step-back to Chap 12.

[Michael Bailey]

David said M&M is dross, Pynchon seems to not want it in his canon
very badly either,  Beyond pointing out that the formula of an
admixture of mensch and Machiavel seems to have been pretty messed
with in Benny Profane - almost as if in penance for M&M...
perhaps one of those short story insights that seemed real good at the
time: lets capsulize international diplomacy as a house party, and
America's role (weapons supplier, "arms for the poor") as viciously
whimsical

(not too far off the mark?  the notion still gives me pause, reasoning
not from the earnest remarks of diplomats, but back from their
effects: by their works shall they be known)

then he rebooted, revisioned, and wrote V., worlds better...


On Sat, Dec 18, 2010 at 6:08 PM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Remember there when Benny told Fina that he had done it....
> when what he had done was nothing while she was in the bathroom getting beaten?
> His move away from schlemiehl 'passivity'?
>
> And then we learn of Benny's concern [caring] for so many?. [All women I guess].
>
> Did not the story Mortality and Mercy in Vienna end with Siegal fleeing a huge
> shoot-out
> that he instigated, that he was utterly passive about?
>
>
>
>
>



-- 
"Why must I be like that? Why must I chase the cat?" - George Clinton,
Atomic Dog