The War of Art

[bandwraith at aol.com]

On The Grave Of A Young Cavalry Officer Killed
In The Valley Of Virginia


Beauty and youth, with manners sweet, and
friends--
Gold, yet a mind not unenriched had he
Whom here low violets veil from eyes.
But all these gifts transcended be:
His happier fortune in this mound you see.

Herman Melville

One of many examples. But I won't continue
to post tnem in a fruitless go around with you.
They can be found by anyone who cares to seek
them out. BTW, I like Melville, but....


-----Original Message-----
From: alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com>
To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Sat, Dec 25, 2010 10:26 pm
Subject: Re: The War of Art


I never said you claimed that Pynchon is in love with war. I merely
pointed out the absurdity of making such a claim. Your calim about
Melivlle is nonsense.

On Sat, Dec 25, 2010 at 9:12 PM,  <bandwraith at aol.com> wrote:
> Right. That's why I didn't anywhere suggest that
> Pynchon is in love with war. Melville, however,
> was deeply smitten.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com>
> To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Sat, Dec 25, 2010 9:57 am
> Subject: The War of Art
>
>
> Isn't it a bit absurd to conclude that Pynchon & Melville are in love
> with War? After re-reading Kraft's & Herman's article on Pynchon's
> revisions of the Mondaugan Chapter again I was reminded that Pynchon &
> Melville are, not in love with war, but are in love with Man. That so
> many are caught in the vice of government war making, so that anarchy,
> the argument Thoreau's paradoxical antithesis suggests, that
> government is best that governs not at all, seems but a romantic or
> even a Utopian dream, a place, as are all true places, not on the map,
> and labor, even an Anarcharsis Cloots federated along one keel, where
> the ethereal light shines on the arms of men from every port where
> free men take up the trade and swing a hammer as free workers against
> the day when dehumanizing war will make them slaves to laws that hang
> their heroes and make men of conscience enemies of the state, but a
> backround in the Art of our men of genius.
>
> Melville's poem, _Battle Pieces_ does not expose him as a man in love
> with war; he is a artist in love with his subject: Man & Labor.
>
>
>