IVIV: Inherent Vice WIKI/Raymond Chandler

[David Meyer]

Cynicism prompts one to regard anarchism as desirable. Only optimism allows one to see it as workable.



-- Sent from my Palm Pixi
Robin Landseadel wrote:

On Feb 8, 2010, at 6:14 AM, David Meyer wrote:



> Is Doc cynical? I found him unimpeachably optimistic and good humored.



Guess it's his professionalism. Doc plays pretty Coy as a gumsandal  

[note—the word "gumsandal" appears in GR], doing the old "dumb hippie"  

routine to a fare-thee-well. But his thoughts are quite dark—consider  

his little "trip" to an L.A. that is rapidly going underwater or the  

scene on page 97 that I just quoted:



	"Yeah, but nowadays it's all you see anymore is cops, the tube

	is saturated with fuckin cop shows, just being regular guys, only

	tryin to do their job, folks, no more threat to nobody's freedom

	than some dad in a sitcom. Right. Get the viewer population so

	cop-happy they're beggin to be run in. Good-bye Johnny

	Staccato, welcome and while you're at it please kick my door

	down, Steve McGarrett. Meantime out here in the real world

	most of us private flatfoots can't even make the rent."



Also, "cynical" is a curious thing in Pynchonia:



	There's a word that needs to be close by when reading

	Pynchon: Satire. That's the true foundation of his massive

	diatribes, so remember that his style of satire is extraordinarly

	inclusive, and that satire is, after all, a development out of the

	old Greek cynic philosophy/lifestyle:



	If Antisthenes was not the first Cynic by name, then the origin of

	the appellation falls to Diogenes of Sinope, an individual well 	

	known for dog-like behavior. As such, the term may have begun

	as an insult referring to Diogenes’ style of life, especially his

	proclivity to perform all of his activities in public.

	Shamelessness, which allowed Diogenes to use any space for

	any purpose, was primary in the invention of “Diogenes the

	Dog.”



	The precise source of the term “Cynic” is, however, less

	important than the wholehearted appropriation of it. The first

	Cynics, beginning most clearly with Diogenes of Sinope,

	embraced their title: they barked at those who displeased them,

	spurned Athenian etiquette, and lived from nature. In other

	words, what may have originated as a disparaging label

	became the designation of a philosophical vocation.



	Within political philosophy, the Cynics can be seen as

	originators of anarchism. Since humans are both rational and

	able to be guided by nature, it follows that humans have little

	need for legal codes or political affiliations. Indeed, political

	associations at times require one to be vicious for the sake of

	the polis. Diogenes’ cosmopolitanism represents, then, a first

	suggestion that human affiliation ought to be to humanity rather

	than a single state.



http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0703&msg=116746&keywords=cynics%20satire
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