Queer Theory & Futurism

[Joseph Tracy]

I've been listening to ATD as an audiobook, and considering the  
antique prose styles used by Pynchon to catch the flavor of the  
period , I had  essentially the same thought- that there is  
degradation of linguistic standards of logic, clarity and  
complexity.  Clearly, along with tracking the arc of history and  
technology from the American revolution to the present, Pynchon is  
also tracking the arc of the English language.

  However some of the changes that come with time  seem to be  
regarded as welcome. The Chums' language changes most of the  
characters in ATD and moves from high blown authoritarian bloviating   
( Noseworthy) and sentimentalized gee whiz innocence( Darby) toward   
the articulate, nuanced and democratically interactive prose  
appropriate to a shared enterprise of equals.

On Feb 20, 2010, at 8:44 PM, Phillip Grayson wrote:

> Obvious I guess and prolly well explored already, but with all the  
> pastiche and such, is there the possibility that AtD mocks an  
> artistic deterioration since, say, _Ulysses_ along with a cultural  
> one since WWI?
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Feb 20, 2010 at 8:40 PM, Monte Davis  
> <montedavis at verizon.net> wrote:
> Mark Kohut sez:
>
> > you will recall that marinetti's futurism is savaged big time in  
> AtD...
>
> Indeed it is, and the rush of wind that the Futurists loved (re- 
> read the dive-bombing, sport with the flying girls) blows straight  
> into hair-straight-back, Rockwell Kentish, wind-tunnel Nazi aesthetic:
>
> "Roland too became conscious of the wind, as his mortality had  
> never allowed him. Discovered it so . . . so joyful, that the arrow  
> must veer into it. The wind had been blowing all year long, year  
> after year, but Roland had felt only the secular wind . . . he  
> means, only his personal wind. Yet . . . Selena, the wind, the  
> wind’s everywhere . . . ."
>
>
>
>
>