The Moviegoer (was Rachel's hand jive)

[Mark Kohut]

So, TRP might easily have read it as he was writing V.?....more borrowed 
influence.....he would certainly sympathize w many or Percy's
themes.............................

What would be interesting to know---I'm gonna see if I can learn---is whether 
Percy's agent fro his first novel--if he had one---was Pynchon's and
he might even have gotten to read it earlier?



----- Original Message ----
From: "Carvill, John" <john.carvill at sap.com>
To: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
Cc: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tue, July 13, 2010 3:40:28 AM
Subject: RE: The Moviegoer (was Rachel's hand jive)

<< It has been a long time since I read it..I do not remember the MG 
line....which, 

of course, corrals Binx with Rachel....another author on our culture's car 
fetish............... >>

Yes, and it's not just that one line, there are several such instances, both of 
auto-fetishisation and of line blurring between animate and inanimate, the car 
being depicted/described in animal terms. At one point, the car is (I think) 
compared to a horse, and the passage reminded me of a bit from GR where the 
Rocket is similarly described. I think the word used - in GR - was 'whinnying'.

<< That Binx deosn't feel really alive, engaged with his life, with life, is a 
sibling theme of Pynchon's from the time, yes? alienation was so 
everywhere............
(irony intended). >>

True, but I think there is likely more that's Pynchonian in there. However, I 
was determined to *read* and *enjoy* books on this holiday so I did not take 
notes or mark passages.