V-2nd: Grasping and not...

[Michael Bailey]

, Ian Livingston wrote:
> Good point, Emma. The capacity to imaginatively enter another person's
> perspective is not available to someone at a self-centric stage of
> development. One of the things that marks Benny is his experience of
> the world as a bifurcated phenomenon composed of his subjective
> experience and the otherness of everything else. That alienation is
> irremediable until the subject discovers that others actually
> experience the world from very different perspectives every bit as
> real as one's own. I'm trying to think if there is any point in the
> novel where Benny actually moves into that capacity. Will have to
> watch as we go. Or be corrected by someone who sees something I
> don't....
>


not trying to correct, but add to the discussion a bit,
wondering what is a "normative" quantity for empathy?

it's a multidimensional quandary:

a) perception of one's own feelings fluctuates in intensity, so to feel the pain
(or pleasure - a lot of times I forget to think of that possibility,
when considering
the ramifications of empathy) - so to feel someone else's experience
as if it were your own,
might not be all that intense, or it might be overwhelming...

b) if you're in a shared situation, the other person's feelings might
overlap your own anyway
- one of the things about V. that I think few would deny, is there's a
shared malaise abroad that
Benny and the WSC respond to in different ways, but perhaps feel or
experience in a similar way
- but the mere sharing of experience falls short of a positive sharing
of selfhood that would qualify for the praiseworthy connotations of
"empathy"

c) in fact, there's a reading that appeals to me, where Stencil's
seeking in history the roots of that malaise, and/or an understanding
of V. as an antidote to it (that is, the understanding of V. would be
the anodyne), somehwat as a psychiatric patient seeks in analysis to
understand the forces shaping his or her condition...
- and what seems to be a major theme is the way that the consequences
of socially established violence, personified in Pig Bodine wrapping
his hairy arm around Benny (since he includes both the disgusting
parts and the saving graces), pervade the landscape, and limit - but
do not preclude - the possibilities for love, kindness, meaningful
work...

I've kind of veered off into rambling, but the sort of point I would
make, were I capable of making a point, would be that merely being
able to feature, understand, grok, dig, another's gestalt isn't the
full accomplishment of empathy, but also to be able to add some kind
of oomph that shows you care...

and to do that you have to be coming from the place where BP's hardon
comes from...(imho)

the malaise, the generative force that redeems - both are present in V.
My friend in high school that I loaned it to said it was the best book
he ever read.



-- 

Yippy dippy dippy,
Flippy zippy zippy,
Smippy gdippy gdippy, too!
- Thomas Pynchon ("'Zo Meatman's Gone AWOL")