V-2nd - 2: Who's your favorite Pynchonian character?

[Richard Ryan]

Brock Vond.  Jeremiah Dixon.

--- On Mon, 6/28/10, kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com> wrote:

> From: kelber at mindspring.com <kelber at mindspring.com>
> Subject: V-2nd - 2:  Who's your favorite Pynchonian character?
> To: pynchon-l at waste.org
> Date: Monday, June 28, 2010, 3:46 PM
> We've spent all of Chapter One
> getting to know Benny, schlemiel and human yo-yo.  Then
> he disappears from Chapter Two.  We get to know first
> Rachel, then Stencil instead.  Who's the
> protagonist?  We find out soon enough that there are
> dual protagonists - Benny and Stencil - although Stencil's
> the more compelling because he's on a quest.
> 
> I like Benny.  Do you?  He's young, hedonistic
> and self-centered, like many or most of us were at that age,
> and he's trying to "find himself."  But he's not on a
> Quest, and, ultimately, Pynchon will outgrow him.  
> 
> I also like Rachel.  She's compassionate, and highly
> intelligent; constantly asking questions.  There's that
> odd moment of girl-car love when we first meet her, but that
> aspect of her is soon left behind.  But she's not on a
> quest either.
> 
> Oedipa is Rachel-on-a-Quest.  Slothrop's
> Benny-on-a-Quest.  Of all TRP's characters, Oedipa and
> Slothrop are my favorites: intelligent everywoman;
> hedonistic, slightly goofy everyman; both trying to get to
> the heart of conspiracies that may affect all of us.
> 
> These characters are gone from Pynchon's last four
> books.  Zoyd may be goofy and endearing; he may be on a
> mission to protect his daughter, but he's not on a
> quest.  Doc?  He's looking for Shasta and
> Wolfmann, encountering the Golden Fang in the process;
> there's a bit of a quest there, but it's all a little too
> pat.  Or maybe, along with Pynchon, we've all gotten
> too jaded and/or too well-informeed about everything that's
> connected.
> 
> The trio of Reef-Yashmeen-Cyprian in ATD doesn't seem to be
> looking for anything in particular; they're wandering amid
> the chaos.
> 
> Is Cyprian (a spy searching for himself?) somewhat the heir
> of Stencil?  We're going to get to know Stencil a lot
> better in this chapter and later ones.  We may not
> identify with him as much as with Benny, Rachel, Oedipa and
> Slothrop - he's an odd duck.  But if there are echoes
> of him as late as Cyprian, maybe he's the quintessential
> Pynchon character?
> 
> Speak up, folks.  Favorite character?  Similar
> character?
>