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

[Clément Lévy]

My favour goes to Geli Tripping!
Clem
Le 28 juin 10 à 22:48, kelber at mindspring.com a écrit :

> Do you see aspects of Brock Vond in any of the other books?
>
> LK
>
> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Richard Ryan <richardryannyc at yahoo.com>
>
>>
>> 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?
>>>
>>
>>
>>
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