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

[kelber at mindspring.com]

You're right.  DW is a character in the "Arthur" books I used to read my kids when they were little.

-----Original Message-----
>From: Page <page at quesnelbc.com>
>Sent: Jun 28, 2010 10:39 PM
>To: kelber at mindspring.com
>Subject: Re: V-2nd - 2:  Who's your favorite Pynchonian character?
>
>DL. We can all use a memory boost from time to time. Of course, if I am 
>wrong...
>
>
>----- Original Message ----- 
>From: <kelber at mindspring.com>
>To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>Sent: Monday, June 28, 2010 6:23 PM
>Subject: Re: V-2nd - 2: Who's your favorite Pynchonian character?
>
>
>Bekah:
>
>I think Prairie is the one on a quest in Vineland - and I really like
>>her a lot.
>>
>>There are several questers in AtD -  Basnight and the Traverse
>>brothers for sure.   Maybe that's why I liked them so much.
>>
>>Charles Mason &  Jeremiah Dixon have one major quest and several
>>smaller ones.
>
>
>Prairie is somewhat Stencil-like in that she's examining the past (before 
>she was born) to look for her origins.  She gets a lot more help than Oedipa 
>did, with D. [W? - damn, I can't remember the second letter] acting as her 
>mentor.  Oedipa tries in vain to find  one lone guide.
>
>Question:  Doesn't a quest have to have a specific objective?  I guess the 
>classic definition of a quest [Jospeh Campbell's definition]is that the 
>Quester is supposed to find something specific (an object?  knowledge?) and 
>then bring it "home" to effect change or create some sort of happy 
>resolution.  If that's the case, Pynchon deals strictly in failed quests. 
>Failed quests are still quests, though, and a lot more interesting than 
>fulfilled quests (IMO).
>
>Oedipa seeks Tristero's Empire; Slothrop's searching for the unnamed 
>conspiracy that's given him an unnatural sexual property and seems to be out 
>to get him.  Stencil seeks V.  Prairie seeks Frenesi (and finds her and 
>returns home - so I guess she's a successful quester after all.  Maybe 
>that's why she seems less interesting to me?).
>
>If the Traverse brothers are seeking vengeance, they get derailed pretty 
>quickly.  To me, it seems more like they're wandering aimlessly.  Basnight 
>seems to be searching for his past, Stencil-like.  I think the problem I had 
>with all of these characters is that none is the protagonist, and they're 
>all traveling in different directions.  Whom are we supposed to get on board 
>with emotionally?
>
>Are Mason and Dixon on a quest or simply a mission?  They return home, 
>mission accomplished, but they've (perhaps?) lost the faith.  If they ever 
>had it.  They're the two most well-rounded characters Pynchon's written, in 
>that we really feel the bond between them. For some reason, though, they 
>don't feel like questers to me.  Maybe because they're being paid?  Doesn't 
>the need for the quest have to come from within?
>
>Laura
>
>
>
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
>No virus found in this incoming message.
>Checked by AVG - www.avg.com
>Version: 9.0.830 / Virus Database: 271.1.1/2968 - Release Date: 06/27/10 
>23:37:00