V-2nd - 2: Who's your favorite Pynchonian character?
János Székely
miksaapja at gmail.com
Tue Jun 29 06:16:43 CDT 2010
Oh yes, "Geli, Geli . . ." And Bigfoot for balance.
János
2010/6/28 <kelber at mindspring.com>:
> 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.
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> 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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