Franzen encore: 'The foibles of modern life in a borderline rogue state'

[Mark Kohut]

in my kind of obsessive state, what struck me in the Franzen video was his 
remarks on friendship
and loyalty. (As seems to be the case, as I think The Corrections is the better 
book, when he 
touches his roots in family, he is at his best. In this video he says that the 
'being loyal' remark
came from his mother AND is a lost quality.....)

Which got me to thinking about Pynchon, as happens, and his seemingly lifelong 
loyalty
to many friends.....from, even posthumously, Farina; there's Kirkpatrick Sale, 
there are
other friends like M. Beal alluded to early, there is his Cornell teacher M. 
Abrams to
whom he sent an inscribed Mason & Dixon and,

yes, in the longer perspective of say one lifetime at minimum, Franzen seems to 
me to
be right, we in America have lost that connection in many ways,
 that loyalty compared to times in the past another of the Age Without Qualities 
that Pynchon paints.....

Digression: I like Keith Richards cutting through all the media wanting to hear 
him diss
Mick MORE by saying........."We're mates." 



________________________________
From: "mfarcas at mail.com" <mfarcas at mail.com>
To: pynchon-l at waste.org; lorentzen at hotmail.de; fqmorris at gmail.com; 
richard.romeo at gmail.com
Sent: Wed, October 27, 2010 9:37:16 AM
Subject: Franzen encore: 'The foibles of modern life in a borderline rogue 
state'


The foibles of modern life in a borderline rogue state:

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2010/10/franzen_freedom

>The United States is "causing enormous trouble around the  world" not due to 
>some muddled idea of freedom, but due to a mixed-up  conviction that America is 
>special, the vanguard of providence, called  forth unto the world with the 
>righteous sword of liberation. If America  is "almost a rogue state", it is 
>because our Pharisaic self-infatuation  encourages us to see ourselves as 
>a colossus of emancipation both able  and obligated to stomp around the globe 
>making it safe for democracy. It  really isn't because Americans insist on 
>motoring to the Piggly Wiggly  in petrol-guzzling Ram Ziggurats.  
>

I also hesitate to affirm Mr  Franzen's hypothesis that America is a "problem 
state" because of  its malcontent immigrant stock, though inveterate Australian 
criminality  does make you stop and think. I'd hypothesis 

that, not unlike empires  of yore, America is a problem state because it is 
rich, powerful, and  almost religiously full of itself.

perhaps we should put an end to this off-topic Franzen thread. I know, I know, 
this is Pynchonland.

Kudos to Lorentzen who tries to establish a nexus between the two of them.
 


-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>
To: Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>; P-list <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wed, Oct 27, 2010 3:03 pm
Subject: Re: Jonathan Franzen: 'America is almost a rogue state'


No, and it has since occurred to me that maybe what he most


























  noticed was himself full of wine THINKING his prose was different???
















































































  ----- Original Message ----


























  From: Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>


























  To: P-list <pynchon-l at waste.org>


























  Sent: Wed, October 27, 2010 7:59:58 AM


























  Subject: Re: Jonathan Franzen: 'America is almost a rogue state'





















































  Mark Kohut wrote:





















































  > In ambitious fiction, one's views/opinions matter and are somehow there. 
(just


























  > read a great line


























  > from Cheever about how even an extra glass of wine is visible in one's 
prose).


























  >
















































































  not that that ever stopped him, eh?


      
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