Recog ch 2

[alice wellintown]

Trying to avoid a spoiler here so a vague description of Wyatt and
Esther's conversation about art and the society it keeps:
His reactions to the woman who reads his palm, to the young man whose
company he enjoys, to the dealer-critic who tries to make a deal with
him, and to critics generally, suggest that, while he is still an
unfinished man whose ideas about art are evolving and obviously
complicated & compromised by his own works, and while he, despite his
anti-romantic statements, rationalizes romantically, he has some
definite ideas about the business and the society that hangs on and
around the artists.

Why is Wyatt like ...?

Might be re-phrased as _How_ is Wyatt like...?

WG starts off with a dense but awkward characterization. He sets Wyatt
between May and Father, fills in a bit with other minor (at this
point) characters and then piles books around Wyatt's sick bed. The
battle of the books, the ideas too dense for the boy, are stacked
against a small plot that includes his killing a bird, trying his hand
at art, and suffering a life threatening illness. We have lots of
suggestions but we can hardly make out a character. At least not yet.
So, How Wyatt is, or How WG uses charaterization to make Wyatt is far
more interesting at this point. One element that carries over into his
adult life is the fever. This, and the workings of his mind in time,
seem very important. WG spends a lot of time describing the influence
of the fever on Wyatt's mind and how his consciousness works in the
flow of time. Henri Bergson?

Noted on Laughter in the useful R-Guide:

282.17] metaphysical (Bergsonian) hilarity: though best known for his
philosophical investigations into the nature of time, the French
philosopher Henri Bergson (1859-1941) also wrote an important essay
entitled "Laughter," which has been translated into English and
published in many anthologies.




On Sun, Apr 24, 2011 at 5:54 PM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Days of reflection later--smile--after reading again of some cultures, wherein
> all the people,-- test given to 5 year-olds---know compass directions
> flawlessly--Where's
> North? etc...and thinking of Kant's famous, oft-challenged remark on
> 'the starry skies above and the moral order within"......and then remembering
> who wrote a major work that could be called Dawn-----------
> "In Daybreak Nietzsche begins his "Campaign against Morality".[49]...."
>
> I might argue that Wyatt's confusion shows him struggling to preserve his
> internal moral
> compass in the critic's campaign against (simple) morality---but he does, or
> maybe does for the reasons Ryan put forth....
>
>
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com>
> To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Sat, April 23, 2011 8:46:36 PM
> Subject: Re: Recog ch 2
>
>> And we learn Wyatt is '"exhausted", yes, as Jed also points out, he
>> is presented as highly unnatural (physically)  and, of course, to work
>> all night and get anxious with the dawn.......
>>
>> is vampirish?   But that cannot be intended here??
>
> But is it dawn? And why would this matter so much to Wyatt? Why does
> he place such emphasis on the fact that the art dealer comes to make a
> deal at dawn? And why does WG have Wyatt think it is dawn when it is
> not? Or is it? In the Gass Penguin p.69 WG contrasts the life of Wyatt
> with that of the people who live in ordinary time. His life of
> painting at night to fever, then resting at dawn, then off to his day
> job,  causes confusion; "the absolutes become confused." WG describes
> one afternoon when he fell asleep and slept till twilight, but
> confused, he thought he had slept through is painting hours (night)
> and awakened at dawn. When he goes out he is so confused he calls the
> attention of a police officer who questions him about his identity. It
> is after this, when Wyatt, still confused, and with coffee returns
> home, that he meets the art dealer. After the proposition, Wyatt
> complains that the deal is insane and puts emphasis on the fact that
> the dealer has presented it at dawn.
>
> The dealer recognizes that Wyatt is confused and exhausted. Wyatt's
> outrage is exacerbated by the fact that the dealer tries to make a
> deal at dawn. But it is not dawn. Not to the dealer, not to the police
> officer, not to the people. But to Wyatt it is dawn.
>
>