Inherent Vice: Groucho Marx & Mickey Wolfmann

[bandwraith at aol.com]

I like Bill Millard's take on "Wolfmann":

http://www.collegehillreview.com/004/0040501.html

  Wolfmann insists vehemently on an accurate spelling of his
  name with the N doubled (7), implying that in this cinephilic
  city he is all too aware of his resemblance to Lon Chaney,
  Jr.'s signature role. Bearing in mind how frequently puns in
  Pynchon allude in more than one direction, one also recalls
  a line from Plautus that presaged the predations of Hobbesian
  capitalism, homo homini lupus or "man is wolf to man."

Hobbes is a key, but from a modern perspective, so is Leo
Strauss. I.e., how does one call into question someone's
Jewish identity, in present day America, in such a way as to
get one's message across- regarding characteristics of certain
Jews like Mickey (Robert Moses, various Hollywood producers,
and some of the usual list of examples provided by anti-
semites) to large portions of the reading public (e.g., liberals),
without being esoteric?

I think it's a similar dilemma to an atheist or agnostic who is a
potentially serious candidate for President.

Hobbesian man is the bogey which our Leviathan most keep in
line, and is the familiar rational used by Chomsky wannabes,
like Steven Pinker, to support the status quo. Mickey's acid
inspired turn toward another vision of man's nature, in the form
of an architecture based on sharing, is a threat to the glue
which holds our present day Leviathan together. He's breaking
the club rules- not abiding by the "torah".

Of course, one can always find a Charlie Manson lurking
around to justify certain reactions. Meanwhile, Puck and
company, useful as they are, remain hidden from exposure.



-----Original Message-----
From: Kai Frederik Lorentzen <lorentzen at hotmail.de>
To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wed, Jan 19, 2011 6:50 am
Subject: Inherent Vice: Groucho Marx & Mickey Wolfmann

Since Pynchon refers to Groucho Marx more than just once or twice in
his
novels, the following text passage found my special interest:

"Groucho's famous remark ('I don't want to belong to any club that will
accept people like me as a member') is a direct comment on ethnic
assimilation, which is refused to accept at the same time by
the comment itself. It's the paradox of the Jewish refugees who were
confronted with the challenge to throw their historical individuality
into the American melting-pot in order to survive."

(Philip Cohen: Gefährliche Erbschaften: Studien zur Entstehung einer
multirassistischen Kultur in Großbritannien, pp. 81-144, here 82; in:
Annita Kalpaka/Nora Räthzel (eds.): Die Schwierigkeit, nicht
rassistisch
zu sein; 2., überarbeitete Auflage. Leer 1990: Mundo; the
back-translation is my own.)

What has this to do with Mickey Wolfmann? Now, he's introduced as
"technically Jewish but wants to be a Nazi" (IV, p. 7). And this -
don't
you agree? - is directly related to Groucho's paradox. Mickey Wolfmann
solves the paradox for himself by wanting to belong to a club that
would
never accept him as a member! He's resisting assimilation to the
US-American mainstream also by getting "exercised often to the point of
violence at those who forget to spell his name with two n's" (ebd.).
His
correctly spelled name could indicate a German-Jewish ethno-cultural
background. Same for Mickey's connection to the "Westside Hochdeutsch
mafia" (ebd.). Not quite sure what to make of all this.

Thoughts, anyone?

Kai