Inherent Vice: Groucho Marx & Mickey Wolfmann

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

Although the author's sympathy for the LAPD made my eyebrows raise, this 
article is doubtlessly
really 'phat' as well as of highest complexity. Actually it's a Gem ...

Just made myself an outprint.

Thank you!

Kai


On 19.01.2011 16:59, bandwraith at aol.com wrote:
> 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
>
>
>
>
>
>