The Recognitions and V.

[Ian Livingston]

Ah, yes, I agree that the Virgin and the Middle Ages seem idyllic in
Adams. But, virginal, in Pynchon? I am not so sure. None of his women,
even if virginal, seem to imply a pre-coital integrity. Even "St.
Fina" is a flawed, horny little vixen whose sexual allure is the
nature of her power over the Playboys. And Victoria Wren is a rather
sultry little manipulator whose tumble with Goodfellow seems of
relatively minor consequence. If there is a unity implied in V. it
seems to me it is the illusory unity of the node of the v such as that
of parallel lines intersecting at the horizon. The unity is only
apparent to the readily deceived senses of one perspective, the lines
do not in actuality meet, and everything continues as it always has,
in dependence upon everything else, yet subjectively discrete, alien
from any sort of integrated totality. And Malta? Malta echoes the
knights for Pynchon, not the Goddess. It is the nexus of dynamic
activity in the Med, though not causally related to any of its
conflicts. It echoes the violence of the times, not their integrity.

Of course, I must stick to my guns, too, about imputing intention to
an author. Pynchon was brilliant, but young at the time he was writing
V. He may have had only glimpses of the complexity evident in his
later work; may have been drawn like an eye along those converging
lines, still in pursuit of a unity the search for which he came only
later to abandon. All this anti-lapsarianism may have more to do with
my own delving into theism and paranoia as linked intuitive attitudes
than with Pynchon's intentions, perspectives, or attitudes.


On Sun, Jun 12, 2011 at 12:14 PM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
> There is Malta as a still-strong echoic embodiment of Adams'
> Middle Ages, the Virgin before the Dynamo.......
>
> Adams Virgin is one of the major meanings of V....and his
> world, lost to Pynchon, as to Gaddis, is a thematic foundation, I say.
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Richard Ryan <himself at richardryan.com>
> To: Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com>
> Cc: Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>; pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Sent: Sun, June 12, 2011 2:05:42 PM
> Subject: Re: The Recognitions and V.
>
> While I would agree there's nothing in V to suggest a belief in a
> prelapsarian paradise (as village culture, hunter gatherer societies,
> whatever) - it also appears that Pynchon - at least the early Pynchon
> - sees the centripetal forces of entropy and mechanization
> *accelerating*; the depersonalizing, disintegrating aspects of human
> history grow more and more ferocious as the powers of techno-violence
> trend upwards - or downwards, as the case may be.
>
> On Sun, Jun 12, 2011 at 1:04 PM, Ian Livingston <igrlivingston at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Hm. Do ya think? I haven't read The Recognitions yet, but V. seems to
>> me to suggest that it has always been a fragmented world. Pynchon
>> represents history as an Ariadne's thread through an ongoing
>> Armageddon in which individuals seek ever more tenuous connections as
>> complexity becomes more evident. The unifying element is memory
>> itself, rather than recollection of a better unity.
>>
>> On Sun, Jun 12, 2011 at 9:40 AM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
>>> Fragmentation and loss as the overarching meaning of the modern world. Both.
>>> Belief that the world was once unified and that that was/is felt as a basic
>>>Good
>>> Thing.
>>>
>>> (Of course, other books, writers, too, I'm sure. Who?)
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> "Less than any man have I  excuse for prejudice; and I feel for all
>> creeds the warm sympathy of one who has come to learn that even the
>> trust in reason is a precarious faith, and that we are all fragments
>> of darkness groping for the sun. I know no more about the ultimates
>> than the simplest urchin in the streets." -- Will Durant
>>
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Richard Ryan
> New York and the World
> ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~
> Thanks to all who saw VTM's new production!
> "Brilliant!";"Superb!" - NYTheatre-wire.com
> www.kingstheplay.com
>
>



-- 
"Less than any man have I  excuse for prejudice; and I feel for all
creeds the warm sympathy of one who has come to learn that even the
trust in reason is a precarious faith, and that we are all fragments
of darkness groping for the sun. I know no more about the ultimates
than the simplest urchin in the streets." -- Will Durant