Beyond the Rainbow

[David Morris]

GR was the masterpiece.  Everything else pales in comparison.

On Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 10:47 AM, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
> not easy to speculate about things we'll pbly never know, but seems to
> me that post-GR Pynchon wanted to develop or focus more on character,
> at least the one he cared about, which depending on how you view it
> was either sign of some sort of maturity or a misstep which left his
> newer works very lopsided works indeed, heavy on dialogue, less poetic
> rambling and whimsy, very bland bad guys.
>
> He was obsessed by systems and conspiracy when a young man; he (and
> the culture) moved along after awhile. what he replaced it with while
> understandable, leaves many questions (at least for me)
>
> rich
>
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 10:55 AM, Kai Frederik Lorentzen
> <lorentzen at hotmail.de> wrote:
>
>>
>> Yes. I'm just trying to understand why there is, since VL, that change in
>> Pynchon's writing about technology.
>>
>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>> From: kelber at mindspring.com
>>>> Sender: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org
>>>> Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 09:53:23 -0400 (GMT-04:00)
>>>> To:<pynchon-l at waste.org>
>>>> Reply-To: kelber at mindspring.com
>>>> Subject: Re: Beyond the Rainbow
>>>>
>>>> I don't think the fetishization is unconscious - it seems a crucial
>>>> element in the book.  The eroticization of violence, always present,
>>>> exemplified by the reported Rita Hayworth pin-up on the Hiroshima bomb, must
>>>> have been a contributing factor - probably the main theme - that inspired
>>>> Pynchon to write the book.  I agree with Kai that the V-2 is the real
>>>> protagonist of the book.  Maybe GR is the story of it's erotic awakening?
>>>>
>>>> Laura
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>>
>>>>> From: eburns at gmail.com
>>>>> Sent: Nov 2, 2011 9:33 AM
>>>>> To: Kai Frederik Lorentzen<lorentzen at hotmail.de>,
>>>>> owner-pynchon-l at waste.org, pynchon -l<pynchon-l at waste.org>
>>>>> Subject: Re: Beyond the Rainbow
>>>>>
>>>>> "By such an anachronism Pynchon intentionally avoids the (unconscious)
>>>>> fetishization of destructive up-to-date technology, which might have
>>>>> been the problem with GR."
>>>>>
>>>>> The problem!? That's the best part!!
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
>>>>>
>>>>> -----Original Message-----
>>>>> From: Kai Frederik Lorentzen<lorentzen at hotmail.de>
>>>>> Sender: owner-pynchon-l at waste.org
>>>>> Date: Wed, 2 Nov 2011 14:26:55
>>>>> To: pynchon -l<pynchon-l at waste.org>
>>>>> Subject: Beyond the Rainbow
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> The problem with GR might be, that the Rocket is the novel's master
>>>>> significant, so to speak. You could also say that inside the
>>>>> international socio-technical network in the final days of WW II Pynchon
>>>>> pictures, the V2 takes the role of the main protagonist. While we lose
>>>>> Slothrop along the way, the Rocket stays with us from first to last
>>>>> page. And although Pynchon, there's no question about this, is
>>>>> intentionally writing furiously against the military-industrial complex,
>>>>> the book's high level of poetic energy also results from Pynchon's
>>>>> fascination, even obsession with destructive hightech air engineering.
>>>>> The novel ascribes to the Rocket "a Max Weber charisma" (p. 464), but
>>>>> for Weber charisma is strictly personal. This can, of course, be read as
>>>>> satire, but I think those critics who spoke re GR of "the technological
>>>>> sublime" were right. So were the readers who considered it to be a
>>>>> 'cyberpunk' manifesto. From the perspective of Pynchon 2 (the one since
>>>>> VL), Gravity's Rainbow thus may appear to be infected by the
>>>>> avantgarde's fascist involvement with techno-rapidity, especially in
>>>>> Italian Futurism, which gets dissed in AtD. And that's, imo, the reason
>>>>> the question of technology is played down in VL by making a simple
>>>>> pistol the crucial weapon of the book. Do also note that the the balloon
>>>>> travels of the Chums of Chance are, inside the historical timespan of
>>>>> AtD, already a little anachronistic. New and fresh such a setting was
>>>>> around 1800 when narrations like "Des Luftschiffers Gianozzo Seebuch" by
>>>>> Jean Paul appeared on the market.
>>>>> By such an anachronism Pynchon intentionally avoids the (unconscious)
>>>>> fetishization of destructive up-to-date technology, which might have
>>>>> been the problem with GR.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>