the Merle center

[David Morris]

Moral Center?
Who asked Santorum to the PList?

On Monday, February 27, 2012, Keith Davis wrote:

> Seems to me...(letting myself off the hook right here at the beginning),
> there isn't a "moral center character" here, and that's a long way from GR.
> Maybe that's what I'm missing here (Laura?). It's a great read (listen),
> but in the end, who is the "hero", anti- or otherwise? This is my second
> time through it, and I thoroughly enjoyed the trip both times, but there's
> no clear "jolt" like at the end of GR. Maybe that's the point? Or, maybe
> there is no point, or no single point? Late night ravings from a non
> lit-crit fictionophile...
>
> On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 7:21 PM, barbie gaze <barbiegaze at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> http://www.upne.com/1-58465-122-9.html
>
>
> On Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 11:40 AM, Paul Mackin <mackin.paul at verizon.net>wrote:
>
>  On 2/27/2012 10:13 AM, Mark Kohut wrote:
>
>  Lots here, thinking on all of it but picking up first the Lew is a
> cypher remark.
>
> Yes, Lew is....he is presented to us as driven out of his old life, evev
> getting a new identity (if that one person's
> remark about betraying his identity is to be taken at face-value)...he has
> no backstory in this novel.......why?
>
> If his Unknown Sin is a metaphor for Original Sin, then his new life is to
> find his way in the real world, the world,
> according to the Original Sin myth, of Aging and Death [those words in
> caps turn up in the later discussion of
> time travel immortality]. He is now out of the psychic garden of Eden, if
> that makes any sense and his quest is to
> understand that---or just accept it? And that is thematic? (I say Yes )
>
> To speak to Bled Welder (and others), the moral center of a novel sorta
> means the character, if there is one, who
> sees reliably [nods to Alice W.] in a 'what's real?' world. Lew is
> characterized as very observant. He seems to report
> honestly, even about his confusions and ignorance. As a detective, he
> hunts for facts and truth. (Pugnax accepts him aboard
> The Inconvenience, no little thing if you remember an upcoming bit during
> the Chums' crisis of Authority when we learn that Pugnax
> would know of any turncoats in their midst).
>
> Lew interacts with the major other plotlines: the Chums, Anarchists, (some
> of) the English  events, and with the Traverses.---hence his
> centrality.  He asks "moral' questions, such as about 'the innocent
> bourgeoisie". I take his questioning of some anarchists' beliefs
> as Columbo--like; he knows the simple human rights and wrongs so they
> condemn themselves with their answers.
> He gets some of P's thematic'answers'...with the toilet reading at the
> end, for example, and with much more.
>
> Is he called a pilgrim further along and I can't remember or is that what
> an early reader/writer has said? (about him or about
> us, the readers?) Anyway, he is like a secular pilgrim trying to
> understand (some of) the world this novel purports to illumine.
>
>
> How would you gentlemen feel about elevating not Lew but Cyprian to the
> "moral center" of the novel.
>
> Although I think we'd have to admit that the idea of a "moral center" is
> pretty problematic in modern culture and society (since Jane Austen, say).
>
> Fragmentation, role playing, other-directed-ness , being thrust about by
> the demands of modern existence--but no matter--let's just say that any
> "moral center" worth considering will have to involve a change to better
> from worse and that such change will have to be based on real rather than
> surreal events in the novel's character development.
>
> Pynchon isn't known for developing his characters in realistic terms,
> although he's shown improvement over time--compare Lake with Katje--but
> Cyprian really does undergo profound moral change for the better in the
> course of the story.
>
> From working for the British Foreign Office or Secret Service, where only
> the most pragmatic considerations apply to one's ethical behavior, to a
> monastic vocation, where goodness as it is common understood by all men and
> women can reign unhindered by the exigencies of modern existence.
>
> But again, isn't there something wrong with this picture.
>
> P
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>  --
> www.innergroovemusic.com
>
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