Back to AtD. Back to Frank,

[alice wellintown]

I'm responding to Hume's reading. I have great respect for Hume's
wonderful readings of literature and of Pynchon in particular. But I
can never agree that Pynchon, frustrated as he may be, advocates a
violence. This seems rediculous to me.

On Fri, Feb 22, 2013 at 1:30 PM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I am not arguing P sides with the rural revolutionaries (and you might be agreeing and just
> extending my remarks)....
>
> Soon evident with Frank.
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com>
> To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
> Cc:
> Sent: Friday, February 22, 2013 1:17 PM
> Subject: Re: Back to AtD. Back to Frank,
>
> In the Mexican history the urban professionals are Madero Revolution &
> Co., easy enough, but the fantasy of a liberal democracy extends
> beyond the context, beyond Mexico and the event that Frank is in the
> middle of. So, the urban professionals' fantacy is set against the
> rural revolutionary reality. To argue that P sides with the violence
> of the rural revolutionaries because he sides with their revolution is
> a misreading.
>
> But how can these better revolutionaries put away violence and bring
> about the changes that their revolution promised? How do they bring
> down those who used them, betrayed them, and now hold power?
>
> Violence won't get the JOB done.
>
> On Fri, Feb 22, 2013 at 12:13 PM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
>> I am soon going to complicate this opinion, I think, as I continue to post.
>> As with almost everything, he satirizes many stances, and unties the knots
>> of a nuanced position.....(which doesn't preclude 'ambiguous'--in Empson's
>> sense--nuances and therefore possible 'positions'....
>> I think here he is scoring on 'some urban professionals' who call this Mexican-based
>> Revolution, 'liberal democracy.
>>
>> I suggest, flame me now, suchas the Weather Underground and their self-justifications for
>> violence are scored here....among others.....
>>
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com>
>> To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
>> Cc:
>> Sent: Friday, February 22, 2013 9:06 AM
>> Subject: Re: Back to AtD. Back to Frank,
>>
>> This chapter is typical of P's lifting of history; we can certainly
>> identify the author's norms here, his political and historical point
>> of view is evident; this is especicially the case in the phrase "some
>> urban professionals' fanasy of liberal democracy" as this phrase
>> evokes, from P readers, a sardonic wit that is the author's style when
>> he provides commentary, and is  fundamentally Marxists to left-wing
>> Anarchist in view, that is, his take on the historical events lifted
>> from the pages of history, briefly sketeched, are sifted through P's
>> critical sieve to expose the norms he proejects and evokes throught
>> the novel, and these are consistant with the argument that P adopts
>> after GR, as he turns his attention more and more to the stuggle of
>> workers, to labor, and argues that a liberal democracy can not succeed
>> under capitalism because  capitalism is class-based and therefore can
>> never be democratic or even participatory.
>>
>> These are the politics of P. Not difficult to find. His norms are
>> there in the commentary, in his selections of historical events, and,
>> yes, even in his characters, in this case, Frank, who, though a pawn
>> on P's chessboard, is moved on and in the squares of history.
>>
>> Of course, Pynchon is not commenting on Ahab, or Pyncheon, but the
>> tale of land taken, haunted by the ghosts of the oppressed and
>> murdered is more than mere allusion or favorable parody, but directs
>> us to land issues that saturate, still, the geo-political conficts
>> from Mexico to Brazil, and, of course, back to the States, and the
>> lines, signaled up, and cut into the Earth...and so on.