Pynchon's vaunted list-making

[Mark Kohut]

Just what I was hoping to learn and relearn....wonderful. Thanks.




I'd say that in Pynchon, synthetic, "piling-up" list-making starts
with TCoL49. As to V., there is at least this "pointedly" analytic
list in the wonderful Epilogue:

-----
And like an epidemic or earthquake the  politics of the street can
overtake even the most stable-appearing of governments; like death
it cuts through and gathers in all ranks of society.

-> The poor would seek revenge against the millers, who allegedly
profiteered in bread during the war.

-> The civil servants would be out looking for a fairer shake:
advance  notice of open competition, higher salaries, no more racial
discrimination.

-> The tradesmen would want repeal of the Succession and Donation
Duties Ordinance. This tax was meant to bring in 5000 pounds yearly;
but the actual assessments amounted to 30,000 pounds.

-> Bolshevists among the yardbirds could only be satisfied with the
abolition of all private property, sacred or profane.

-> The anti-colonial extremists would seek of course to sweep
England from the Palace forever. Damn the consequences. Though
probably Italy would enter on the next crest and be even harder to
dislodge. There would be blood ties, then.

-> The Abstentionists wanted a new constitution.

-> The Mizzists - comprising three clubs: Giovine Malta, Dante
Alighieri, Il Comitato Patriottico - sought (a) Italian hegemony
in Malta, (b) aggrandizement for the leader, Dr. Enrico Mizzi.

-> The Church - here perhaps Stencil's C. of E. stuffiness colored
an  otherwise objective view - wanted only what the Church always
desires during times of political crisis. She awaited a Third
Kingdom. Violent overthrow is a Christian phenomenon.

(Picador, 472)
-----

-> V.: analytic, style of separateness

-> Later P: synthetic, style of connectedness (cf. Moore's book on GR)


Heikki

On Sun, 5 May 2013, Mark Kohut wrote:

> Farina has a LOT of lists in his shorter novel....mostly a kind of impasto 'realism'...piles up the nouns to indicate much
about a person, situation.    Not as witty as P's.

From: Lemuel Underwing <luunderwing at gmail.com>
To: rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com>
Cc: Andreis Passarinho <eastcocker at gmail.com>; Erik T. Burns <eburns at gmail.com>; Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com>; Prashant Kumar <siva.prashant.kumar at gmail.com>; pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Sunday, May 5, 2013 7:01 PM
Subject: Re: Pynchon's vaunted list-making



Hmm I'd say far from a random collection of items on a desk...
for example, as I was just reading in AtD, how the whole Prairie extends around Merle and Dally as the Spokes of their Wagon-Wheel.. tho really there are too many Listing Moments to count in AtD

P.'s lists are enlargements of the scene, sometimes interrupting the narrative to follow otherwise Obscure characters, sometimes giving us what may only be misdirection or white noise,  other times offering glimpses of the expansive themes in different latitudes... they are, at their best quite masterfully worked... worthy of the greatest list-maker in the 'Merican language Walt Whitman




On Fri, May 3, 2013 at 12:53 PM, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:

or is it just a random collection of items on a desk
>
>
>On Fri, May 3, 2013 at 1:12 PM, Andreis Passarinho <eastcocker at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>
>> i think theres something to that effect happening in GR, towards the end.
>> the events grouped paranoically and encyclopedically to relate to vast,
>> perverse power systems which we cannot fundamentally know about, and yet
>> have to try to make sense of.
>>
>> (hopefully at least 30% of this makes sense)
>>
>> -
>> andreisp
>>
>
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