BE as P's attempt at Greek New Comedy

[John Bailey]

I think this is the first time P has used the term late capitalism. I
haven't heard it outside the classroom myself, which made it stand
out.

On Tue, Oct 8, 2013 at 12:07 PM, Fiona Shnapple <fionashnapple at gmail.com> wrote:
> Another question: did Pynchon use the term late-capitalism in IV or in prior
> novels? Been thinking about what Robin said about the Left Content in this
> novel. I happened to be quite fond of a lady who may win the Nobel for
> prosecuting a certain individual who is guilty of genocide with products
> made in the USA.  How's that for a female heroine fucking a fascist?
>
>  There is so much in the narrative drift of this book that point to such
> people, both the sinister and evil bastards who murder and waste life, and
> those who fight them, protect the oppressed, resist the greeeed, the
> guzzling SUVs.
>
>
> So GTA, like so many Video Games is the topic of study in classes where
> Jameson is read.
>
> I don't think this is Game Over. That's not how I read it.
> On Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 7:12 PM, John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> You know what these things mean FS.
>>
>> On Tue, Oct 8, 2013 at 8:55 AM, Fiona Shnapple <fionashnapple at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>> > John, I'd like to respond, but you lost me, so, if you don't mind, some
>> > basic questions:
>> >
>> > What is the old Greek comedy? What is the new Greek comedy?
>> > What is a Coover take?
>> > What is close third person?  I looked this last one up and was not
>> > convinced
>> > that the definition provided is what you have in mind.
>> >
>> >
>> > On Monday, October 7, 2013, John Bailey wrote:
>> >>
>> >> I'm increasingly wondering if the new novel isn't Pynchon's conscious
>> >> attempt to write a New Comedy, in contrast to the Old Comedy that most
>> >> of his work can be aligned with. Or, if we're going to get more
>> >> detailed, with the Menippean Satire that some have convincingly argued
>> >> is his forte. But I'm sticking with the Old/New divide of the Greeks
>> >> for the moment.
>> >>
>> >> It would perhaps explain why this one jars so much for so many. It's
>> >> sitcom, not systems analysis, and when it gives us types (Jewish
>> >> American, African American, Italian American) it doesn't do so in the
>> >> obviously ironic way his earlier works did. It doesn't give us the
>> >> linguistic miracles that offer a way out of the existential morass in
>> >> the manner we're used to P providing. It tries to offer characters
>> >> we're supposed to care for, which is antithetical to Old Comedy, even
>> >> if that mode is a more compassionate one on a structural level. BE
>> >> leaves us with mere people, individuals, not even a hint of the
>> >> preterite, which is interesting and a problem.
>> >>
>> >> A Coover take on 2001-02 would look more like what we could have
>> >> expected from Bleeding Edge.
>> >>
>> >> Why, in both IV and BE, has Pynchon returned to close third person
>> >> narration (with at least one exception in BE that I've noticed?) It's
>> >> not What He Does. Not even in Vineland. He toyed with it in COL49 but
>> >> then declared it a minor work. Why go back there?
>> >> -
>> >> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>
>
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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l