BE: Inside Flap

[Fiona Shnapple]

Thank you! Robin, thanks a lot.

On Wed, Oct 9, 2013 at 11:12 AM, Robin Landseadel
<robinlandseadel at comcast.net> wrote:
> The author's brief description of Bleeding Edge on the inside cover runs
> over both flaps, ending with the sentence "Hey, Who wants to know?" Before
> that, we find out that the author is "Channeling his inner Jewish mother",
> said Jewish Mother being Maxi, I'd guess. "One hell of a Mother" to
> paraphrase Viv Stanshall. But the author also asks "Will Jerry Seinfeld make
> an unscheduled guest appearance?" One might say that this question sets up
> certain expectations. One might also say that we have to determine for
> ourselves—"Is this a "Right Question" or is this a "Wrong Question"? Is this
> a key to content or another red herring?
>
> One thing I'd take a crack at here—I don't think the Jewish World View was
> at the center of any of the author's previous works, save in it's erasure in
> Gravity's Rainbow, along with the erasure of a host of other cultures,
> tribes. Otherwise, it might be mentioned, might leave a trail of breadcrumbs
> that lead to some aspects of Jewish Mysticism in the general "Woo-woo"
> category that Pynchon spends so much time pursuing. But there are also all
> those elements of the most secular aspects of Jewish culture, particularly
> those that the Upper West side embodies. Passover is celebrated by folks
> who've got a Yantra on one wall, a Ketubah on another next to a Tibetan
> Thanka  and a Xena poster on the third. "How is this day different than any
> other day?" Good question.
>
> So, as the Crying of Lot 49 is ruled by the Catholic calender, I'll take a
> stab at the notion that the Jewish calendar might have similar significance
> in this book. Waiting for that "unscheduled guest appearance" and the empty
> seat at the Thanksgiving suggest passover to me. In this regard,
> calendar-wise, turned upside down. But clearly the calendar counts. You
> don't start and end a book on the first day of spring without that being
> something the author is pointing at.
>
> If this books feels different if might be that the rules of the game have
> shifted. The references to the occult that usually pile up like empty
> styrofoam cups on the roadsides of Pynchon's books are more neatly tucked
> away in the corners of this book. The author seems a bit more "occult" about
> these things this time than say in "Against the Day."
>
> I can't get over the notion that the TV show "Seinfeld" will prove to be a
> major frame of reference here.
>
> Seinfeld as Elijah? Why not?-
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l