BE: Inside Flap

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

On 09.10.2013 17:12, Robin Landseadel 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/?list=nchon-l
>
>

Agreed that there is a "Seinfeld" dimension in BE, but its author does 
not frame September 11 the way Larry David does. Here Pynchon - although 
some consider the doubts the novel expresses concerning the official 
version as frivolous - is basically serious:

"The book is laugh-out-loud funny, yet it manages to deal respectfully 
and unironically with the worst tragedy in modern American history, the 
terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001", as it says in this review.

http://www.cleveland.com/books/index.ssf/2013/10/thomas_pynchon_finds_the_endur.html

In contrary to this, Larry David definitely makes jokes about them in 
"Curb your Enthusiasm". Below you find three links which you, however, 
shouldn't activate if still traumatized by the event. I think the 
difference to Pynchon's take on the subject becomes obvious:

Hit by a bike messenger on 57th street:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdSpwEpEnv4

"Let's roll!" [2.32 - 3.50]:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ppt-Bnhn5Ow

Firefighters:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bI2i_b92mvg





-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l