Fwd: Close Third & Why Channeling his inner Jewish Mother Works so well

[Charles Albert]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Charles Albert <cfalbert at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Oct 10, 2013 at 3:19 PM
Subject: Re: Close Third & Why Channeling his inner Jewish Mother Works so
well
To: Jamie Anderson <jamiek.anderson at gmail.com>


I third this emotion.....I also think the sexual dynamics which put Maxine
eyeball to wall-socket in the meatpacking district love nest are entirely
legitimate - having, when the occasion called for it, played the Carpathian
Violator myself.

Am also here to vouch for the reality of the Republican spawn of 2nd
generation Hebrew social agitators. Hell, some managed the feat in less
than a generation (I'm looking at you, Irving Kristol).

About 65% through, I'm thoroughly enjoying my BE experience.

love,
cfa


On Thu, Oct 10, 2013 at 2:56 PM, Jamie Anderson
<jamiek.anderson at gmail.com>wrote:

> Completely agree with you, Fiona. Maxine and Frenesi are like many of
> TRP's women characters: the same as men in terms of complexity. I've always
> felt Pynchon, particularly later Pynchon, but also in CL49, is a feminist
> in that he creates women characters the same way that he creates men
> characters: they have faults, they have flaws, they make good and bad
> decisions, but they are overall human.
>
>
> On Wed, Oct 9, 2013 at 11:48 PM, Fiona Shnapple <fionashnapple at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> There are several reasons why I love Maxine.
>>
>>
>>
>> 1. she is appropriate, given the context
>> 2. she is a reliable guide to the world(s) of the novel
>> 3. she is a reliable voice for the moral values of the world outside
>> the book. In other words, P uses her, in lots of ways, to comment on
>> the world
>> 4. she provides unity and coherence
>> 5. his choice of a female serves his major themes, though Maxine, like
>> Frenesi, may be misread, and thus misjudged by readers who fail to
>> understand how she functions as a symbol
>>
>> a. if we turn back to Frenesi, as readers here have, we see that her
>> attraction to the uniform, to the police, to Brock, to fascists has
>> been interpreted as a fault in the author--some bias owed to his age
>> or generation or whatever
>>
>> b.  is P's trope,  daughter of the Left (not Plath whose Daddy is a
>> fascist, recall Moody and DL) loves a fascist worn out or confusing?
>> Not really
>>
>> c. because it is not about daughters, exactly, but technology, and
>> specifically, image technics.
>>
>> d. Frenesi wants to expose, with light and camera,  to drag the truth,
>> naked before the world; she wants to force it out, her camera, a gun,
>> not a penis for love making, but a penis to rape, to force, with
>> violence, the truth out of a victim. Yes, even a fascist, a sadistic
>> fascist, can be tortured. But the truth, you GTAV fans know, is not
>> had with torture.
>>
>> e. what drives Frenesi to do this? This is nothing about females,
>> though DL, the Sisterhood, the whole sick film crew, think, it does.
>> Frenesi's reading, that is, misreading, of men and how they use the
>> penis/gun, is not penis envy, or any anti-feminist bias in the author,
>> but part of complex trope that P has been using, and developing; it
>> has to do with technology and images---film, TV, rich media, lights,
>> camera, hollywood
>>
>> f. and, of course, it's about work in consumer to late capitalism
>>
>> g. so, Frenesi is made a slave, a medium of exchange
>>
>> 6. so, those offended by Maxine, by Pynchon's apparent bias against
>> New York's Jewish community,  and/or Females, are simply misreading
>> and finding fault with the author.
>>
>> I. P has been interested in Jewish American fiction, and thus the
>> Jewish character (see his SL Introduction), from his youth
>>
>> a. as a non-Jew living in the Upper West Side of NYC, his admiration
>> for and fiendship with Jewish people is nothing uncommon or something
>> we should doubt or suspect
>>
>> b. that he channels his inner Jewish mother is appropriate and
>> complimentary, not anything to be embarrassed for
>> -
>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>
>
>
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