The BEER Group Read: Who's asking anyway?

[Fiona Shnapple]

> Hey, P finds cities, esp NY, not cool. Any different here? Because it is set
> here and Maxine lives here (with kids)? As
> P does with his wife and kid?

I doubt that P finds city life, and especially life in NYC, uncool.

1. NYC is the coolest city on the Planet
2. why write a novel that satirizes what is wrong with the City if you
don't think it has something worth saving, returning to, improving
upon?
3. he lives here still.
4. the eclectic mix, the organic melting mosaic salad bowl richness of
NYC is a positive value in P fiction and prose.
5. his son is quite young when we consider his P's age, and, though
this is not that unusual anymore, at children come later and later to
the career trajectory that continues for women in one direction, men
in another here in NYC and in the country, many of P's neighbors have
kids when a bit younger, even now, but 20 years ago, more so, so
people his age have kids Maxine's age, grandchildren P's son's age.
Most of the the men and women,Maxine's age, including the Jewish men
and women in the area, Maxine's age, contrary to what has been
asserted here, are professionals who earn big bucks, not
philanthropists and artists and teachers, and many are married to
people who work in finance, tech-land, etc. wall street, and to people
who are more like Gatsby then white shoes wasps.  P nails it with
Maxine by marrying her to a commodities broker. This is not only
historically accurate but works in several thematic ways as we will
see later. The street fighters who own the pits are not what many of
you think--not those banksters at GoldMan.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Asylum-Renegades-Hijacked-Worlds/dp/B006CDD95M
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l