BEER Group Read. Otto Kugelblitz

[John Bailey]

Super SPOOOOOOILERS: (scroll)













It's my feeling that the Kugelblitz theory gently structures the novel
as a whole, and the way that a lot of people change their thoughts
about the book as they read confirms it for me. This is absolutely not
to say that Pynchon is posing the theory as valid, only that it is an
early piece of mischief with deeper significance if you care to read
it that way.

The early parts are solipsistic, all NY jibber-jabber, no narrative
drive, too many pop culture references for their own sake, where is
this damn thing going?

Then the zaniness, also kind of self-absorbed, kicks in, along with
the sex, but not necessarily sex in a literal way. Think of it in
terms of a narrative that becomes both more mature but also more
hysterical.

The paranoia of middle age is obvious around 3/4 of the way through
the book, and is about where early dislikers seem to start revising
their opinion - the paranoid sections of the novel seem to be Pynchon
returning to form, or at least working in his most familiar mode.

The dementia of old age: where plot lines no longer resolve themselves
but trail off, and everything begins to occur in the perpetual
present. Family becomes super important, but more important (to this
novel as a whole) is Letting Go. The final sequences of the novel are
full of Letting Go.

On Mon, Oct 14, 2013 at 9:42 AM, Mark Kohut <markekohut at yahoo.com> wrote:
> " a cross street where Law & Order had not yet filmed on"....showing the ubiquitiousness of THAT show---
> it is ALWAYS on somewhere on cable, right?....and that it is about that crime and justice topic, showing Americans
> proclivity for the subject---perhaps in a way traceable to Nixon's campaign phrase which helped carry him to victory as
> he rode the societal resentment of 60s character types into the Presidency.
> And then proceeded to overturn law & order.
>
> p. 2 is where I first laughed not LOL, since I'm still a recovering Puritan, but chuckled inwardly
> and smiled outwardly, I hope:
>
> Otto's recapitulation theory, which has Freud scuttling him from the Inner Circle---this happened to lots of analysts
> of course, not least Jung---with a "Great time to be finding THAT out" i.e. that death is actually, finally, sanity.
> Notions of Freud's concept of the death wish; N.O. Brown's attempt to overturn THAT, i.e. the death wish "theory"
> roll around my head but most, the surface joke that life itself is the opposite of being 'sane"......
>
> and all of Dr. Kugelblitz's normal stages of life (as expressed) can create a lucrative, lifelong practice in a city like NY where
> so many go to shrinks to discuss......everything negative in their life and mind.
>
> Analysts make a living treating the problems of life (In NYC) and his school recapitulates his theory grade by grade.
> Talk about school as "adjustment to life"....Or, in that good line "a loony bin with homework, basically"....
>
> wit with meaning.....
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l