Pynchon synchronicity learned today
David Morris
fqmorris at gmail.com
Fri Dec 5 20:12:54 CST 2014
Slothrop will always be my favorite Pynchon hero, with my favorite
character's name. I think he is the Buddha of GR. He reaches zero. The
crossroads. The bullseye. And he is the Establishment's Frankenstein
Monster, the result of Their hubris.
States aren't even states, because states are ever pulsing into other
states. The boundaries are ever fluid. This is true for everyone, but a
Buddha is a surfer of the waves of transition, eventually melding into
them, like a school of fish. Pynchon obviously had some really good acid
back then.
David Morris
On Friday, December 5, 2014, Keith Davis <kbob42 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Going out on a limb here, it might be that as Slothrop reached a certain
> state of self realization at the end of GR, TRP reached that same state, or
> is sharing with us, as best as he can, his awareness of what that state may
> be like. The thing is, states come and go, and reaching a state of
> realization doesn't mean you stay there forever afterward. Life goes on,
> and you deal with whatever comes up, with, perhaps, a perspective that
> allows you not to buy into new concepts as they present themselves.
>
> In my view, Mr. P has remained impeccable, but maybe that's just my
> concept!
>
>
> Www.innergroovemusic.com
>
> On Dec 5, 2014, at 8:00 PM, rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','richard.romeo at gmail.com');>> wrote:
>
> Me too in the traditional way but many make their own families which is
> just as good. I don't fault the family centric mind set. Heck being Italian
> American its in the DNA. I don't fault Pynchon for the feeling which I'm
> behind; its solely the aesthetic bummer the later books give me; we get
> maybe a few glimpses of the spark in IV and even less in BE. What's next
> Oprah?
>
> On Friday, December 5, 2014, <kelber at mindspring.com
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','kelber at mindspring.com');>> wrote:
>
>> I'm lucky enough to have a wonderful family, but I know too many who
>> don't. Pynchon's relatively late marriage/fatherhood does seem to have
>> affected his subsequent works, which are marred by the "in the end,
>> family's all ya got" Hallmark-ish sentiment (though M&D seems to emphasize
>> friendship more than family). ATD has a more complex view of family
>> structure, but at the end it's still the Chums of Chance and their
>> new-found family status. The family thing seems a little more pointed: get
>> your shit together and get familied. It somehow implies that we can make
>> the world better by focussing on our personal connections. Keep cool but
>> care may be an earlier incarnation of that. But don't think either attitude
>> is expressed in either COL49 or GR. Those books tell us to keep looking
>> outward.
>>
>> Laura
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> >From: John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com>
>>
>> >There was some great talk here years and years ago about how even the
>> >"keep cool but care" of V. was early Pynchon grappling with the issue
>> >and trying to come up with a system for living that might work, but
>> >that it felt mawkish and out-of-place given how thoroughly he would
>> >later reject any such universal notions. Maybe he embraced the
>> >possibility that you can live a great life without imposing any
>> >absolute order on it. Also part of the reason some have found fault
>> >with the later family-centric novels, as if he is shrugging and saying
>> >"in the end, family's all ya got."
>>
>> -
>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>
>
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