M & D Deep Duck continues.

[Kai Frederik Lorentzen]

Could it be that the 'round character' as such,  existing in the 
Bourgeois world during the 18th and the 19th century, died on the battle 
fields of World War I?

"The remainder of the message," Weissmann continued, now reads: 
DIEWELTISTALLESWASDERFALLIST."
"The world is all that the case is," Mondaugen said. "I've heard that 
somewhere before." A smile began to spread.  (V, p. 278)

In a world which is everything that is the case, roundness of character 
is something human being cannot afford any longer. Pynchon doesn't quote 
Wittgenstein to make a philosophical statement, he quotes the famous 
opener from the Tractatus, originally scribbled down by Ludwig in the 
trench, as a symptom of historical decline. The decline of roundness, so 
to speak.

If the watershed of WW I is crucial here, it shouldn't take wonder that 
the characters from M & D are 'rounder' than those from GR,  CoL 49, or 
Bleeding Edge.


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