BE -- "death wish for the planet"

[Thomas Eckhardt]

We are all influenced by our parents and influence our children in 
manifold ways. In my view, there is nothing particularly dysfunctional 
about the Tarnows, and there is nothing to indicate that Ernie is trying 
to impose a paranoid political Weltanschauung on Maxine when he talks to 
her about the origins of the internet.

Granted, there is this common motif of women being seduced by fascists 
(as an aside, I note that Maxine, unlike Frenesi, does not change sides, 
and that Windust is a more complex character than Brock Vond). As for 
how this female equivalent to a hardon for fascism may be linked to 
Maxine's upbringing, you raise an interesting point about Maxine's 
mother that I agree with. I just see no textual support for your claim 
that we shouldn't take serious what Ernie says. In fact, I believe that 
we are supposed to take Ernie's words very serious indeed.

More generally speaking, I would argue that P's view of family gets more 
realist, and less damning, from VL onwards.

You are quite averse to political readings of Pynchon, no?


Am 28.02.2016 um 17:56 schrieb ish mailian:
> Does Ernie's belief that television cop shows steered his daughters to
> the careers and mates they chose hold water?  Or was it his
> anti-capitalist, anti-Zionist, anti- neoliberal, anti-neocon stories
> that drove these decisions? Maxine wonders. Maybe her mother, who so
> adored Windust for his shoes and style, though Maxine didn't take him
> down in the dirty carpet like a dog because she shared her mother's
> fashion lusts, had more to do with her attraction to Horst, her career
> in fraud? Maybe she it's Maybellian? Maybe, as Gaga sez, she was born
> with it. This guy is something of an expert in media or cultural
> history. He sure does bring his job home. Pushes his attitudes on his
> family hard. Seems his politics dominate his private life, like what
> opera to see, what tv to let the kids watch, but it seems to have
> backfired or, at least, to have failed.   Does the novel think it
> foolish to involve one's kids in Marches?
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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l