Mortality & Mercy in Vienna

[Jochen Stremmel]

Significantly, Tony Tanner begins his preface for Measure for Measure with
the sentence: "This is a worryingly claustrophobic play." Is that not true
for Pynchon's short story as well? He then muses about the word
"circummured" that Shakespeare invented for this play and never used again.

Perhaps somebody who reads this post has Tanner's book about Pynchon at
hand: Apparently he deals on the pages 26-29 with M&M in Vienna.

Meanwhile here's another critical voice:

"Any political critique of Pynchon should begin there: the shrugging off of
murder. ... The poignancy of 'Mortality and mercy in Vienna' is revealed in
that shrug, which is the real centre to the story. It indexes perfectly an
inability and unwillingness to intervene in a world in which mercy and
mortality appear inseparable. and terrorism a kind of unfathomable justice.
The shrug shows up the fine limits of Pynchon's story at the same time as
revealing the moment (so often repeated in recent American history) when
America's confused liberalism emerges as scandalously self-conscious
indifference."

Terrorism a kind of unfathomable justice, indeed.

2016-01-09 9:22 GMT+01:00 Jochen Stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com>:

> You said that now at lest twice, David. The high schooler who can put out
> sth like Mortality and Mercy would have a bright future as a writer, I
> think. And I don't think it has much morality. I think it's better than
> Entropy, that one is really charged with symbols. You all know the scene
> where the parting Duke delegates his power to Angelo with those words, it's
> the first. And Siegel is no hypocrite – what he does, given the choice
> between M&M, is quite cool, don't you think.
>
> What I thought after Slow Learner came out: that P didn't republish that
> short story because he didn't like to see that name again, associated with
> his own, the name of that asshole who broke the silence about him.
>
> 2016-01-09 2:00 GMT+01:00 David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com>:
>
>> Too much morality for my taste, and so clunky to boot!  This feels like
>> it was written by a high schooler.
>>
>>
>> On Friday, January 8, 2016, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> The more I 'analyze' this story, the more problematic it is to me.
>>> Some over the top
>>> symbols and allusions and symbolic motivation I don't think I get.....
>>>
>>> Yes, the motivation does not seem 'earned', right?....but wha is it?
>>>
>>> Siegel is Mercy?....the Ojibway is Mortality? .......I cannot
>>> think the influence of the play into this story.......so different..
>>> ---- Vienna is absolutely corrupt, known.......and I guess DC is
>>> supposed to be too.....
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> On Sat, Jan 2, 2016 at 3:11 PM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:
>>> > http://www.pynchon.pomona.edu/uncollected/vienna.html
>>> >
>>> > Starts in rain. (see Small Rain and P on that symbolism borrowed from
>>> Hem)
>>> >
>>> > a party. like Entropy.
>>> > music   like Entropy
>>> >
>>> > girl named Rachel. Like V. Who doesn't show.(absent)
>>> >
>>> > Zeit [Time] as in V. a doctor here.
>>> >
>>> > P-like crazy names.
>>> >
>>> > very overt Catholicism imagery. and a mother who refutes it at 19.
>>> >
>>> > what else?
>>> -
>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
>>>
>>
>
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