Mortality & Mercy in Vienna

[Mark Kohut]

yes, very worryingly claustrophobic.

I have been trying to write something that says other than your other
critical voice. My mind stops there, except to think it can't mean
that, can it? I might suggest it shows the nihilism of said
liberalism, and of native American revenge (justice) as well?
The complicity of them, of the native and the liberal bureaucrat.

I want to reread Measure for Measure before saying more. It IS
claustrophobic and even the resolution contains bad shit.

I have both Tanner books but still in boxes since recent move.

On Sun, Jan 10, 2016 at 1:27 PM, Jochen Stremmel <jstremmel at gmail.com> wrote:
> 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
>>
>>
>
-
Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l