Trumping the Vibe

Mark Kohut mark.kohut at gmail.com
Thu Jun 23 05:27:41 CDT 2016


In the 1960s, Philip Roth wrote what became perhaps his most famous essay
which tried to show
that American 'reality' was so crazy that the satirist had a job tougher
than it had ever been.

Prescient and always justified Pynchon's 'outrageousness' for me.
And only a few others for me.

Satire that does not pierce the sky and the deepest parts of the psyche and
the society
 is just another brand of realism, I am always thinking, even when
post-modernism (and James Wood) brought realism
back. (Half-a-loaf joke.)

On Wed, Jun 22, 2016 at 10:41 PM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

> Hitler was  kinda overboard too. Pretty hard anymore to make a satire
> extreme enough to qualify as non credible.
> > On Jun 22, 2016, at 3:27 AM, matthew cissell <mccissell at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > So I read this week that some fellow from the UK thought he would come
> kill Trump, even did some shooting practice. Dog bless the US.
> >
> > I happen to be rereading the scene in AD where the young anarchist tries
> to kill Scarsdale Vibe only to be shot down. After 'neutralizing' the
> subject the assassini put the boots to him with Vibe shouting "Batti! Batti
> la faccia"
> >
> >  Shortly after that Foley speculates that since Italian anarchists go
> after royalty that makes Vibe "American royalty" to which Vibe responds:
> "King Scarsdale. Yes. Has a certain lilt to it."
> >
> > Surely I'm not the only one that sees life imitating art. Can't you see
> Trump saying about the same?
> >
> > I remember that one P-lister said that Vibe was not at all credible as a
> character, it was just too overboard. James Wood made a similar argument.
> >
> > I could almost thank Trump for bringing Scarsdale Vibe to life, almost.
> >
> > ciao
> > mc
>
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>
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