Traverse Machine

Mon Aug 28 10:16:25 CDT 2017

Is the Traverse clan in Vineland?  I'll have to check that.  I know they
traverse the aTd.  Traversing the Author's books too, hey?  Like the Chums
do in a way.

On Sat, Aug 26, 2017 at 3:10 PM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:

> There is the family tree for starters:
>
>
> http://against-the-day.pynchonwiki.com/wiki/index.
> php?title=Traverse_Family_Tree
>
> On Sat, Aug 26, 2017 at 9:53 AM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
> > Interesting thesis but I would like to see a sketch of supporting story
> lines/evidence in VL.  I see it as a more political, social control /vs
> resistance novel focusing on consolidation of power within increasingly
> aggressive gov/police alliance and various forms of reistance including
> labor but in many ways it is about a more full spectrum resistance: free
> thought, self liberation using psychedelics/cannabis, war resistance, labor
> resistance, feminism, race, music, turning off tv, making local
> communities. I have a hard time recalling a particular emphasis on labor. I
> remember the part about the labor issues for loggers and that some of the
> film collective’s actions were at labor protests. Am I missing something
> obvious?
> >    One thing implicit in VL is the variety of ways in which a movement
> is intimidated, seduced, scattered, killed by the state, while the state
> maintains the facade of legitimate concern for law and order. In Pynchon’s
> 1984 big brother is experty heroized on TV by taxpaying advertisers, and
> mostly only shows up with an arrest warrant when you are connected to
> direct resistance.
> >
> > I agree with your premise of labor power decline and certainly we see
> HOW that was accomplished in VL.  Interesting focus which just came up in
> discussion with friends. Nobody talks about labor much anymore. I would
> argue that the Clinton administration put the final nail in that coffin.
> The democrats relation to their base is more memory and habit than
> representative commitment.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >> On Aug 25, 2017, at 11:37 AM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> Vineland picks up where GR left off.
> >>
> >> GR is, in part, about labors relationship with the giant conglomerates
> >> of the 1970s, with post-WWII America.
> >>
> >> Vineland explores the decline, and even the collapse of the stable
> >> and steady giant conglomerates: GE, G&W, ITT, RCA, AT&T, IBM....as
> >> they face the challenges of competition, as increasing returns from
> >> size suddenly become bloated complacency.
> >>
> >> The garage geeks take big risks, and while most fail, a few are enough
> >> to make a major impact: Apple, Microsoft.
> >>
> >> Jobs at the Big Olds decline and jobs are created at smaller companies.
> >>
> >> The BIGS turn lean and mean, spin off, LBO, M&A....VC and so on and
> >> labor has no chance.
> >>
> >> VL & Nostalgia has been much discussed and VL is certainly a novel in
> >> the tradition of American labor literature that honors 4 bread and
> >> butter ideas that we find in American Lit.
> >>
> >> 1. division of labor argues that those that do dangerous work get
> higher wages.
> >> 2.work that requires more skill, skill that is acquired not in months
> >> but in years, get higher wages.
> >> 3. work that is irregular, because of weather, for example,  steel
> >> worker in Boston, get higher wages
> >> 4. Pride / Trust in work requires higher wages
> >>
> >> Zoyd is a parody of the lost wages.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Fri, Aug 25, 2017 at 7:55 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>> In Robert Reich's first movie, he had a few charts. One was of
> >>> the growth of GDP in America since WW2...
> >>> charted with the growth of
> >>> median income in Americas since WW2.......
> >>> And a chart of union membership in America over that time.
> >>>
> >>> I was in about 1977 that the growth of GDP slowly but noticeably
> started to
> >>> outpace the growth of median income, which flattened over time.
> >>>
> >>> It was at about that time that the fast decline of union membership
> started.
> >>> (If I remember it was leaking away even earlier in the decade.) Reich
> >>> pointed out how non-union wage growth also slowed. Union monetary
> >>> achievements helped all workers.
> >>>
> >>> I am working with a retired economist--one who was part of the
> leadership in
> >>> founding
> >>> the radical economists group of the 60s, early 70s. I am bringing his
> best
> >>> book, The Money Mandarins
> >>> back into print with him, revised, updated, but the bulk of the
> analysis is
> >>> the same since real predictive insight can be like that.
> >>> He basically predicted all of the adverse effects of globalization on
> >>> workers.
> >>>
> >>> When I told him the above examples from Reich's film, he told me this,
> still
> >>> baffled and self-surprised at it.He said that around that time, in his
> >>> prime, he poured through scads of data--to see economic
> >>> trends, anomalies, truths....this was worldwide but he was working in
> >>> Europe, unlike many American economists
> >>> so.......
> >>>
> >>> This became unexplainably evident to him.....slowed growth and even a
> >>> visible decline in economic value of wages WORLDWIDE (even as many of
> the
> >>> most poor in major countries--China, India, for example---forged
> forward, as
> >>> has steadily happened)
> >>> which, according to classical head-in-ass econ theory, will always
> balance
> >>> with new "creatively destructive" growth of
> >>> new occupations...
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On Thu, Aug 24, 2017 at 7:36 AM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> >>>>
> >>>> There’s also the fact that many traditional jobs are no longer very
> >>>> well paid. The 1980s recession, timed with the beginning of the Reagan
> >>>> years, was the beginning of a progressive destruction of unions in an
> >>>> industry which had at a time been the centre of the most militant
> >>>> labor struggles in the history of the American west. In 1978, a
> >>>> forestry worker with no high-school diploma could earn up to 40% more
> >>>> than the state’s average wage. Now, fellers can earn as little as $18
> >>>> an hour.
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/aug/23/logging-
> industry-work-employment-oregon
> >>>> -
> >>>> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> >>>
> >>>
> >> -
> >> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list
> >
> > -
> > Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>
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