Traverse Machine

Tue Aug 29 10:20:08 CDT 2017

Speaking of Traverses, unions, and labor, here's some Pynchon-grade satire
-- not from the Onion, but in the purportedly real world:

http://inthesetimes.com/working/entry/20460/trump-labor-ronald-reagan-union-buster

On Tue, Aug 29, 2017 at 8:35 AM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:

> Joseph,
> Yeah, there is no doubt that Pynchon weaves the long yarns of the warp
> with the woof so tightly that one might characterize his story lines
> as mashed or smashed, we might see them as malleable copper wires of
> communication theory or even a spinal cord so damaged that it's
> difficult, impossible even, to tweeze apart the stories, not to
> mention the mesh from the changing times. That said, you do an
> excellent job of listing them. As you say, and I agree 100%,  that if
> the novel has a political pivot point it is far more complex than
> labor. Though my thesis is that the pivot point is work, how we work,
> who we work for and why. A theme that is important to P generally. And
> labor and work  in VL is organized and not organized, but mostly
> disorganized, and de-organized, disenfranchised,  and, the novel
> critiques and satirizes so much of the narrative labor has written
> about labor, which is exposed as often a false solidarity that crosses
> picket lines and crosses and turns on brothers and sisters, on
> laborers, on exploited workers , on workers of the world workers
> generally.  The abuse of power, of federal and state and local power
> is a key for sure. I hope you and everyone interested in this topic is
> familiar with
>
> The Presidents Emergency War Powers and the Erosion of Civil Liberties
> in Pynchons Vineland by David Thoreen
>
> http://thurnundtaxis.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-presidents-
> emergency-war-powers-and.html
>
> This brilliant article reminds us why Pynchon is not only a artist
> whose creative genius inspires other works of art, but also an author
> who has plumbed the depths of our dangerous relationship with the
> state in the USA and, though I would cringe, as Pynchon does when the
> label is applied to Orwell, "predicted" Trump & Co.
>
> TBC
>
>
> On Mon, Aug 28, 2017 at 11:22 PM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
> > Ok. I remember that and that Frenesi wouldn’t cross a picket line
> because of her upbringing. I still don’t remember anything about the
> decline and collapse of GE, RCA etc. Labor is a significant theme but
> perhaps not as central in my reading as you make it. The thing is that
> economics and politics and criminal rackets and police and class issues and
> TV thanatoids are mashed together in such a way, both in reality and in P’s
> version of 1984, that it is hard to identify any center or pivot point.( It
> seems to me that in the real world, and this is something P has made
> central through all his work, that Corporate management is as dependent on
> political muscle  as the politicians are on big money) Is Orwell’s 1984
> itself about class, about freedom, about the infrastucture of a police
> state, a world without privacy?
> >
> > It seems to me that Pynchon is pointing to a resistance that does have a
> "which side are you on” quality, but seems to me to show a world where
> resistance must go beyond wage and work conditions to issues of artistic
> liberty, freedom of thought, police accountability to legal codes, freedom
> to grow and use herbs,( to some this probably seems trivial but
> criminalizing such a harmless activity feeds misery and violence ) ,  and
> who does the legal system and communication system and education system
> serve?  Still, the more I consider it the more I see that you have  a valid
> way of looking at the book. It is also a support for your argument that
> Frenesi, having found Vond’s sadistic fascism too odious to abide, and now
> married to a low level agent, finds they are facing the same  financial and
> labor abuses in the agency as her union forbears faced.
> >
> > Labor struggles do seem a valid lens for understanding this part of
> history, particularly the shift of resistance from labor to student and
> academic revolt against Vietnam, racial/gender/class injustice. The tactics
> were confrontational in the same way as labor history, but by then unions
> were mostly in a more comfortable class and  often felt as threatened by
> the  students as those in the management class. Also the unions had done a
> lot of capitulating to anti-communism in the McCarthy era and many voted
> for Nixon and Reagan.
> >
> > In short, I concede. Not entirely, but mostly.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >> On Aug 28, 2017, at 1:02 PM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>
> >> One of the major, no, I mean MAJOR themes of VL is women & work & war.
> >> One way to read the novel is from Prairie's POV. Prairie gets so much
> >> of her story from film (including her mother's films) and from the
> >> Tube.  Frenesi is also deeply impacted by both, and as her parents are
> >> film folk it's worth paying close attention to the films she
> >> influenced by and associated with, not a few of them deal with women
> >> and work and war. In any event, so check out VL page 75. Frenesi here
> >> is getting a history lesson from her mother. The history is Her-Story
> >> and how she came down 101, down from the redwoods where her father,
> >> Jess Traverse was an organizer of loggers.
> >>
> >> On Mon, Aug 28, 2017 at 11:16 AM, Seymour Landnau
> >> <seymourlandnau at gmail.com> wrote:
> >>> 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
> >>>
> >>>
> >> -
> >> 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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