Traverse Machine

[Mark Kohut]

Your lead is true, of course, as Alice always knew and I will
read the rest of it.....

but I have this comment on what is visible: Remember that Benny
is said--says--he never changed near the end of the cook.

Which means his 'salvation' is to be who he was...yes, thru two women,
nicely said here

but remember all the way to the book's end....

On Thu, Aug 31, 2017 at 11:08 AM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com> wrote:

> Pynchon interest in American Labor is there from the start. We see it
> in the short stories and, of course, in his first novel, V..
>
> So much has been written, here and elsewhere, about Benny Profane, but
> this essay does a wonderful job of tying together the Work theme with
> women and the inanimate.
>
> Menachem Feuer
>
> Schlemiels, Women & (In)animate Yo-Yos in Thomas Pynchon’s “V”
>
> January 17, 2017
>
> an excerpt here------>>>>>>>>
>
> Rather, Pynchon suggests that the schlemiel’s relationship to work,
> inanimate “things,” and the feminine provides the reader with an acute
> sense of the schlemiel’s prominent space in Pynchon’s vision of
> America.  While Updike’s schlemiel seems to be outside the ken of
> salvation, Pynchon’s does not. But the salvation of Pynchon’s
> schlemiel, Benny Profane, is comical not sacred. It is, like the comic
> character, partial or better yet, double. Living a better life is his
> salvation. But what makes the schlemiel’s path to life unique is that
> it comes through a relationship to two women, which reflect his own
> identity which is half-Catholic and half-Jewish. Both women take him
> from being an inanimate yo-yo who dreads failure and wandering the
> streets, alone, to an animated schlemiel with a temp job and a
> (temporary) home.
>
> Read the rest here----------------------------------->>>>
>
> http://www.berfrois.com/2017/01/menachem-feuer-thomas-pynchon-schlemiel/
>
> On Thu, Aug 31, 2017 at 10:53 AM, ish mailian <ishmailian at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > 11 Revelations From Salman Rushdie’s Memoir, ‘Joseph Anton’
> >
> >
> > 9. Pynchon Emerges Almost every major writer lent their support to
> > Rushdie during the fatwa years (with the notable exception of John le
> > Carré.) One of them, “another famous invisible man,” was Thomas
> > Pynchon, and this gave Rushdie particular excitement. The two dined
> > together during one of Rushdie’s New York trips, and Pynchon spoke at
> > length about American labor history. They never met again after that.
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>
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