NP: Naomi Alderman's The Power

[Monte Davis]

JT> a cycle of liberation and change... picks up steam in Vineland and
continues

YMMV reader by reader. E.g. looking just at endings, for me there's
something sketchy, dreamy, "and they lived happily ever after" about

- the family reunion/picnic at the end of Vineland (after a ride through
fog/mist)
- the flight "toward grace" from the airborne dirigible/city at the end of
AtD
- the ride through fog/mist at the end of IV

By contrast, I get more positive charge from the "envoi for children" that
closes both M&D and Bleeding Edge -- even without knowing whether they get
safely to America, or to school.

On Thu, Jan 25, 2018 at 11:02 AM, Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:

> wow. yea.
>
> and probably more men should read and male professors teach from the many
> excellent contemporary women writers.
>
> Along with a cycle of use/abuse I see a cycle of liberation and change
> which begins  with Slothrop, picks up steam in Vineland and continues.
> Perhaps some of the critical negativity toward  Vineland is about this
> turn.   Is the preference for tragedy a kind of fatalist gnosticism? Is it
> a belief as much as a force of nature?
>
> > On Jan 25, 2018, at 9:39 AM, Monte Davis <montedavis49 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > What keeps Pynchon alive and compelling is the perpetual tension between
> "empowerment," insurgency, a potentially better tomorrow...
> >
> > ...and the "profound understander of every kind of dominance," the
> believer in original sin (at least as much Gnostic as Christian). Blicero
> uses Katje, who uses Slothrop, who uses Geli, who uses Tchitcherine, world
> without end. And the pale Virgin rising in the east over Hiroshima... isn't
> that our old friend, the merciful and merciless V.?
> >
> > On Thu, Jan 25, 2018 at 7:37 AM, Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > The huge bestselling success of this book--my hidden premise being a
> book's sale is rarely just related to its quality; in fact is seldom
> related to it, --
> > Is part of the huge cultural ongoing next wave of female empowerment and
> self-empowerment.
> >
> >  It's all around us, maybe most visible in the largest total marches
> around the US--some outside the US too--in the history of The Republic.
> >
> > And the voices to try to end, and bring to justice the power dominance
> that is most sexual harassment , is thrilling.
> >
> > Yes, more women should read Pynchon, (and join the Plist), a feminist
> and profound understander of every kind of dominance.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Sent from my iPhone
> >
> > > On Jan 24, 2018, at 7:27 PM, Richard Romeo <richard.romeo at gmail.com>
> wrote:
> > >
> > > I enjoyed it though it’s a hard read at times (as a guy) which I guess
> is the point.
> > > I like the way she structured the story
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >> On Jan 24, 2018, at 6:17 PM, John Bailey <sundayjb at gmail.com> wrote:
> > >>
> > >> I'm a third of the way into this glorious page-turner called The Power
> > >> and was pleased to note that writer Naomi Alderman conversed with
> > >> Ursula Le Guin while developing it (Margaret Atwood and Karen Joy
> > >> Fowler, too).
> > >> It begins with 15-year-old girls the world over discovering they have
> > >> this ability to cause terrible pain and even death, and they quickly
> > >> start teaching older women the power as well. In very short order the
> > >> power dynamics of sex and gender are completely upended and the book
> > >> very smartly teases out the implications. The section in which women
> > >> storm the streets of Riyadh kept me reading late into the evevning
> > >> last night and the book overall is that wonderful mix of genre
> > >> satisfaction and fine intellectual playfulness.
> > >> -
> > >> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
> > > -
> > > Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l
> > -
> > Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
> >
>
> -
> Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?listpynchon-l
>
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