LISS/STEVPR Thomas Pynchon, Sex, and Gender next VL-related article

[peterthooper at juno.com]

Is by Christopher Kocera 

https://ugapress.manifoldapp.org/read/thomas-pynchon-sex-and-gender/section/df32cdcf-0d25-493c-9c35-1aaa4c261b99#ch04

And is really freaking good!

My small topic is what he says about this other article - 

John A. McClure reads Vineland as “the story of DL’s Progress” (51) in which she uses the martial arts, an inherently impure and “preterite” form of Buddhist spirituality, to survive the collapse of 1960s countercultural idealism. While McClure’s reading effectively links Pynchon’s presentation of Buddhism to strategies of resistance articulated by Gary Snyder, it oversimplifies the gender politics embedded in DL’s story. McClure’s answer to DL’s final question about the three poisons is that the “something else” to which she should have paid attention is “not ‘enlightenment’ or even her soul, but Takeshi himself, a partner and friend whom DL learns to love” (55). This heteronormative interpretation makes no reference to DL’s lesbian relationship with Frenesi, her experiences as a sex worker, or her use of ninja magic to free her friend from Vond. By ignoring these aspects of DL’s story and portraying her most traditional female role—that of partner and lover to a man—as the solution to her concerns about karma, McClure’s argument belies the spirit of Pynchon’s novel, which goes to great lengths to unsettle traditional representations of karma as a cosmic support for the social status quo. In a world that contains Thanatoids, a thriving karmic adjustment business, and DL’s gender-defying acts of magic, her final question should not be addressed without examining how her story contributes to the novel’s critique of karma as a regulatory principle for defining gender roles.


Specifically this sentence -

“  This heteronormative interpretation makes no reference to DL’s lesbian relationship with Frenesi, her experiences as a sex worker, or her use of ninja magic to free her friend from Vond. “

There is definitely more to be said (there always is, pretty much) on McClure’s treatment, and Mr Kocera goes on to great effect.


My interjection is, hey, the Pynch is somewhat, um, heteronormative his own bad self.

Not in a (the term escapes me) um, maybe, hateful? way.

It’s more of a detent (in the radio-knob or car door sense rather than a political one) than a Procrustean normativity, reflecting Pynchon’s own obvious preference.

Would anybody say that he is not a heteronormative writer?

 Would there be a reason that he should not be, as long as he’s not a (technical term escapes me) objectionable exponent of it?

In the course of a lifetime, one might either stumble into or by virtue of being a go-getter accumulate varieties of experience. (or have them foisted on one)

DL brings them to her dyad with Takeshi; it will give her greater agency (what George Costanza called “hand”) therein. 

Hetero- dyads (no, spellcheck, not Herero dryads) are a strange attractor in Pynchon’s fiction.  

He didn’t invent them, that’s for sure. But he does some cool things with them!