The Science of Collapse

[ish mailian]

Those characters that seek utopia, off the grid, off the map, even off
the planet, are, in the tradition of American Literature, Romantics,
who have hopes and dreams, that, seem good, for they are, after all,
counter to the culture that seems corrupt, and, though readers may
read these as sympathetic characters, Pynchon undermines reader
sympathies, not only because these seekers of utopia are entangled in
the grid even as they reject it, flee from it, raise a new generation
away from it (who, like the children of Puritans, long to return to
the grid or counter the anti-grid culture of their parents) are
incapable of escaping its inexorable mappings. Though the texts
clearly favor the unmapped landscapes and imaginings (what Tony Tanner
identifies as the "Subjunctive"), the moods of mystery, the
anarchist's dream of  preterit liberation, the passed-over, the
underdog . . . it also, while avoiding nostalgia (fearing fascism?
see Cultural Trauma and the "Timeless Burst": Pynchon's Revision of
Nostalgia in Vineland), exposes these sympathetic characters as
foolish, often immature and self-absorbed, and wrapped up in an
idealism that's phony, a front, an opportunistic ploy.

On Wed, Jan 29, 2020 at 2:48 PM Thomas Eckhardt
<thomas.eckhardt at uni-bonn.de> wrote:
>
> The "off the grid utopias" in Pynchon's novels are always in the process
> of just now being forced into the grid by the anti-utopian forces, no?
> But I agree with rich: If Pynchon satirizes them, he does so
> benevolently, forgivingly.
>
>
> Am 28.01.2020 um 17:58 schrieb rich:
> > Despite my skepticism over Pynchon's later focus on off the grid utopias in
> > Vineland, AtD and IV, I think he isnt as cynical as you say. Smaller-scale
> > anarchism, rooted to local spaces, where vibrant ecosystems can be fostered
> > for the betterment of members as well as the local flora, fauna, etc. is
> > not mentioned for satirization. The more regretful, longing (and at times
> > quite beautiful) passages in the later books are quite the reflection of
> > what could/should have been.