BE ch 5 nerd wars

[rich]

that may be , Mark but I think Pynchon has fallen into the 'relatable'
characters trap. sure, the Traverses and others are fallible, but there's
no real mystery to them. the author just tells you. that's how I see it. I
realize others would argue differently

rich

On Mon, Nov 22, 2021 at 10:53 AM Mark Kohut <mark.kohut at gmail.com> wrote:

> I say not so easy in some of them....See Allen's words from Rev Gatlin in
> AtD....see the whole Traverse family.....
>
> See Maureen here.....see the airhead..........and we've just begun....and
> in a detective novel we do learn of bad actors.....
>
> On Mon, Nov 22, 2021 at 9:55 AM rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> why this good guys bad guys shtick? it doesnt make for interesting
>> reading.
>> two examples: I just watched Dune--can't get much more black and white,
>> can
>> you? all that destruction because the 'emperor' is annoyed. there's no
>> tension. you know who to root for. I'm also reading a new biography of
>> Robert E. Lee ( I enjoyed the author's previous book on Gettysburg). One
>> can vehemently disagree with Lee's decision to fight for the Confederacy
>> and his general attitude towards slavery (a bad mark that would eventually
>> wither away which granted is not much of an argument, but his views were
>> not as extreme as others and he generally had a poor view of the hardcore
>> secessionist. essentially he was trying to protect his family and
>> livelihood since Arlington was situated so close to DC. I'm not trying to
>> condone anything here and there is a lot to criticize, and god knows all
>> those monuments (ugh) but history is full of nuance. Pynchon used to have
>> that nuance, but its easy to draw a line between the goodies and the
>> badies in the last three books. I dont find that much appealing
>>
>> rich
>>
>> On Sun, Nov 21, 2021 at 1:00 PM Joseph Tracy <brook7 at sover.net> wrote:
>>
>> > One of the themes of  Ch 5 is the division taking place between 2
>> > directions for the tech revolution, to be sucked into the world of the
>> rich
>> > dickheads, jocks, wall streeters, military contracts...  or to defend
>> some
>> > kind of integrity, net neutrality, empowered feminism, fair wages,
>> > avoidance of wanton  predation and militarism and  generally to follow
>> your
>> > own path, your own cultural affinities, without giving in to suburban
>> > consumerism partisan wars etc..  This generalized Nerd version of
>> integrity
>> > is a bit vague around the edges which is a weakness Driscoll concedes in
>> > observing how easy it will be to recruit “ code monkeys” if there are
>> large
>> > military contracts.
>> >   I wonder about the sisterly support for Driscolls fascination with
>> > Jennifer Anniston’s looks. It seems to me better to tell her she’s
>> already
>> > beautiful and should make/find her own look. Totally my opinion here
>> but I
>> > wonder if the chicken scene is poking at the potential weirdness/not so
>> > coolness of this pursuit of full princess appeal.  Does this circle
>> back to
>> > the real estate theme? Do we buy style as we buy real estate, either
>> cookie
>> > cutter or salvaging some already worked out creative charm instead of
>> > making our own or appreciating what  is already there.
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>> >
>> --
>> Pynchon-L: https://waste.org/mailman/listinfo/pynchon-l
>>
>