CoL49 Group reading - more responsive responses

[David Morris]

On Mon, May 6, 2024 at 12:04 AM Michael Bailey <michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com>
wrote:

> 1) How do Mucho Maas' self-recriminations reflect an alternative to
> Oedipa's Tupperware world?


He’s one of the many in the Schlemiel line. The noble loser.  They each
have specific flavors, eras, and sometimes gender.  Mucho and Oedipa are
both in the plastic hell-purgatory, and we don’t get the sense that either
one is on any fulfilling path. Both stuck in limbo until Oedipa is Pierced
from the other side of the Veil.

Whet she accepts her quest, she graduates from the passive Schlemiel to
active Mensch, following a heroic path.  It might also be observed that
some Pynchon’s questing mensch become deranged, some transcendent.

David Morris