Vaslav Nijinsky in his rose costume for 'La Spectre de la Rose'
This week: Chapter 2, pg. 14-21
By ERIC WAGNER
Special guest blogger
Attitudes towards mental health have changed since 1984. The phrase “laughing-academy outpatient” (pg. 14) probably would not occur on the news in 2025. The discussion of the personality which prefers jumping out of windows reminds me of Nijinsky’s leap out the window at the end of the ballet La Spectre de la Rose choreographed by Fokine. Bob Wilson discusses this leap in Prometheus Rising. That ballet portrays another dream narrative, when a young lady (about Prairie’s age) comes home from her first dance with her first rose, and she dreams of dancing with the rose.
Isaiah Two Four’s idea about a gun themed amusement park seems to presage the rise of Republican ad’s featuring politicians firing guns and Christmas cards featuring their armed families.
I like the way Pynchon creates fictitious movies in the novel, as well as the way he gives the dates for real movies.
1 comment:
Continuing to very much enjoy my sojourns in Vineland!
My stream o'consciousness prose styling is like milk in a refrigerator, taking on the flavors of whatever is in its shared space, and mirroring Pynchon's time-binded neurons is quite pleasant :)))
This is an observation from beyond just this week's pages, but I'm getting the vibe of channel surfing as I read through Vineland. The styles, rules, and tones are allowed to shift at will. From slice of life realism, to slapstick comedy, to surrealist action-adventure, Pynchon has created a pretext where the story can safely travel into any territory.
Also, I know it's only a loose adaptation, but the trailer for "One Battle After Another" is pretty exciting! They're marketing it as more of a straight up action movie than I expect it actually probably is.
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