Book contents
- Thomas Pynchon in Context
- Thomas Pynchon in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Times and Places
- Part II Culture, Politics, and Society
- Chapter 14 Family
- Chapter 15 Sex and Gender
- Chapter 16 Humor
- Chapter 17 Popular Culture
- Chapter 18 Music and Sound
- Chapter 19 Film and Television
- Chapter 20 Real Estate and the Internet
- Chapter 21 Politics and Counterculture
- Chapter 22 Drugs and Hippies
- Chapter 23 Ecology and the Environment
- Chapter 24 Capitalism and Class
- Chapter 25 War and Power
- Chapter 26 Conspiracy and Paranoia
- Chapter 27 Terror and Anarchy
- Chapter 28 Science and Technology
- Chapter 29 Mathematics
- Chapter 30 Time and Relativity
- Chapter 31 Philosophy
- Chapter 32 Religion and Spirituality
- Chapter 33 Death and Afterlife
- Part III Approaches and Readings
- Further Reading
- Index
Chapter 14 - Family
from Part II - Culture, Politics, and Society
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 31 May 2019
- Thomas Pynchon in Context
- Thomas Pynchon in Context
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Contributors
- Abbreviations
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Times and Places
- Part II Culture, Politics, and Society
- Chapter 14 Family
- Chapter 15 Sex and Gender
- Chapter 16 Humor
- Chapter 17 Popular Culture
- Chapter 18 Music and Sound
- Chapter 19 Film and Television
- Chapter 20 Real Estate and the Internet
- Chapter 21 Politics and Counterculture
- Chapter 22 Drugs and Hippies
- Chapter 23 Ecology and the Environment
- Chapter 24 Capitalism and Class
- Chapter 25 War and Power
- Chapter 26 Conspiracy and Paranoia
- Chapter 27 Terror and Anarchy
- Chapter 28 Science and Technology
- Chapter 29 Mathematics
- Chapter 30 Time and Relativity
- Chapter 31 Philosophy
- Chapter 32 Religion and Spirituality
- Chapter 33 Death and Afterlife
- Part III Approaches and Readings
- Further Reading
- Index
Summary
During the family reunion in Vineland (1990) that resolves the novel’s action, protagonist daughter Prairie Wheeler notes she is “[f]eeling totally familied out” (VL 374). After finishing Pynchon’s novels, especially those after Gravity’s Rainbow (1973), readers, too, could feel totally familied out. The adventures of a variety of families and family-like groups are important in each novel. However, this significance has been overlooked by scholarly readers – understandably, with so much else of academic interest to puzzle out in the books. Pynchon’s “decentered subjectivity,” well described by McHale, has caused readers to attend to unusual, “postmodern” aspects of Pynchon’s fiction at the expense of traditional aspects such as families. Yet the early novels feature children and neglectful parents, and in the novels after Gravity’s Rainbow, families become increasingly central and noticeable. The action from Vineland on often illustrates troubled families remedying their troubles. Families or family-like groups (such as cults) appear in all Pynchon’s main plots, even when family members are conspicuous by various forms of absence. Ongoing thematic concerns of Pynchon’s like alienation, the attraction to death, the perils of science, the power of history, and the limits of knowledge are expressed through parents and children. The following reviews the secondary literature on families in Pynchon, surveys specific instances of families, considers the significance of Pynchon’s families for his vision of American culture, and examines families in relation to pedagogy.
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- Information
- Thomas Pynchon in Context , pp. 115 - 121Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2019