Dark Margins: Invisibility and Obscenity in Thomas Pynchon’s V., The Crying of Lot 49, and Gravity’s Rainbow

This paper explores the inter-related themes of invisibility and obscenity in Thomas Pynchon’s V., The Crying of Lot 49, and Gravity’s Rainbow, as they reveal a gradated movement from the struggle between the “animate” and the “inanimate,” to the resistance against the inanimateness of the system th...

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Autor principal:	Paul Jahshan
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN FR
Publicado:	Association Française d'Etudes Américaines 2010
Materias:	Thomas Pynchon Preterite Elect obscenity invisibility New Technologies History America E-F America E11-143
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/d65889f0ccd04b33bc95f663d0366512
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id	oai:doaj.org-article:d65889f0ccd04b33bc95f663d0366512
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:d65889f0ccd04b33bc95f663d03665122021-12-02T10:14:28ZDark Margins: Invisibility and Obscenity in Thomas Pynchon’s V., The Crying of Lot 49, and Gravity’s Rainbow1765-276610.4000/transatlantica.4860https://doaj.org/article/d65889f0ccd04b33bc95f663d03665122010-10-01T00:00:00Zhttp://journals.openedition.org/transatlantica/4860https://doaj.org/toc/1765-2766This paper explores the inter-related themes of invisibility and obscenity in Thomas Pynchon’s V., The Crying of Lot 49, and Gravity’s Rainbow, as they reveal a gradated movement from the struggle between the “animate” and the “inanimate,” to the resistance against the inanimateness of the system through strategies of invisibility, to, finally, the ultimate, obscene challenge posed by the inanimate to humanity as it takes the shape of what is known as the “new technologies.” The margins between the two is a space of slippage and also, paradoxically, the locus of a discourse of technological power for both “Preterite” and “Elect,” and Pynchon’s treatment of these issues in the 1960s and 1970s is relevant at the beginning of the twenty-first century when the Cartesian model is complicated by a digital culture poised to replace reality with the simulacra of cyberspace; this prospect is initially met by a resistance of invisibility inhabiting the dark margins, not only of textual discourse, but also of society as it takes shape in the practices of everyday life. The invisibility of the Preterite is not only a reaction to the obscenity of the Elect but is also, as it reaches an interpretative extreme, another form of technological obscenity not less powerful than that of the Elect. Pynchon’s three texts show that Preterite and Elect are never clear-cut positions but rather exhibit, in dialectical fashion, a slippage from one to the other.Paul JahshanAssociation Française d'Etudes AméricainesarticleThomas PynchonPreteriteElectobscenityinvisibilityNew TechnologiesHistory AmericaE-FAmericaE11-143ENFRTransatlantica : Revue d'Études Américaines, Vol 1 (2010)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN FR
topic	Thomas Pynchon Preterite Elect obscenity invisibility New Technologies History America E-F America E11-143
spellingShingle	Thomas Pynchon Preterite Elect obscenity invisibility New Technologies History America E-F America E11-143 Paul Jahshan Dark Margins: Invisibility and Obscenity in Thomas Pynchon’s V., The Crying of Lot 49, and Gravity’s Rainbow
description	This paper explores the inter-related themes of invisibility and obscenity in Thomas Pynchon’s V., The Crying of Lot 49, and Gravity’s Rainbow, as they reveal a gradated movement from the struggle between the “animate” and the “inanimate,” to the resistance against the inanimateness of the system through strategies of invisibility, to, finally, the ultimate, obscene challenge posed by the inanimate to humanity as it takes the shape of what is known as the “new technologies.” The margins between the two is a space of slippage and also, paradoxically, the locus of a discourse of technological power for both “Preterite” and “Elect,” and Pynchon’s treatment of these issues in the 1960s and 1970s is relevant at the beginning of the twenty-first century when the Cartesian model is complicated by a digital culture poised to replace reality with the simulacra of cyberspace; this prospect is initially met by a resistance of invisibility inhabiting the dark margins, not only of textual discourse, but also of society as it takes shape in the practices of everyday life. The invisibility of the Preterite is not only a reaction to the obscenity of the Elect but is also, as it reaches an interpretative extreme, another form of technological obscenity not less powerful than that of the Elect. Pynchon’s three texts show that Preterite and Elect are never clear-cut positions but rather exhibit, in dialectical fashion, a slippage from one to the other.
format	article
author	Paul Jahshan
author_facet	Paul Jahshan
author_sort	Paul Jahshan
title	Dark Margins: Invisibility and Obscenity in Thomas Pynchon’s V., The Crying of Lot 49, and Gravity’s Rainbow
title_short	Dark Margins: Invisibility and Obscenity in Thomas Pynchon’s V., The Crying of Lot 49, and Gravity’s Rainbow
title_full	Dark Margins: Invisibility and Obscenity in Thomas Pynchon’s V., The Crying of Lot 49, and Gravity’s Rainbow
title_fullStr	Dark Margins: Invisibility and Obscenity in Thomas Pynchon’s V., The Crying of Lot 49, and Gravity’s Rainbow
title_full_unstemmed	Dark Margins: Invisibility and Obscenity in Thomas Pynchon’s V., The Crying of Lot 49, and Gravity’s Rainbow
title_sort	dark margins: invisibility and obscenity in thomas pynchon’s v., the crying of lot 49, and gravity’s rainbow
publisher	Association Française d'Etudes Américaines
publishDate	2010
url	https://doaj.org/article/d65889f0ccd04b33bc95f663d0366512
work_keys_str_mv	AT pauljahshan darkmarginsinvisibilityandobscenityinthomaspynchonsvthecryingoflot49andgravitysrainbow
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Dark Margins: Invisibility and Obscenity in Thomas Pynchon’s V., The Crying of Lot 49, and Gravity’s Rainbow

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