Conclusion

Amy E. Varela

pp. 173-174

in: Paul M. Eve, Pynchon and philosophy, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2014

Abstract

Pynchon's work sits at the crossroads of many theoretical thinkers. However, this study demonstrates that it is not the case, as has previously been supposed, that Pynchon's citation of early Wittgenstein aligns him with this philosopher. Instead, from this initial observation, it has emerged that Pynchon's novels enact a mournful nostalgia for a regulative utopian state; a utopia indefinitely suspended through Pynchon's essentialist stance towards human nature. This is not a nostalgia for any lost, past situation¹ — in V. Pynchon terms this "a phony nostalgia" (156), a 'sickness for the past" (336) — but rather a hope for that which does not exist and is never to come. In this sense, much of his writing can be seen to turn towards the systems of ethics as they pertain to Enlightenment, revolution and ipseity in the late works of Michel Foucault. Finally, proceeding from this notion of a regulative utopia, an exploration of the consistent thought of Theodor W. Adorno reveals a deep-rooted affinity to Pynchon's writing on the philosophical, political and aesthetic levels.