The Disappearance of Critical Distance：The Superheroes and the Mass Media Spectacle in Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland

doi:10.12002/j.bisu.174

Abstract

Abstract:

In view of the dispute of the existing studies over the issue of mass media in Thomas Pynchon’s novel Vineland, this paper focuses on the two major characters in the novel’s subplot, DL and Takeshi. Drawing on Marie-Laure Ryan’s concept of virtual narration, the paper argues that the novel on the one hand adopts virtual narration in presenting the media’s world which the reader can easily discern its difference from the real world in the novel, yet on the other hand it also deliberately blurs this boundary in the presentation of the superheroes DL and Takeshi to portray America as a society of spectacle in the postmodern time. And only by considering the places where their stories take place as the space of fantasy, can we see the two characters’ virtuality in contrast to the actual world in the novel. In comparing the differences between the superhero DL’s fighting as the incarnation of the New Left movements of the 1960s and the strikes of the American working class in the 1930s and 1940s, the paper goes on to reveal how the existence of a superhero creates a mediated space of fantasy to avoid the direct contact with the cruel reality, which indicates the failure of the New Left’s movements of the 1960s. In due course this will also prove the ineffectualness of DL as the superhero and of Takeshi’s business of karmic adjustment as the supposed solution to social problems. Through this close examination of the meanings and functions of the two characters in terms of the media’s space of fantasy, the paper tries to illustrate that the novel’s imitation of the mass media does not weaken its critique. The two characters help to reveal the disappearance of critical distance in a postmodern America immersed in the culture of mass media.

Keywords: the mass media spectacle; virtual narration; space of fantasy; Thomas Pynchon; Vineland

摘要：

针对学界在托马斯•品钦的小说《葡萄园》中大众媒体问题上存在的分歧,本文聚焦于小说里的两个中心人物——女忍者DL和因果理算师武志以及围绕他们的第二条情节线,结合玛丽—劳雷•瑞安的虚拟叙述概念,从大众媒介景观的角度分析他们的意义和功能。本文认为该小说一方面使用了虚拟叙述来呈现媒体世界,另一方面在塑造这两个人物时又故意打破虚拟叙述,模糊真实世界与媒体世界的界限,以此展现一个景观化的美国后现代社会。而这部小说也正是通过对这两个大众媒体幻想空间里的超级英雄的塑造,既审视了20世纪60年代学生运动的问题,也揭示了被大众媒体浸染的美国社会批评距离的消失。同时,本文的分析也说明了小说对大众媒体的模仿并未削弱其批判性。

关键词: 大众媒介景观, 虚拟叙述, 幻想空间, 托马斯•品钦, 《葡萄园》

Rongrui LI. The Disappearance of Critical Distance：The Superheroes and the Mass Media Spectacle in Thomas Pynchon’s Vineland[J]. Journal of Beijing International Studies University, 2018, 40(4): 78-89.

李荣睿. 批评距离的消失：托马斯•品钦《葡萄园》的超级英雄与大众媒介景观[J]. 北京第二外国语学院学报, 2018, 40(4): 78-89.

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