Just Like the Stones et al., Scribblers Try Not to Fade Away

I don't read much fiction (actual history is much more interesting than the neuroses of 99.9% of working scribblers) but Bloomberg reports on Thomas Pynchon's latest novel and this comment struck me:

"Pynchon's novels have conquered the world. He's prosperous. He has a family -- the odes to family life in ``Against the Day'' do more than hint at happiness. Good for him. He's earned it. But contentment is no emotion to fuel a book this big."

As is often the case, the reactionary edge tends to come off a bit with age and awareness of one's good fortune, yet some purveyors of rage persist even though they've lost their mojo. The reality is that it pays too damn well to inveigh against the putative demonic plutocracy than to do things like illuminate the slow and imperceptible progress of our times. Perpetuating the "robber baron myth" has always been quite lucrative, but it is indeed that, a myth. The linguistic formulation of "robber baron" is so laughably inaccurate as to be Orwellian. Classic "robber barons" like Carnegie and Rockefeller were, of course, the opposite of barons, they were both born and raised in obvious poverty, and they did not rob anything, but created something from almost nothing. Both Carneige and Rockefeller gained enormous wealth by creating large industries that didn't exist prior. But I've digressed...

The main inspiration of this post was to comment on the delightful detail of Pynchon's newest corporate evil-doer. The robber baron character in "Against the Day" is Scarsdale Vibe. I wonder if Nick Kristof was his inspiration!