'Passionate uncertainty': Humanistic concerns in Thomas Pynchon's fiction

Gravity's Rainbow establishes Thomas Pynchon's reputation as a preeminent postmodern novelist, whose works are characterized by the deconstruction or indeterminacy of meaning and whose vision of civilization is haunted by apocalypse and annihilation. This belief was challenged with the publication of Vineland in 1990 and Mason and Dixon in 1997. Many aspects of Pynchon's works have undergone transformations, and his humanistic concerns have come to the fore in the later novels.;Pynchon's essays from 1966 to 1996 provide a bridge between his earlier works and his later ones. The Pynchon in these essays appears to be a champion for the underprivileged and a believer in love and miracles. A re-assessment of his works, in the light of these essays and his later novels, reveals his deep concerns for his characters: their need for love, for understanding, and for establishing meaningful bonds with others. These characters' need for meaningful bonds, incapacitated by some spiritual malaise or conspiracy in the earlier works, is fulfilled to a greater extent in the later novels. By examining characters' attitudes toward love, family, and relationships, or in a larger scale, human beings' treatment of each other in the context of colonialism, war, or slavery, we can better understand how Pynchon has changed over the years.;Pynchon's writing is filled with uncertainty and passion. The uncertainty arises from his anxiety about the future of humanity and civilization and about what human actions are possible in a world of increasing dehumanization. The passion arises from his genuine concerns about these conditions and his efforts in attempting to find solutions. These two characteristics, uncertainty and passion, often blend into each other and form a peculiar quality of Pynchon's writing. Vineland and Mason and Dixon mark a significant re-direction in Pynchon's career. Although his re-direction is greeted with mixed reviews, Pynchon is definitely a more humanistic writer in the later novels.