SLSL Racial Differences

[jbor]

on 14/11/02 2:33 AM, Otto at ottosell at yahoo.de wrote:

> He himself seems to see that different:
> "(...) the rest of us poor sheep (...)" (19.1)

Except the "poor and powerless" sentence ending goes back to the "questions
of money and power" in the main clause of the sentence. He's talking about
wealth again there, not, as in the "poor sheep" line later on, being
unfortunate.
 
>> I'd say Pynchon's editor was remiss in not sending the paragraph back to
>> him with a thick red line through this sentence and a large question mark
>> in the margin beside it. It's not at all clear "who" or "what" he's
>> talking about.
>> 
> 
> I have my doubts that the way you describe it is the way our man is dealt
> (or should be) by his editor. And if there's one thing the editor should've
> expected from him it's a certain level of deliberate opacity.

Well, I disagree on this. I'm not saying that the 'Intro' is badly-written
on the whole, just that this sentence is very ambiguous. And I don't think
the ambiguity is intentional. It's supposed to be an expository sentence, a
statement of opinion or idea, and I would imagine he expected to convey that
opinion or idea clearly to his readers. That he hasn't been able to do this
is due the fact of its being poorly expressed in this sentence. "Deliberate
opacity" isn't a factor here at all, in my opinion.

I'm interpreting the sentence in the sense below, but other astute readers
here aren't, and I can see their point/s of view as well. However, Pynchon
shouldn't have been assuming that readers of this 'Intro' will have pored
over every scrap of writing he's published in order to be able to bring
context and meaning to the sentence, and that's not the audience he sets up
in the first page or so either.

best

>>> It may turn out that racial differences are not as
>>> basic as questions of money and power, but have served
>>> a useful purpose, often in the interest of those who
>>> deplore them most, in keeping us divided and
>>> relatively poor and powerless. (p.12)
> 
>> It may turn out that racial differences
>> (disagreements)
>> are not as basic as questions of money and power, but
>> have served (advanced) a useful (sarcasm here)
>> purpose, often in the interest of those (the
>> criminally insane leaders of the free world and those
>> that keep them in money and power--big business, local
>> politics, media) who deplore (bemoan) them most, in
>> keeping us (globally-speaking) divided and relatively
>> poor (i.e. not wealthy) and powerless. (p.12)
>> 
> 
>> Those who deplore racial differences (tensions,
>> conflicts, and segregation, miscommunication,
>> misunderstanding) most are those in power.
>> Nevertheless, those in power are also those who keep
>> people separate and equally poor relative to the
>> prosperity of the State and the Power elite.