P in German/Context

[G. Schmundt-Thomas]

>How about the *German* cultural context?  I'm curious about how Pynchon's use
>of German films, economic and political history, u.s.w. appear to Germans.

>--Don Larsson, Mankato State U., MN

Don,

the short answer to a complex question: TP's reception and representation of
Germany in GR strikes the German reader as at once idiosyncratic (selective
view, eclectic mix of facts) but at the same time quite "American" (e.g. the
convenient "Indiana Jones" depiction of Germans as Nazis, a shorthand for evil
but fascinating at the same time, to quote Susan Sontag). The net effect of GR
on me was one of defamiliarization in the best (Russian Formalist) sense
inasmuch as it made me curious to find out more (quite apart from the pure joy
of reading the book). To give you two concrete examples: I grew up near the Harz
mountains but only discovered the whole "Mittelbau" nexus via GR. While Wernher
von Braun is quite well-known in Germany, the slave labor part of the rocket
program usually is not. Similarly, GR made me reclaim the German colonial
heritage in Africa, which most Germans would still draw a blank on (there's been
some discussion in the press in the past decade, though). I only found out after
GR who Carl Peters was, who had a public square named after him (complete with
concrete monument built in the 1930's) near my parent's house.

To be fair, mine is not a representative view since I studied American
literature (lived in the U.S. for 6 years). A friend of mine proof-read GR for
the publisher in the early 1980's and was totally turned off by it,
independently of how TP used Germany and German history as locale.

Finally, Pynchon's engagement with Germany (in the broadest sense) is the most
"complex" I have come across so far in American literature. Other interesting
contemporary exmamples are Walter Abish's "How German Is It?" and John Hawkes'
"The Cannibal". But I think I'd better stop here, although there is much more to
say (I filled 300 pages on the topic of American representations of Germany
since 1945 in my dissertation).

G. Schmundt-Thomas