Pynchon's optimism about WW

[RICHARD ROMEO]

On Thu, 28 Dec 1995, Paul Mackin wrote:

>   . . . I guess World War I was _rilly_ senseless. 

To once again answer my own scribbling (hopefully justified during this
holiday week, when traffic is light), _GR_ does not seem to view WWI 
negatively in comparison with the present conflict. At the end of "In the 

Zone", the narrator (or is it Clive Mossman himself) reminisces:

"It wasn't always so. In the trenches of the First World War, Englishmen
came to love one another decently, without shame or make-believe, under 
the easy likelihoods of their sudden deaths . . . "

					P.

With much respect, isn't a comparison between wars as to their positive 
and negative aspects of any kind ultimately kinda silly;  Who could 
rightly claim they viewed WW1 positively?!
Maybe TRP is referring to not to the war in the above quote per se, but 
to pure love (how else to describe?) as compared to its high-class bitchy 
faggotry equilvalent(which is embodied by Clive Mossman?) which I think 
is quoted in the same section somewheres...


rich
nyc