Post-colonial Lit, magical realism, etc.

[Chris Stolz]

> 1. A completely apolitical literature is only possible from within the 
> dominating culture.

	Absolutely.  In American letters, see Bellow, Updike,
Mailer, etc...


> 4. TP is aware of many political issues, but does not treat them as 
> primarily political.
> 5. He is, rather, concerned with history.

	Well, I would (at leats in context of GR) say that the
aesthetic mega-object (of which GR, Ulysses, Cien An~os de
Soledad, A La Recherche...., Der Mann Ohne Eigenschaften are examples) is
trying to consume various ways of talking about the world into
itself.  To present a picture of reality, this mega-object has to
use many tools at its disposal.  it will use the post-Romantic
ideas about individual freedom, autonomy and moral sense, it will
use scientific metaphors and economic data and behavioral (as
well as post-Freudian) psychology, etc etc.  So, politics and
history are part of the food which the mega-object consumes.


> 8. But one could not say that TP is concerned with politics in any primary 
> way.

	I'm not so sure-- as I noted earlier, pretty much all of
the pre-GR work has very strong political undertones (and int he
case of _V._, explicit references).  GR is explicitly about
politics, but it discusses politics by way of allegory (the whole
thing can be read as a lament for the decline of certain forms of
'60s left thinking and policies) and by way of absence.  By this
I mean that Pynchon discusses political questions by way of the
Zone, looking at what politics and life are like without
politicians, countries, etc.  Also, I think that if you see
politics as more than just goivernment policies, for example, as
the relationship between governments, business, law, the army and
other forces in society (all of which crop up in Pynchon's work)
then GR becomes quite political.

chris


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