instinctiveness In reply to 009907D5.737

[PNOTESBD at cnsvax.uwec.edu]

The reference to Rauhandel (Viking p.98), Blicero's footballing athletic god
from the 1920s or 30s, has always interested me.  Is Pynchon simply
constructing an Aryan ideal for Weissmann and other Germans to worship
(whether politically, or athletically, or for his body), and therefore to
underscore certain proto-Nazi race theories about superiority?  Or, was there
a real Rauhandel who fulfilled for Germans what Babe Ruth, Red Grange, or
Jesse Owens fulfilled for Americans?  Anyone out there with access to German
football records could probably answer the factual question; the interpretive
question is one we could discuss.

Duffy