u.s.w. & 'South West Africa'

[Chris Stolz]

> >Hey, if you are interested, Pynchon read a book called _Let Us
> >Die Fighting_ which is about Von Trotha's Vernichtungsbefehl and
> >a fascinating, if horrifying, look at colonial policy.  What the
> >hell, you probably already know it all.  Anyway, it's a good
> >book.  Apparently, he came across the Sued-West Afrika stuff by
> >accident int he public library in Seattle...and found it fit well
> >into his book.

> Just wondering....What's your source on this?
> 
> davemarc


I think this is from david Seed's book _The Fictional Labyrinths
of Thomas Pynchon_.  There is a letter in one of the apendixes
from Pynchon to a grad student who was doing a late '60s
dissertation on the Herero, wherein Pynchon discusses some of his
ideas on colonialism, his sources for _V._ and the Viet Nam war,
among others.  This letter is worth a look, since it is one of
the few documents we have of Pynchon's which directly adresses
political questions in non-fictional form.


-- 
chris stolz				16 Oakview PL. SW Calgary, AB
cstolz at acs.ucalgary.ca			Canada T2V-3Z9 (403) 281-6794


...raise the roof cos it's all on fire, not done by the sun or electircal
wire, not done by sons striking matches with daughters but done by 
scratches so save that water..