Alien Invasion!

[Craig Clark]

David Casseres <casseres at apple.com> writes:
 

>    ... Pynchon is at pains to contradict the Marxist 
> analysis directly and explicitly, denying that the impetus of colonialism 
> is economic, insisting that it is this need to find and dominate the 
> preterite Other that really drives it.  Same thing, really, that made the 
> Dutchman go to Mauritius and exterminate dodoes in an earlier section.
>    Personally, I think colonialism depends on both things, but Pynchon is 
> drawing on powerful mythic themes here, doing a twist on the Jungian 
> quest to find the Dark Brother.
Maybe David is missing the point - the link between the Marxist 
analysis of the impetus of colonialism and the need to dominate the 
preterite Other. I'm very hazy on my Max Weber, but this is probably 
where I'd go to find this link - there's surely some connection 
between the Protestant Work Ethic (the psychological prerequiste for 
capitalism?) and the Calvinist/Puritan notion of a Preterite Other 
which can be kicked around by the Righteous.

> Pynchon does a lot of his most compelling writing on the theme of 
> colonialism, as experienced by the colonists themselves.
I'm in total agreement here...

Craig Clark

"Living inside the system is like driving across
 the countryside in a bus driven by a maniac bent
 on suicide."
   - Thomas Pynchon, "Gravity's Rainbow"