American Death (and hope?)

[Tom Stanton]

> >....how one could possibly read GR as a "warning" to America. It
> >seems to me if one wants to read it _as_ something it would make more
> >sense to read it as a history - of the Enlightenment project, of Western
> >'Civilisation', of rapacious, impersonal, inanimate global capitalism if you're
> >so inclined, whatever....
> 
> For me, reponding in partial agreement w/ whoever it was who first mentioned
> this--warning--theme,

Yours truly. HG sez read it as history, but the history is the warning. Here's
my read: Slothrop is America, at first used by Europeans, then taking charge as 
best he can, losing his identity & finally disappearing into the Los Angeles of 
today. IMHO Pynchon was writing this as a warning to an Amerika that was divided 
over the Viet Nam war, divided racially (still is...& remember TRP wrote the very
elegant 'Journey Into the Mind of Watts' so this is not a casual theme I think), 
and divided over technology, represented by no less than The Rocket -- VonBraun's 
Saturn 5 & all those moon shots (anyone who was in HS or older will remember debates
like "We can send men to the moon but can't feed the poor").

The Roger-Mexico-as-Hope idea that I've seen before doesn't ring true for me. Roger 
does try to change things, but loses what he loves (Jessica) in the process. Not 
uplifting, and no encouragememt. So I wouldn't go so far as to say GR holds out hope. 
Warnings imply a way out, but they may not tell you how to escape. TRP kills us off 
in the theatre, but it's only a book. Maybe the ideas was that when you were done you'd
put the book down & do something, even if it was only a Kazoo chorus...

Tom "No Lit Crit Guy, Just a Fan" Stanton
Who was born in Kalamazoo & has, since 1973, learned to play the instrument like a pro...