American Death (and hope?)

[Hartwin Alfred Gebhardt]

john m writes:

> For me, reponding in partial agreement w/ whoever it was who first mentioned 
> this--warning--theme,the emphasis was more on the closeness to this death 
> schema we'd already approached.  So the idea of--warning--for me means simply 
> that TRP has not lost all hope for America.  

I happily concede that there is plenty of 'hope' in TRP's fiction. 
It's just not on the level of the overtly political, though - no 
cavalry to the rescue here. There is never going to be an 
announcement of the 6 o'clock news stating that Their rule has 
finally been overthrown.
And "hope for America" also has to be qualified. The USA as a state, 
as a nation, is from the very beginning, from the moment of its inception, 
and by its very design, a commercial strategy to avoid responsibility to 
a social and political cause. No matter how corrupt the particular 
cause. (Imagine the founding dudes sitting around a fire boozing it up, watching 
some skilfull servant grill a buffalo, and moaning about the wife and 75 
kids and 200 slaves, and what to do about the high taxes for king and 
country, and suddenly some bright spark says - was it the grill chef? - 
"fuck the king!")  So 'hope' exists for individuals who happen to carry 
a US passport, but not for the US as a country. Individuals may 
dissolve and thus thwart Their plans, but states  - never. Besides, 
only idiots and fascists seriously believe in nation states anyway, eh? 
As lond as we are all ready to sell out our friends and family in the 
presence of money or any other appropriate fetish, thus showing that 
no mere ideal no matter how compelling can compel us absolutely, there 
is hope. Pynchon paradox X.

>                                I think this accounts for the 
> pseudo-WWII setting of GR; we might closely map onto these guys, but there's at 
> least a delta-t of difference. This is, for me, the Americanness of TRP's work, he still 
> believes somehow (his books still believe in some way) that there is the chance of 
> redemption.  

I generally object to terms such as 'redemption', 'salvation', etc. 
these being corrupted by Christian and other filth, but maybe we can 
come to an agreement here, hmm? What can be redeemed is never some 
untainted identity, some _moral_ state of grace, but only an 
_uncontrolled_ , at least partially dissolved identiy - and at most a 
_physical_ state of grace (as in Dillinger's).

>                  This unkillable belief in some way out or back is harder to see than 
> the indictments, so real, so brutally true, but I think it's there.  Like in the end of 
> VINELAND, Desmond may only  *think* he's home, but he's still somewhere.

He's somewhere for sure, but it has nothing to do with 
'home-sweet-home' or 'family values' or other such rubbish. His 
gladness is real, what he feels is good, but as soon as one labels it 
'home' or anything else it becomes part of a dead system positing 
meaning outside the lived moment, something quantifiable, calculable, 
life subordinate to a system  - as all systems, Their system. Prairie 
escapes Brock's amorous overtures by accident, pure and simple, all 
other avenues having been pre-determined for / by her (reminds one of 
that GR sentence re. Thanatz, p669, "he won't escape" etc.). TRP's 
concession to Chaos Theory, I suppose.

hg
hag at iafrica.com