Fidel & Cuba

[Deng, Stephen]

Well, there's the obvious example of Frenesi Gates, who ascends to power 
through rebellion against her liberal upbringing, while appearing part of 
that liberal movement, though it can be argued she was corrupt from the 
beginning.  It could also be argued that she never achieves power, though 
she has a powerful effect on those around her.  I think she is one of 
Pynchon's most interesting characters, nevertheless, in her fascination 
with "the fascism that causes us to love power, to desire the very thing 
that dominates and exploits us." (Foucault in preface to Deleuze and 
Guattari's Anti-Oedipus)

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From:  Greg Montalbano[SMTP:Greg.Montalbano at ucop.edu]
Sent:  Friday, April 11, 1997 12:51 PM
To:  pynchon-l at waste.org
Subject:  Fidel & Cuba

All this discussion of noble revolutionaries & fascist, entrenched 
dictators
brings to mind an interesting bit of CONVENTIONAL WISDOM, as represented 
in
literature, movies, and the minds of the Great Unwashed (of which I am a
charter member & past chapter president):  the fact that the noblest, most
righteous revolutionaries, no matter how pure their motives, will, upon 
the
achievement of their goal, sooner or later BECOME the evil power they 
displaced.
These two forces are generally represented in TRP's novels as WE (the
grunts, the feebs, the counterforce) and THEY (near-absolute power, in all
it's forms, striving constantly to maintain & enlarge itself).  What I 
find
interesting is that I cannot, for the life of me, think of any examples of
characters in any of his novels who have CHANGED STATE from counterforce 
to
power-establishment (mildly evocative of the medieval society, where if
you're born a peasant, you stay a peasant;  if you're born royalty, you
remain royalty).
Pynchon's characters DO go through changes (animate to inanimate comes to
mind);  but can anybody give me an example of a character who ascends to
power through "revolutionary" means & is or is not corrupted?