Vineland/Tubal Fascism

[Greg Montalbano]

Thomas rejoins:
>I think the Tube is much more important. The Tube not only Vineland's
>variation on Gravity'S Rainbow's Hollywood movies (which would make it
>important enough as metaphor and allegory), but it is also the very
>instrument of fascism! Think of the passage close to the end, where the
>older folks of the family reunion sit around and wonder wether the
>darkness of political America is only lit by a bunch of tubes. When I
>remember correctly even the term fascism appears somewhere there.
>
>Thomas
>
>
Well, yeah -- didn't mean to imply that it was used ONLY as color.

But the Tube was the main vehicle for mass-cultural dissemination in the
VINELAND timeframe, as movies were in the GR period;  but I find interesting
& suggestive the widespread association of "fascism" with Tubalism -- I
think this shows an important difference between the two eras.  WWII and the
popularly conceived fight against overt fascism was lit by movies that
seemed larger and better than life;  the 60s & 70s were lit by Tubal
flickers that contained fear, uncertainty and some self-loathing that came
with the struggle against the covert, never officially-admitted U.S. fascism.
Pynchon does a better job than anyone else I've read in saturating his books
with these attitudes; just a part of his unique mix of realism & surrealism
& full-blown, batshit craziness.

Jeezus -- that was one of the most AWKWARD paragraphs I've ever written;
but, hell - you know what I'm trying to say.
(more coffee!)