Absences in VL

[Scott Badger]

While I really don't disagree with either Doug or Matt's comments, it still
seems that Pynchon is doing something more than simply being indirect or
novel.  Among the formulative motivations of the Movement, explored on many
levels, why is its primary catalyst - the Vietnam war - not?  Is it that the
events of War itself - the political associations, campaigns and battles -
are incidental except as a trigger?  And instead, maybe it's the structures
that lead us to war and those that rise from its ashes that Pynchon finds
more notable.  Questions for those just a little bit older than I; what
would the 60's and early 70's have been like if the US had not gotten
involved in Vietnam?  How much was the Movement about the war or was it
simply triggered by the war?  And if the latter, would the Movement have
come together without the war?

Scott Badger