GRGR(15): Enzian, nihilism, and a few other things
Terrance F. Flaherty
Lycidas at worldnet.att.net
Thu Dec 2 15:33:16 CST 1999
Doug Millison wrote:
>
> At 12:00 AM -0500 12/2/99, Terrance F. Flaherty wrote:
> >I probably agree here, but I'm not sure, I'm confused by
> >"moral economy" ??
>
> What I mean is the system of exchange that GR attributes to "Them", the
> System that says tormenting, torturing, killing 10,000 slaves is a small
> price to pay for a few dozen A4 rockets (the System that manages to
> convince engineers like Pokler that it's OK to ignore that suffering in
> order to advance their technological project), the System that says it's OK
> to rape Mother Earth and deplete irreplaceable resources for short-term
> profits that line the pockets of a few, & etc. GR seems to lay out this
> sort of "moral economy" quite clearly, and it crosses national boundaries.
And at the unholy center (the city of "Dis") brooding on
the ice is Blicero--"driven deep into Their province, into
control, synthesis and control." There is not a pennies
worth of difference in the moral economy sure, but, and I
think Mike Weaver notes one of the problems (Pynchon's
Humanism not moral relativism) some readers have with
recognizing how this is countered in GR, as it is not in all
his earlier works, by something lost returning. VL ends with
home. All the homelessness of Pynchon's works up to VL can't
seem to crowd into that home, but there is no place like it,
be it ever so humble.
TF
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