GRGR (15): Good & Evil (was Enzian...)

[rj]

David
> An act we see as "evil" today might have seemed "normal" or even "good" when 
> it was done in the past.

Yes. This the crux. Why does Pynchon focus on the liberated Dora
prisoners "rampage after the material" (296.15) three times in the
narrative. Because *after* they were liberated these survivors once
again enter the realm of (relative) freedom in the Zone, and the
"normal", "human" values and morality must surely once again apply.
Sure, we, Pynchon, Marvy, Glimpf and the rest (though maybe not
Slothrop) know about the absolutely heinous acts that went on in Dora
*prior to* the liberation, but *after* the liberation, in the context of
Slothrop's safety, these liberated prisoners are as much a threat as
Marvy's marauding Mothers (oh the irony), and just as debauched. And
it's not only the context of time, but the individual human's
perspective on events, which changes the moral, and actual, odds.

It is really difficult for the reader to come to terms with this, I
think. But I think Pynchon provides a parable at the beginning of the
section, in that episode where Slothrop burns the hair ("Father said it
belonged to a Russian Jewess") of the doll with lapis lazuli eyes, and
then he waltzes with this little German girl, whose parents (Nazi, no
doubt, and possibly even the Camp Commandant and his wife) and rather
opulent home have obviously been destroyed in the Liberation. (282)
Where is "evil" here? Pynchon seems to be asking. They dance in the
darkness: no recognitions, no identity, no *history*. Slothrop must
forego the light of the fire, the light of "reason", and (like the
reader) embrace the demon in his arms. He learns.

best