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

[rj]

peter petto:
> I get the impression from rjackson's comments and the discussion that 
> followed that the misbehavior of the liberated Dora prisoners compromises 
> the strong moral message of GR.
> 
> I don't really understand why. In the arena of dog psychology: if I beat a 
> dog daily and after several years liberated him, I wouldn't expect him to 
> be kind or friendly to you.
 
The dog's retaliation against the dog beater may be just deserts. And,
indeed, this dog's rampage against humans would quite likely be
indiscriminate, and understandably so; the psychology of the dog has
been affected (conditioned). But, if this dog were to attack your
innocent child then would you be so quick to endorse the dog's
reactions?

Whatever the point here, the canine species is not compelled by
intuitive(?)/conditioned morality, nor by fear of reprisal from the
systems of justice based on such morality. The human species is.

I think "misbehaviour" is an euphemism. In the scene where Slothrop
burns the doll's hair, who else could have been responsible for the
total destruction of this little girl's life, which is quite graphically
depicted? The "rampage" of the Dora prisoners figures in this section
prominently, opens it in fact imo, is recalled three times, and precedes
Pokler's story. 

That there are many "strong moral messages" in *GR* I guess is the
point, these often in absolute conflict with one another, each one
dependent on local context and individual perspective for its particular
"truth". There isn't a vantage beyond the text which can accommodate
their complexity as a unity, because individual human perception is
limited and preconditioned (this is a major theme of the novel in fact),
and this applies to readers and authors as well as to fictional
characters and historical personages. I perceive this to be a type of
moral relativism operating within the text: neither nihilism on the
reader's part or an inference of Pynchonian moral ambivalence are
constituted in this statement.

best