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

[Peter Petto]

On 12/14/1999, rj wrote:

>Even if we can agree that Pointy and Weissman
>are "evil" they are only fictional characters and thus we cannot make
>that jump from fiction to "reality" and say that, ipso facto, all Nazis
>or all clinical behaviourists are evil. It's a novel, not a historical
>document after all.

I know I'm quibbling a little, but although novels like GR in the jump from 
fiction might not be saying something about all behaviorists or Nazis, they 
certainly can speak to Nazism or behaviorism (is that a word?).

He coes on to say:

>But I contend that there is a very palpable reality within the
>"fictional goings on" in the novel.

Exactly! And that reality can speak to (each of our) realities.

rj goes on to say a lot of other good stuff, not convincing me to reverse 
anything that I have traditionally regarded as evil. However I'd agree with 
him that TRP has enlightened my perceptions of what I have traditionally 
regarded as good, allowing me to see within it a pre-conditioning toward a 
resignation to evil.