GRGR(6) - section 8 (#3)

[Terrance F. Flaherty]

Paul Mackin wrote:

> On Wed, 28 Jul 1999, rj wrote:
>
> > "fuel consumed in the metered winter holocaust" (112.5)
> >
> > "his tongue's a hopeless holocaust" (118.11)
> >
> > "Up in the city the arc-lamps crackle, furious, in smothered blaze up
> > the centerlines of the streets, too ice-colored for candles, too
> > chill-dropleted for holocaust . . . " (134.5)
> >
> > Are these holocaust metaphors significant in that they are deliberate
> > *non*-references to The Holocaust? (Reminds me of those S-shaped
> > spokes!) Do you think Pynchon's jolting the *reader's* conscience here a
> > little? When was the term first applied to name the Nazis' attempted
> > Jewish genocide in Germany during the 30s and 40s? Who coined it?
>
> I had thoughts which might possibly be related to those of rj. Could these
> examples be seen as a mild rebuke to the commandeering of the word to one
> specific usage. Actually the specific use and prominence in the media
> of the word and  the event itself hadn't by 1973 become what most people
> would consider excessive. That came later, starting around the  end of the
> seventies with popular books, TV and movie treatments.

Yes, I agree with your thought Paul, but I would characterize Pynchon's rebuke
as harsh satire.

>
>
> First time I heard the word holocaust used in the upper case sense  was in
> the early  sixties and it took a couple of seconds to register what was
> being talked about. The thing itself was of course well known to everyone
> by this time.
>
> >
> > With the "seventh Christmas" thing I was thinking more in terms of
> > Roger's pov, and about the prior wars in the 1930s -- Spain and
> > Sudetenland particularly, flareups in the Balkans, Novi Pazar etc --
> > which the British War Ministry might have been interested in. It seems
> > feasible to me that Roger was employed sometime in 1938. And, likewise
> > to the above, when did history bestow the title WWII and declare the
> > dates 1939-1945 as definitive? Perhaps from the vantage of the
> > mid-to-late 30s, particularly in Western Europe, the notion of the
> > 'start' of The War was a little looser than the one we've got now, with
> > the benefit of hindsight and our ethnic and political agendas wrt
> > history.
>
> The declaration of war by world colonial powers Britain and France against
> Germany in September 1939 insured that it would be a WORLD war in the
> fullest sense of the word--going on in dozens of places in the
> world--Europe, Africa, Asia.
>
> Of course Italy went to war with Ethiopia in 1935, or you could argue that
> the world dimension of the thing started in the EARLY thirties with
> Japan in Manchuria. Japan wanted to BECOME a world power as did of course
> Germany.
>
> Or you could argue that WWII was simply a continuation of WWI--the Great
> War.
>
> However I don't think P is playing with any of these possibilities.
> And he certainly didn't misspeak himself.
>
>          P.

Here's another thought. The novel ends in the U.S. circa 1970.

"The proleptic jump cut takes us to Los Angeles and the Orpheus Theater, circa
1970. The analeptic jump cut reveals, after so much anticipation, the firing
of rocket 00000, with its sacrifice of Gottfried (God's peace), from the
Luneberg Heath, at noon, during Easter of 1945. But in 1945 the Easter holy
day fell on April Fool's. Easter: April Fool's. That coincidence had occurred
only forty-three times since A.D. 500, it occurred again in 1956 but will not
happen again during this century. "
                                            Weisenburger, GRC

Weisenburger (though I think his GRC a great companion)  is dead wrong. There
are no proleptic and analeptic jump cuts. Pynchon follows his mentor
Melville--and specifically, Melville's "The Confidence Man." Pynchon can count
and so can Melville. April fools. Here comes the rocket or chamber pot.

tf