GRGR(5) Katje: take two

[Michael Perez]

Doug quoted the following crucial passage:
"She asks this seriously, as if there's a real conversion factor
between information and lives. Well, strange to say, there is. Written
down in the Manual, on file at the War Department. Don't forget the
real business of the War is buying and selling. The murdering and the
violence are self-policing, and can be entrusted to non-professionals.
The mass nature of wartime death is useful in many ways. It serves as
spectacle, as diversion from the real movements of the War. It provides
raw material to be recorded into History, so that children may be
taught History as sequences of violence, battle after battle, and be
more prepared for the adult world.[...] The true war is a celebration
of markets. Organic markets, carefully styled "black" by the
professionals, spring up everywhere. [...] the truer currencies come
into being." (105.24)

So, is Katje a non-professional or professional?  I vote for
non-professional.  I wouldn't say she's an unwilling or even reluctant
victim.  For her this was her way to survive (Measly Little Lives, Part
Whichever).  It was a noticeably unheroic way to survive, perhaps on
par with the Vichy French, but after the war von Braun and others just
trying to survive (yeah, right) went willingly into the employ of the
old enemies and were welcomed with open arms by the same former
enemies.  Is this a matter of the spoils of war belonging to the
victors?  What of non-professionals like Katje?  She gets spurned by
some of the Checkpoint Charlies on her way into the arms of the British
because she is no longer of any service to them.  At this point, there
is no way of knowing that whatever she is doing is motivated by any
idea of which side should win, for whatever reason.  There is also no
way of knowing if she cares why the film is being made and whether it
would matter to her that they use to turn on an octopus (eight arms to
hold you?).


Michael




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