GRGR(5) Katje and the Nazis

[David Morris]

>At 2:54 AM -0700 7/8/99, Michael Perez quibbled about
>GR references to the Nazi Holocaust of the Jews and
>other undesirables:
[snip]
>>Most of the other bits "evidence" supporting this
>>claim are, indeed, stretches, though.

>Of course we can all read whatever we want to read,
>or not, in GR. Still, I continue to marvel at the
>resistance that comes up each time I make the case
>that one of the things TRP writes about in GR is
>the Holocaust.[snip]

The references to the Nazi Holocaust, and others, throughout GR are so
obvious that, IMO, Pynchon is asking the reader to transcend the specific
instance in search of  more universal truths.  This is why he introduces the
genocide of the Dodoes.  Instead of saying "This is about the Holocaust,"
we are given the opportunity to look at such a recurring phenomenon from
another absurd-yet-true instance.  What does this say about humanity, which,
I think, is the real heart of GR?

>[snip] what's the difficulty in admitting the very
>obvious and specific references to the Nazi Holocaust?
>Is there some academic trend or fashion that I'm bucking
>in making such an assertion? Is it too damaging to late
>20th century ironic sensibilities to admit that TRP, epitome
>of postmodern novelists as a certain group of critics and
>theorists have crowned him, might indulge a non-ironic
>condemnation of something as serious -- and as
>overwhelmingly important in the 20th century -- as the
>Nazi genocide of the Jews?

THIS is the real stretch.