GRGR(5) Katje and the Nazis

[Michael Perez]

Doug wrote:
"I would like to better understand your definition of 'central' or
'centrality.'"

Personally, it would have to be some issue that informs the book as a
whole.  In _GR_ an incomplete list of these sorts of issues, in no
particular order, would be, IMHO:
  1.  The illusion of control
  2.  The illusion of romance and the resilience of this illusion
  3.  The illusion of technological altruism and the lengths to which
it may be applied to destructive ends - extinction is destructive even
though we can call it "transformation" (yes, lots of Holocaust here)
  4.  The ability for people to ignore or disregard the history being
written around them and worry about their own measly little lives
  5.  No matter how evil the enemy, there's a good chance that good
guys are or relatively recently were just as evil
  6.  Corporations are multinational in order to avoid the
inconvenience of national laws and allegiances

I just don't see THE Holocaust as one of these issues although I have
no problem with it being an aspect of some if not all these issues and
others (this was a quick list, not meant to be an exhaustive
checklist).  Doug and Mark seem to see references to the Holocaust
where they may not necessarily be.  Ian's citations from the
Lacoue-Labarthe book again overlook many similarities to other
atrocities, protestations to that view aside.  

For instance, Ian cites:
". . . in each case, the massacre is linked to a situation of war or
civil strife; there is a genuinely political, economic or military
issue at stake; the means employed are those of armed struggle, police
or judicial repression; and the operation is directed by some belief or
rationality."

The Nazis genuinely believed that their economy was being threatened by
the Jews.  This, of course, was psychotic scapegoating or as Ian cites
later "phantasy."  Most of America's earliest immigrants were of no
threat to anyone either, but the relocation and subsequent
extermination of the people and their means of subsistance (the bison)
went on regardless of the threat that was imposed.  The Africans and
others used as slaves all over the world imported as "sub-humans" so
that whatever "master race." The Stalinist purges were equally
scandalous.  On and on throughout history, these things continue. 
There's always some reason, no matter how disgustingly perverted.  I
see the special place THE Holocaust is given as equal to the current
debate here in the US over the idea that "hate crimes" are worse than
crimes of any other sort.  To dismember someone because they are of
this race or nationality or another is just as disgusting as doing it
for no reason at all or just because the victim happened to be
convenient.

Getting back to Doug's post, he wrote:
"My Holocaust reading of the opening sequence relies on a series of
references: Kristallnacht ('fall of a crystal palace'); 'judgment from
which there is no appeal' at the end of the train line, the
concentration camp-like 'dark hotel'; 'cast iron pulleys whos spokes
are shaped like Ss'; plus the later references in GR that point back to
the beginning."

I don't see the "crystal palace" reference as being to the
Kristallnacht ("The Night of Broken Glass," 11/9/38, when Nazi mobs
smashed Jewish owned shop windows and synagogues in retaliation for the
assassination of a German diplomat in Paris by a young Jewish man).  It
is a reference to that icon of Victorian ingenuity, The Crystal Palace,
that was mostly destroyed by a 1936.  The remaining two towers were
dismantled in 1940 to prevent their being used as German bomber
targets.  The greenhouse at the top of the maisonette where Pirate
grows his bananas might be just as conspicuous, even though a V-2
doesn't look for a target.  I think Pirate's dream-self is using this
for its reference.  As for the "judgment from which there is no
appeal," I always took this to mean death, I see no overt Holocaust
reference here.  The same with the "dark hotel," this could be almost
anything.  The "Ss" is coincidental, IMHO, and does not refer to the
Schutsstaffeln, it is merely descriptive.

Doug also wrote:
"Actually my friend noticed the similarity between the Mauritius quote
I referenced and specific anti-Semitic propaganda that influenced
Hitler and the Nazis -- the point I'm making, perhaps too obliquely, is
that TRP seems to be offering a parody of that anti-Semitic propaganda
in this episode."

Okay. The description of the dodoes and that of the Jews in the early
propaganda is similarly exaggerated.  The cartoon depiction of the Jews
was that of ugly sub-humans (what was that stuff called "oster"
"ostera"?).

Finally Doug wrote:
"If GR is not a 'Holocaust Book,' ... not a 'V-2 Book' or a 'WW II
Book' or even a 'War Book.' then what is it?"

Hmmm.  I'll have to think about that.  It is, perhaps, too flip and
facile to say "it is just a book" - sounds clever but says nothing.  I
guess that's why I like discussing it, I don't know what it is.  I mean
why should we spend our time on something we already know?

Michael




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