GRGR(11): More on Webley

[David Morris]

>From: "David Morris"
>
>>From: "Mike Crowley"
>>
>>"I would set you free, if I knew how.  But it isn't free out here.  All 
>>the
>>animals, the plants, the minerals, even other kinds of men, are being
>>broken and reassembled every day, to preserve an elite few, who are the
>>loudest to theorize on freedom, but the least fee of all.  I can't even
>>give you hope that it will be different someday--that They'll come out, 
>>and
>>forget death, and lose Their technology's elaborate terror, and stop using
>>every other form of life without mercy to keepwhat haunts men down to a
>>tolerable level--and be like you instead, simply here, simply alive...."
>>(230)
>>
>>Sentiments like the final ones, being "simply here, simply alive," strike
>>me as a bit New Age-y these days, even a bit empty.  Is this an acceptable
>>alternative to the death-obsessed culture of Their technology or to the
>>Transcendence-through-annihilation we see from Blicero?  The repetition of
>>"simply" reminds me that this Silvernail's sentimentality (what's a better
>>word to describe his attitude here?) is a bit simple-minded.  He can't 
>>give
>>us the hope that someday They'll as at one with the world as rats in 
>>cages?
>>Geez, is that what passes for optimism in this world?
>>
>
>"Be Here Now" is "New Age-y," but not necessarily empty.  Spontaneity in
>thought and action is cornerstone for inspiration.  It is, I think, at the
>heart of Slothrop's character, which stands in opposition to determinism 
>and
>the past.
>

Didn't someone ask about when Slothrop takes off "his" boots for Russian ID?
----------
(377.39)  Slothrop waits in his socks, trying not to think ahead.
----------
For Pynchon, short sentences are exclamation points.  Slothrop, at his very 
best, lives the moment.

David Morris

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