Life v. Art (was Re: Drugs in Pynchon's fiction

[Spencer Thiel]

At 3:55 PM +0100 10/28/99, you wrote:


>Isn't it also possible that P's conjuration of WWII resounds with us
>_because_ he
>wasn't there and gains his experience of the actuality of the war in the
>same way
>as (most of) us have: through films, books, stories, TV etc. Perhaps, the
>idea that
>there is a close correlation between specifically the war images and the
>actual
>war might seem untrue to anyone who was there (wherever _there_ was). Anyone
>have
>real experiences?

Reminds me of the comments that my Grandfather made after seeing _Saving
Private Ryan_.  He thought that the movie sucked and was quite discouraged
that the media was portraying it as a realistic WWII experience.  He said
that most of his time in Europe was spent buried in the snow, freezing
cold, seeing little to no action -- even though he was in some of the
'heaviest' action in The Battle of the Bulge.  He was also discouraged with
the basic premise of SPR -- that the army would go out of their way pull
anyone out of the war for any reason.  He didn't land at Normandy, but his
thoughts about it were that there was only a very small group of soldiers
that experienced the heavy onslaught portrayed in the film.  He said that
most soldiers who landed there were expecting to see heavy action, but
instead stormed the beach to find nothing.

I suppose that my whole point is that realistic WWII experiences would
probably make horrible books and even worse movies.  Our shared experiences
of WWII are clouded by Hollywood's interpretation of what happened.  Not
that there is anything wrong with writing fictional accounts of the war, as
long as they don't go around masquerading as reality.


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