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

[Ron Meiners]

Well, to round that corner again, the portrayal of the War in GR is not
what you might call real action-packed.  The most active elements are
concerning the black market, no?  Or Marvy or some such- certainly not
heavy war fighting.

The impression is of desolation, ruin, destruction, etc.  Tyrone's
experience of the war certainly isn't Private Ryan's.  

Actually, that's one of the little glimmerings I find satisyfing about the
book- the experience of the Zone.  Quite an interesting bit of history.
That is to say, the satisfaction comes from the novelty of his portrayal of
the war- perhaps even the ring of accuracy- not the conformity with
stereotypes.

rm

At 11:15 AM 10/28/99 -0700, Spencer Thiel wrote:
>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.
>
>
>-
>st.
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>