Somewhat NP Argentinians bound for Germany

[Paul Mackin]

On Sun, 6 Aug 2000, Dave Monroe wrote:

> Certainly, as with Hiroshima, I
> agree,
> the Holocaust itself, its victims, its perpetrators, the immediate
> settings and
> events thereof, are presented, represented, on relatively few pages of a
> 700+ page
> novel ...
> 
> ... however, and again, by virtue of the novel's setting--largely,
> England and
> then Germany in the closing months of WWII in Europe, remaining in
> Europe through
> the end of the war at large, and, in particular, the not inconsiderable
> presence,
> representation of the Nazi V-weapons project, which did, indeed, run on
> concentration camp labor (an excellent work on this is Michael Neufeld's

There's agreement between jbor and Dave on the "relatively few
pages" aspect at least. Dave seems to give some credence (how much I'm
not sure) to the possibility, by virtue of the WW II setting, a sprinkling
of Nazi characters, and the mention of Dora and Slave labor in connection
with the rocket, that it  might not be  totally unreasonable if a reader
were to find the book to be principally about the Holocaust and that the
text for such a reader might actually much of the time be referring to the  
Holocaust.  While jbor would certainly insist that the text is for the
reader to determine, I suspect he would also fear that the reader who
makes such a reading is much the poorer for it because if one has only or
prinicipally the Holocaust on his mind while pouring over the book he is
exposing himself to at least the danger of missing much else that might be
gotten from Pynchon's complex outpouring of words.

Or so it would seem on this gloomy Sunday Morning.

		P.