Crownshaw's PN article

[jbor]

monroe:

> I don't see Pynchon, or anyone here, for that matter, as in any way
exploiting,
> much less making light of, the Holocaust.

Pynchon's character --  "Oily Micro" -- is definitely making a tidy profit
from it on p. 296. He seems to be doing both the things mentioned.

> Indeed, I think it is precisely
> because of such concerns that Gravity's Rainbow often deals with it obliquely,
> tangentially, allusively, whatever, precisley in order not to exploit it for,
> say, pathos, gravity, even, much elss to reduce it to the often comical,
> farcical, ludicrous, even, goings on.

More or less agree. I think I'd like a bit more elaboration of "deals with
it" here, from your standpoint, however. The phrase seems to have a sort of
oxymoronic relationship to the three adjectives with which it has been
juxtaposed.

> Cf. Hiroshima, which also not only looms
> over the novel--that apocalyptic, intercontinentally ballistic sword of
Damocles
> hanging over the end of the novel, a novel which begins with an (ironic, to
say
> the least, in context, in just about any context one can provide for it)
> epigraph from Nazi rocket scientis Wernher von Braun, father of the delivery
> platform--but which is, in turns, mentioned explicitly by name, clearly
referred
> to in a newspaper fragment, and put in touch with Pynchon's many, many
allusive
> networks (here, astrology, the liturgical calendar).  I do see some exhibiting
a
> certain anxiety about discussing it, perhaps even trying to bypass the subject
> entirely, writing it off as irrelevant and perhaps even offensive (that'd be
> you, jbor).

Bypass?! I thought I was *engaging* with the subject at hand which, as I
understand it, is the extent and significance of Pynchon's treatment of the
Holocaust in *GR*. I find cheap exploitation of the subject offensive,
shameful in fact, certainly. Don't you?

>   I've no idea why, but I've even less an idea of why you'd want to
> discourage anyone else from at least considering the subject.  If you feel
your
> time and/or memory is being wasted, well, just ignore and/or delete the
relevant
> messages, is all.  Why dump on others for pusrsuing a perfectly reasonable,
> perfectly relevant, and, to my mind, perfectly interesting line of inquiry
here?

Dumper or dumpee?