Hitler and denial for the sake of argument

[jbor]

----------
>From: muchasmasgracias at cs.com
>To: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
>Subject: Re: Hitler and denial for the sake of argument
>Date: Wed, Aug 9, 2000, 10:09 PM
>

> Wasn't the last word in that line (p415) "resurrection" and not
> "holocaust"?  Or are you referring to another line?

Yes, now that I look, and I note that it's also the line that one of the
early full-length critical studies of Pynchon (William Plater's) took its
title from.

I'll quote the whole parenthesis. It's Franz's memory I believe:

   ... ("The new planet Pluto," she had whispered long ago, lying in the
   smelly dark, her long Asta Nielsen upper lip gibbous that night as the
   moon that ruled her, "Pluto is in my sign now, held tight in its claws.
   It moves slowly, so slowly, and so far away . . . but it will burst out.
   It is the grim phoenix which creates its own holocaust . . . *deliberate
   resurrection*. Staged. Under control. No grace, no interventions by God.
   Some are calling it the planet of National Socialism, Brunhubner and
   that crowd, all trying to suck up to Hitler now. They don't know they
   are telling the *literal truth* . . . Are you awake? Franz. . . .")

It sounds more like Greta than Leni, but is probably Leni(?)

Pluto was discovered in 1930 by US astronomer Clyde Tombaugh (which places
the narrative utterance of the word "holocaust" here well before the
historical Holocaust), but the planet's existence had been predicted earlier
than that. It has one relatively large satellite named Charon.

Pluto was named for the god of the underworld in Greek mythology. (= Hades)

PLUTO was also the code name of pipelines laid under the English Channel to
supply fuel to the Allied Forces landing in Normandy in 1944. But I think
suggesting Pynchon was (also/only) alluding to *this* WWII covert operation
(he might well have known about it) actually detracts from the intended
meaning and effect of the particular passage. So, I don't think that this
allusion is intended. U.s.w.

>  And I don't have the
> book, but what is the passage you're referring to on p.118?

It's during the Disgusting English Candy Drill. Slothrop has just had the
Mills bomb candy -- "tamarind glaze ... luscious pepsin-flavored nougat,
chock-full of tangy candied cubeb berries, and a chewy camphor-gum center"
-- shoved into his mouth by Darlene, and "his tongue's a hopeless
holocaust."

best