Sex & the Swastika

[rj]

dm
> Pynchon's play with character names is deep,  the subject of more than one
> learned article. More than one scholar has taken the time and made the
> effort to trace out astonishing connections -- especially political and
> historical --  to Pynchon's character names, or, more precisely, half names
> (first name, last name). After all, if he used the name Geli for the
> character who does what Katje does for Pudding (and what, it appears, Geli
> Raubal did for Hitler), it would hardly be fiction any more, and he'd lose
> the ambiguity of  wondering which real world folks "Pudding" might allude
> to.

When Mr P wants to characterise real life figures he does so very
deliberately and conspicuously: Roosevelt and Truman (373.10up), Mickey
Rooney (382.15), Richard M. Zhlubb (I do suspect that final surname was
a safeguard against libel, however). They are often -- mostly -- not
particularly endearing portrayals, so the notion that he'd have to hide
allusions to Hitler (why worry about portraying Hitler as a pervert?) or
Rockefeller seems unfounded. 

The equation Geli Tripping (read Katje Borgesius) = Geli Raubal such
that Brigadier Pudding is equivalent to Adolf Hitler really doesn't do
it for me. It's a convoluted theory, and it doesn't *go* anywhere. Not
knocking anyone's interpretation or scholarly reputation here, by the
way, just offering a personal perspective. 

best