Pynchon's Luddite politics WAS Re: Pynchon's Celebration of Television as a Preterite Medium in *Vineland*

[Doug Millison]

So (referring to the conclusion of the Luddite essay, below), public 
access to   data previously available only to government levels the 
playing field for citizens, to some degree, Pynchon seems to be 
saying here. This is one outcome of the computer and Internet 
revolution.

A few years later, in his introductory essay for _Stone Junction_, 
Pynchon describes the way that a real-time computer search lets a 
police officer call a driver by name within a very short time after 
stopping the car, before looking at the driver's driving license, if 
I recall correctly; in that context, Pynchon seems quite concerned 
about government's infringement of civil liberties by reason of 
government's access to data on citizens. The sword rj sees in the 
citizen's had in fact cuts both ways, Pynchon says.  Yes, the 
government- and corporate-funded Internet empowers citizens, but 
government stays ahead by virtue of its monopoly on force (the police 
officer in his Stone Junction essay example), and its superior 
ability to integrate data from disparate databases (Department of 
Motor Vehicles, court and police files, etc.); Vineland embodies this 
argument when Frenesi realizes how the government can use its 
computers to track her down.

A few years later (now), we see corporations gaining back the power 
they have given away to consumers (who can in fact use the Internet 
to find out all kinds of things about corporations, organize 
themselves to act against corporate practices and policies, etc.) , 
in their use of the Networked Economy infrastructure to more fully 
co-opt and exploit consumers; Pynchon hasn't, to my knowledge, 
commented on this directly yet, although I believe it's reasonable to 
assume, given his civil liberties concerns and the way he guards his 
personal privacy, that he wouldn't applaud what corporations are 
doing with computers and data now, either, but that's just 
speculation. It's extremely difficult, if not impossible, after all, 
to distinguish government from corporate in the U.S., Europe, and the 
rest of the developed world; the former is the handmaiden of the 
latter in virtually all cases.

Does Pynchon trust computers to do the good things that people expect 
them to do? Beyond the "word processor" that he uses, I don't think 
so. He writes, dripping irony:  "With the proper deployment of budget 
and computer time, we will cure cancer, save ourselves from nuclear 
extinction, grow food for everybody, detoxify the results of 
industrial greed gone berserk -- realize all the wistful pipe dreams 
of our days."  They remain pipe dreams, despite the computer, in 
other words, he's saying.

Who conducts the "research and development in artificial 
intelligence, molecular biology and robotics" that concern Pynchon in 
his Luddite essay conclusion?  Corporations (increasingly, 
multinational corporations), plus government  programs that directly 
benefit corporations and in which corporations play a primary role 
(such programs get funded, generally as part of the U.S. military 
budget, as a result of industry's lobbying efforts and campaign 
contributions to U.S. legislators). This is the world Pynchon depicts 
so well in GR, where the collusion of corporate and government R & D 
puts human beings increasingly under the spell and control of 
technology (yes, reinforcing the controls that previously existed by 
virtue of myth, including national myths, and religious 
institutions). Pynchon says here (in the Luddite essay) that the 
results of this R & D will suprise even the "biggest of brass" in 
other words even the highest ranking managers, military and 
"civilian", in the "permanent power establishment of admirals, 
generals and corporate CEO's."  (Tangentially, it might not be 
stretching too much to argue that's what he's saying in GR, too -- 
the missile launching, and subsequent bomb blast, atomic, we're led 
to believe -- at the end of GR will certainly surprise the "biggest 
of brass" if it unleashes global nuclear holocaust,  a common fear of 
virtually all TV watchers and newspaper readers in the '60s.)

In other words, reading this concluding passage in the full context 
of the essay:  far from solving the problems people want technology 
to solve (those "wistful pipe dreams"), turning corporate and 
government-funded scientists loose will instead create a new 
Frankenstein's monster, to threaten its creators -- the results will 
surprise even those top managers who think they know what they're 
doing as they manage this cutting-edge R&D.  Pynchon can, in fact, be 
quite direct when he wants to be and his politics remain clear and 
consistent throughout his writings, which warn strongly against the 
power of corporations and governments and against humanity's 
submission to technology.

I confess I fail to see in this essay, in Vineland, or in GR, the 
defense of corporate interests that rj seems to be arguing for.



 From Pynchon's Luddite essay:
"The word "Luddite" continues to be applied with contempt to anyone with
doubts about technology, especially the nuclear kind. Luddites today are no
longer faced with human factory owners and vulnerable machines. As
well-known President and unintentional Luddite D.D. Eisenhower prophesied
when he left office, there is now a permanent power establishment of
admirals, generals and corporate CEO's, up against whom us average poor
bastards are completely outclassed, although Ike didn't put it quite that
way. We are all supposed to keep tranquil and allow it to go on, even
though, because of the data revolution, it becomes every day less possible
to fool any of the people any of the time.

"If our world survives, the next great challenge to watch out for will come
-- you heard it here first -- when the curves of research and development in
artificial intelligence, molecular biology and robotics all converge. Oboy.
It will be amazing and unpredictable, and even the biggest of brass, let us
devoutly hope, are going to be caught flat-footed. It is certainly something
for all good Luddites to look forward to if, God willing, we should
live so long."

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