GRGR 31 Shit'n'Shinola

[Terrance]

jbor wrote:
> 
> I would agree that there is no black and white in terms of morality in *GR*
> but this, I would suggest, does not in any way correlate to black and white
> in terms of skin colour. To conflate the two things as you are is
> mystification, untenable and odious. Racism exists. Historical fact. It
> exists in the novel: Malcolm X is depicted -- *by Pynchon* -- "working off
> whiteman's penance on his sin of being born the color of Shit'n'Shinola."
> The historical existence of the Roseland Ballroom and the "Negroes all over
> wasted Roxbury" (63.23) are not of the same tenor, are not called into
> question by the narrative, as the details of Slothrop's dream are. The
> narrative at 688 is explicitly synthesising the material from the "St
> Veronica Papers". We are not in Slothrop's psyche here at all.

Right, you are  right, of course, but I'm not sure if you
were or are or are going to be. It's like Paul says, it's
become impossible to know who stands for what. I guess, that
when all the ducks are down you expect your stuff to stand.
Interesting game, for you anyway. 

Tex