Chasing ... Cutting

[Paul Mackin]

Those freed Dora prisoners and their discontents are first and foremost a
fine portrayal of the age old identification-with-the-repressor 
phenomonon. The situation is commonplace but Pynchon presents it with
uncommon verve. Don't we all know a woman or two--also men--who endure for
years in a marriage in which they are made miserable and driven half nuts
by a dominant spouse from whom they are seldom allowed a separate
existence? Yet, when on rare occasion we can experience such a person
temporarily away from her oppressor, what do we find? Someone for once 
relaxed, at ease, able to enjoy a state of freedom. No we do not. What we
find is a person ill-at-ease, guilt-ridden, as nervous as can be, who
seemingly can't return soon enough to her state of customary captivity.

May I add that I find very little in the passages requiring me to
meditate on the absence of gay rights in Nazi Germany, being properly
mindful of the Holocaust, loving one's Jesus sufficiently, and other
hot button issues in the world or even sometimes unfortunately on the
p-list.

Sorry to be such an old grouch.

				P.