VV(13): Enters Weismann

[Doug Millison]

In V. these Europeans do constitute an imperial-colonial presence in Africa;
the details of which country is administering the colonies and which
corporations extract the resources and profits using the locals as
expendable production factors hardly matter from the point of view of the
colonized. Here in V., later in GR and M&D, Pynchon shows clearly how the
European imperial project leads to genocide in Africa and elsewhere, and in
GR shows how Nazi genocide (in a context that emphasizes continuity with the
mission of genocide that Weissmann and his colleagues celebrate here in V.,
to the point of continuing with the same character, Weissmann in the later
novel) feeds the technological monster that is in turn devouring humans. As
"jbor" notes, the guests at the siege party, including Weissman, re-enact
and celebrate the genocide of the Herero, which would seem a rather pointed
way for Pynchon to show how that project continues and its psycho-spiritual
importance for the inheritors of this genocidal tradition. The names and
uniforms may change but the exploitation continues, which would seem to be
part of the bigger picture Pynchon is painting, above the rather
fine-grained historical detail "jbor" offers.  It takes some considerable
shuck and jive to read Weissmann as innocent victim or powerless,  when you
see the actual power -- of life and death, in fact -- that Pynchon shows him
wielding, in V. as part of the parasitical and cruel imperial overseer
class, and in GR where he commands the power of a Rocket that represents the
fruit of Western technology at its most advanced and earns a reputation
among death camp inmates for the terror he is able to inspire.