globalization & Pynchon?

[Doug Millison]

I suspect Pynchon's after fish bigger than even global capital, instead the
spiritual/metaphysical/philosophical conditions of existence that predispose
us to the sorts of abuses -- Nazi war crimes, colonial exploitation,
marijuana eradication, etc. -- he depicts with such power in his writings.
I suspect as well he's got enough of the 50's beatnik/60's radical in him to
not care a great deal for these companies and what they're doing to the
kinds of local cultures he celebrates throughout his fiction. But none of us
knows enough about him personally to say with any authority, and many of us
question whether that's an appropriate line of inquiry in this discussion
group. 

On my trip to China last October, coming after a long stay with my Chinese
in-laws and wife's cousins in Beijing and Shanghai in '99, I was appalled to
see how so much of the street culture and indigenous scene has been
Starbucked and McDonaldized -- in the feverish embrace of the corrupt CCP
and PLA officials who are busy putting their hands in the global
multinational pockets even as their propaganda organs trumpet a different
tune.  Beijing has become a nightmare for bicyclists because of the
unbelieveable number of private automobiles, speaking of your global
petroleum cartel conspiracy....

calbert at tiac.net:
As much as he abhorrs the abuses of power in any of its 
manifestations, sure.....but no more and no less, probably than loci 
of political and or intellectual/religious power. This is why I was 
fishing for that Foppl cite (it may have been someone else talking in 
such a manner) - it matters little what informs the power, the source 
of that will always change - what matters is that it is there, always 
has been and will always continue. It is a "phenomenon".