pynchon-l-digest V2 #1794

[Jane Sweet]

Phil Wise wrote:
> >
> >
> You are allowed, but isn't it ignoring Vineland?  It was set in 1984, after
> all, and Pynchon himself brings them Nazis right in.  My arguments were put
> up in good faith.  I expected them to be argued back as such, especially
> since IMO they are all relevant to the concerns in Pynchon's novels.  The
> folks in Weimar Germany were relatively free too.  The structural
> "synergies" I noted have not been refuted or even addressed.  At least Noah
> in a recent post has quite rightly pointed out the influence of technology
> on totalitarianism, in order to dispute something I said.  We are currently
> valorising the universalising of that technology.

Pynchon brings those Nazis into  CL49 and VL not because he
is ignorant of history or because he is not an astute
observer and critic (traditional satirist)  of the current
state of affairs but because he is a very good student of
history and he knows that we are not living in Weimar
Germany. Pynchon, imo, is very concerned about USA
imperialism. I think he shows that there is a connection
between foreign imperialism and domestic police activities.
I think he also admonishes his readers to be cognizant of
the fact that the sickness  of idealism and  race and blood
religiosity, the romantic nationalistic  dreaming of
transcendent national teleology that infected Nazi Germany,
while it is only a potential and NOT a reality in the USA,
must be opposed whenever and wherever it begins to manifest,
but not by the type of radical extremism that is too often
said to be what Pynchon shows us in his fiction, not with
theoretical and academic
definitions (propaganda, i.e., "Globalization) and
reactionary political protests for and against imagined
leviathan and  Universal malignancy  but by practical
activity and the affirmation of the particular experiences
of individuals.