1945

[jbor]

----------
>From: <lycidas2 at earthlink.net>
>

>  But later we are told that it  was his fate to be "sent
> east along with many others of his race"; the joke  being,
> more or less on Pflaumbaum after all, though Leni would not
> know it.
>
> Is that a direct reference to the Holocaust?

Yes indeed.

>
> And, what do you make of the naphtha at the explosion?

That Pflaumbaum used some flammable substance to make sure the fire took
hold and that the destruction of the factory was complete so that his
insurance money would be assured. But I note now that naphthalene derives
from coal-tar, and there is that recurrence of those colours: "crimson and
bottle green" being the variation here. What is the upshot of that colour
symbolism? particularly as it applies here? What of the coal-tar connection?

>  Maybe Bland & Co.? Maybe not?

Leni thinks it's Pflaumbaum, which is credible. Why do you think it's Bland?
I read the second part of the Pflaumbaum story as showing how fickle and
amoral the American businessman was, just as happy to consort with whoever
was in charge of German industry, war or no war, Depression or no
Depression, regardless of whatever else they were doing, criminally,
immorally etc -- his sole motivation being one of profit.

>  Are you familiar with the slur "Jewish Lightening"?

No, please elucidate.

> But the Nazi element is important and so is
> the Holocaust.

Yes, I agree; and I like your observations re. the comparison between _V._
and _GR_ in this respect. I think the arguments have never been about
whether or not the Holocaust happened, or whether or not it has been
countenanced in the text, but how it has been represented there, and to what
purposes.

> Great thing about going to school or teaching or book clubs
> or these crazy lists. I'm able to read GR with folks from
> Germany and from the 60s and so on.

Yes, I agree. The potentials of education, communication are enormous, and I
think that there is that didactic, communicative impulse -- resignedly and
self-consciously infructuous perhaps -- in Pynchon's texts as well. But it
appears that s~Z wants me to shutup, so perhaps we should take this offlist?

best






~~~
    "By 1945, the factory system - which, more than
     any piece of machinery, was the real and major
     result of the Industrial Revolution - had been
     extended to include the Manhattan Project, the
     German long-range rocket program and the death
     camps, such as Auschwitz.It has taken no major
     gift of prophecy to see how these three curves
      of development might plausibly converge, and
                before too long. ... "
                                 (T. Pynchon, 1984)
                                                    ~~~