1945

[jbor]

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

> "If (note the ifs, might haves, might this time,  ) the
> Jewish wolf Pflaumbaum had not set the torch to his own
> paint factory by the canal, Franz might have labored out

Yes, but you've got a different set of modals and auxiliaries this time.
It's an 'if ... then' construction, if such and such "had not" happened then
so and so "might have" been able to achieve something other than what he did
achieve. (No reason to throw those structuralists out with the bathwater
after all, is there?) Leni is expressing a certainty: "If ... Pflaumbaum had
not set ... " It's still only Leni's opinion, however, so there is always
the possibility that she might be mistaken; but I think we might need to
turn to the Bland passages now. Unless there is something in that Rathenau
seance sequence as well?

> So Franz and Leni were very hungry for a time... GR.160
>
> The hypocrite Jew and his "Jewish lightning", Leni's
> anti-Semitic POV. Is it credible?

Yes, her bitterness is palpable. And how would she have any direct knowledge
of the event anyway, except through Frans; so perhaps she is just
telegraphing *his* opinion on the fire and Pflaumbaum? But even so, her
anti-Semitism is referenced elsewhere, as you note. So, again, I don't know
that it is answerable one way or another from this passage alone. All I
think we can say with certainty -- so far, that is -- is that Leni
*believes* that Pflaumbaum set the fire for the insurance money.

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)
                                                    ~~~