the relative 'centrality' of the Holocaust in GR

[Jeffrey Williams]

Regarding the Holocaust and it's relative 'centrality' to GR, the discussion
seems to be overlooking the entire Herero narrative. I'm in the midst of a
re-read of GR, and strangely enough, I just meandered through the passage
about the Herero's engaging in self-extinction beyond the zero. If I recall
some of my critical readings correctly, TP is drawing a parallel to the
Jewish holocaust and attempting to represent the ineffable sense of
surrender that permeated the persecuted groups. Six million jews (give or
take a few) were shipped off and killed with the tacit acceptance of the
indigenous population and no notable resistance from the persecuted group.
The plight of the Herero's is similar, only in the wonderful world of
narrative, the unconscious death wish gets a voice of its own.

Furthermore, isn't it possible that TP is using the Herero holocaust as a
parallel to the Jewish Holocaust to raise awareness of the Herero plight?
And that for his artistic purposes, demonstrating how other races have
existed under and reacted to the weight of genocide are at the fore of his
agenda? Even in the mid-70's, the word Holocaust had become nearly
synonymous with the Jewish tragedy, even though this overlooks the nearly 10
million Congolese slaughtered by King Leopold 2, the (by some estimates) 17
million Soviets butchered by Stalin, the US campaigns against Native
Americans, and the 1994 massacre in Rwanda. All of these are serious doings
that don't have national lobbies, momunments, memorials, cinematic tales of
heroism, and fifty years of literary tradition to carry their memory
forward.

Just my $.02, now I'm off to install the fire-proof shielding on my mailbox

Jeffrey