vv (12): what weissmann's project is about

[lorentzen-nicklaus]

 "'politics is a kind of engineering, isn't it. with people as your raw 
 material.'
 'i don't know', weissmann said." (242)

 
 it would have been so easy for pynchon to give the millisons among his readers 
 food here. try "'sure, they're just wax in my hands', weissmann said" or "'who 
 cares about people?! we're in for the german world-domination!', weissmann 
 furiously shouted". but no, it's "i don't know". what does this mean? is 
 weissmann too stupid to have a opinion on the possible parallels between 
 engineering and politics? hardly probable. perhaps we can come a little further 
 here when we ask for the quality of weissmann's interest in politics. go to 
 page 242 again and read this: "'ever heard of d'annunzio?' then: mussolini?  
 fiume? italia irredenta? fascisti? national socialist german workers' party?  
 adolf hitler? kautsky's independents?". first thing to note here is that not 
 only hitler and mussolini are named, but also kautsky. so it's not about right 
 or left. & then there's this mention of gabriele d'annunzio (1863-1938), the 
 italian poet who also was into politics and war (as an airforce officer); he 
 early called for leading war against the mittelmächte (in the first place: 
 germany and austria). while the also made mention of the "brennessel [stinging 
 nettle] cabaret" could be purely folkloristic, d'annunzio's name, as well as 
 weissmann's close reading of the duino elegies, indicates a strong fascination 
 by art, especially poetry. so blicero's interest in politics is perhaps 
 primarly aesthetically motivated in the the spirit of the avangarde movements 
 in the arts around 1910. [yes, i know benjamin's kunstwerkaufsatz]. & now look 
 again at the page: "'from munich, and never heard of hitler,' said weissmann, 
 as if 'hitler' were the name of an avantgarde play". weissmann's project is 
 neither about the german world-domination nor is it about "ethnic cleanness". 
 his taking part keeps him socially integrated, while he kicks his black  
 romantic shit. & then he, like so many men, is fascinated by the dense male  
 energy of military units.  but is, after all, a queer rilkean s&m community on 
 the moon really such a terrible imagination? not for me. the real danger comes 
 from pointsman whose project is practical and just too down to earth.  
 pointman's isolated dried out sexuality, which stands in direct opposition to  
 blicero's wild one, also indicates that he, pointsman, is the one having  
 seperated from life entirely. & if blicero would really be the corporate 
 carreerist flaherty & millison want him to be, how do you explain then that he 
 is, on page 401 of gravity's rainbow, refered to as "major weissmann"? na?! 
 "sometime between the earlie thirties and 1944, when we meet him in holland, 
 weissmann has evidently been 'busted' from major back to captain (his rank at 
 v.94.22)", as steven weisenburger notes correctly on page 195 of his companion.
 well, we may a speculate about the reasons for this back-busting, but this is 
 in any case highly significant, nicht wahr?

kfl