Blicero the Badass

[Otto]

>
> From the 'Luddite' essay:
> >
>
> > There is a long folk history of this figure, the Badass. He
> > is usually male,
>
> Blicero is male.
>
> > and while sometimes earning the quizzical
> > tolerance of women,
>
> Blicero earns Katje's friendship, protection, admiration even.
>
> > is almost universally admired by men
>
> Enzian, Gottfried and those 175s (who have indeedturned him into a
legend).
>
> > for
> > two basic virtues: he Is Bad,
>
> Yes again. See below.
>
> > and he is Big.
>
> Phenomenonally, rather than in physical stature.
>
> >  Bad meaning not
> > morally evil, necessarily, more like able to work mischief
> > on a large scale.
>
> Yes, building and then letting Gottfried man that 00000 is certainly
> mischievous in terms of what Blicero's supposed to be doing for the Nazi
war
> effort. And, it isn't meant or going to blow up the world, surely? Why
does
> Blicero make a space for Gottfried in the 00000? It's his grasp at some
sort
> of religious transcendence, not Armageddon.
>
> > What is important here is the amplifying
> > of scale, the  multiplication of effect.
>
> Yes, and so Blicero's legendary status (the 175s worship him, and he
becomes
> a "local deity") and his literary status (cf. Milton's Satan as similarly
> "heroic") come right into play.
>
> And, referring to Ned Ludd, but postulating what might have caused his
> elevation to the legendary status of "Badass", Pynchon writes:
>
> > No doubt what people admired and mythologized him for was
> > the vigor and single-mindedness of his assault.
>
> Right on the money for Blicero as well.
>
> best
>
>

Great post, really well done, but even if it's for some sort of
transcendence we know what that "Other Kingdom" in this novel - to where
Walther Rathenau and Roland Felsspath have transcended and which is slowly
leaking into our world- is about:
it's converting death into even more death, death on a larger scale each
time it can arrange individual and historical circumstances.

I cannot help seeing big differences -given all the structural similarities
you describe above- between a figure like King Ludd and W/B. And do "vigor"
and "single-minded" really fit to the novel character?
The notion of power, strength and force well, but what about the
life-affirming aspects of the word - vitality, virility, health?

Otto