pynchon-l-digest V2 #1806

[Doug Millison]

>Doug:
>  > Right you are, "Jane", to see Pynchon's work as exposing the danger
>>  of systems, but  unfortunate you don't see that, as a system (and one
>>  of the worst), capitalism falls within that danger zone.

"Jane"
>I don't find any evidence of this in Pynchon's books. And
>I'm still waiting, as is CFA, for one page, leaf, scrap,
>one passage, paragraph, sentence, from any Pynchon text that
>will convince me otherwise.


Looks like you'll be waiting a long time, then, not seeing the forest 
for the trees -- but maybe you could start with those trees that 
Mason and Dixon are chopping down to cut the Visto, work backwards to 
the chartr'd corporations that will profit from this exploitation, 
see the part these companies play in a global system of commerce 
(coffee, tea, sugar, iron, opium, and slaves) and the human misery it 
entails, see how those commercial interests at the dawn of capitalism 
manage to subvert the people's revolution that might have redeemed at 
least in part the rape of the new world -- Pynchon waxes rather 
poetic about America's dream and rather bitterly about its betrayal 
-- but instead move into the weapons trade (which we've already seen 
blossom in GR) and continued extermination of the indigenous 
inhabitants. If you can't find a critique of capitalism in that story 
line (especially as it amplifies and echoes similar themes in 
Pynchon's other novels), you will be waiting a very long time.
-- 
d  o  u  g    m  i  l  l  i  s  o  n  <http://www.online-journalist.com>