A sketch of Pynchonian politics

[Phil Wise]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jane O' Sweet" <lycidas2 at earthlink.net>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 08, 2001 6:52 AM
Subject: Re: A sketch of Pynchonian politics


>
>
> Phil Wise wrote:
>
>
> >
> > Remember that at the end of the book, "all of us" are distracted by the
forthcoming spectacle of the movie in the theatre, one linked back to the
novel's opening ("a screaming comes across the sky.  It has happened before,
but there is nothing to compare it to now"), nothing to compare it because
this is it, the finality: the system has gotten to a point where it can
finally encompass all of humanity and erase us.  In addition, it is worth
noting that in Vineland, the spectacle, which is portrayed in the novel as
so effective in distracting the people from the real movements in Their war
against them, has replaced a redundant Brock Vond - his funding pulled
because he's embarrassing Them in public, risking resistence, exposing the
system for what it is.
>
> ??????? can you please provide some pages please.
>
For a start, try the final page of GR.  The Vineland stuff is more
extrapolation than textually based, but is a perfectly plausible explanation
as to why one fascist should wish to hinder his underling.  The idea that
Vond is proving an embarrassment to Them is largely suggested by the way his
presence has begun to stir up a pretty settled (from Their perspective)
situation.  People are starting to think, talk about the Government in terms
not directly related to the TV.  The Thanatoids have suddenly awoken,
suggesting that dull stupor in front of TV can be overcome.

>
> >
> > Pynchon's narrator continues: "It [the murdering and violence] provides
raw material to be recorded in History, so that children may be taught
History as a sequence of violence, battle after battle, and be more prepared
for the adult world.  Best of all, mass death's a stimulus to just ordinary
folks, little fellows, to try 'n' grab a piece of that pie while they're
still here to gobble it up.  The true war is a celebration of markets..."
(105).
>
> >So, the little people, well below Their position, are given
> >an incentive to play the market game and thus be implicated
> >in the "true war": if they are not individualistic enough to
> >try and grab a piece of that pie, the spectre of mass death
> >faces them.
>
> How does this work? Not sure I understand your reading of
> this???
>
Straight analogy.  Pynchon's quote speaks of ordinary folks as "little
fellows", who need to grab what they can from the system while they are
alive.  The alternative is mass death.  The incentive is certainly for
people to climb over each other to increase their chances of survival,
although it is true that some of the characters don't behave that way.

It is the System that creates the war, and the war is a celebration of
markets.  If the real business of the war is buying and selling, one of its
strategies is to get these little people, ordinary folks, to use the markets
(the narrator goes on to cite the black markets where ordinary people trade
what they have for what they need, questioning whether they really are
"organic").