Mothers work for Them!

[Terrance]

Doug Millison wrote:
> 
> "'That's what [...] they want a great swollen tit with some atrophied
> excuse for a human, bleating around somewhere in its shadows. How can I be
> human for her? Not her mother. Mother, that's a civil-service category,
> Mothers work for Them! They're the policemen of the soul...'" (GR 219)
> 
> "[...] In his October 7, 2001 war announcement, Bush shamefully showcased
> the ideal feminine gesture during this tragic time -- literally to be
> willing to sacrifice our men. He said, "I recently received a touching
> letter that says a lot about the state of America in these difficult times,
> a letter from a fourth grade girl with a father in the military. 'As much
> as I don't want my dad to fight,'" she wrote, "'I'm willing to give him to
> you.'"

In GR, females are more than willing to give up their fathers and sons
to the war and 
the worship of Death. Why? Slothrop's mom is very good example. 

As he turned away to walk, his Ma was still in shock 
At seein' the metal brace that helped him stand.
But as he turned to go, he called his mother close
And he dropped his medals down into her hand.

		--Bob Dylan, John Brown (1963) 
> 
> Feminism should help us identify how the war cry is partly dependent on
> particular definitions of masculinity and femininity. Feminism can help us
> see how gender politics reinforces isolation and asks us to bypass
> thoughtful responses in the name of unity, which translates into mostly
> corporate-appointed, white, male decisions about how the country will go
> forward. [...]"

What do feminists think of Pynchon's women? His Mothers? What can
explain the Mothers of GR? I can't think of any novelist whose treatment
of women comes close to P's. 


Why has happened to women and to men in Pynchon's novels. 
Why do the abuse and abandon, sell, prostitute their own children? 

Is it the war? Is it Capitalism? Or something deeper? 

It's something religious. 

How can we account for Mr. Pynchon's female characters? His mothers? His
daughters? His witches good and his witches evil? 


 The mothers want their sons to die in war. Nalline wants this for her
son. How about that black bitch that murders children? 

Under the "present dispensation" the freedom of life is 
thwarted by ritual conditioning to death:  

"...mothers and fathers are conditioned
into deliberately dying in certain
preferred ways: giving themselves
cancer and heart attacks...going
off to fight in the war--leaving their
children alone in the forest. " 

And we know who is playing both roles. The Witch. Death. Blicero. 

And how does cross-dressing and plastic fit into this sacrifice of the
pig of god that takes away the world from sin?

Is this because women's power has been proscribed? 

Mothers work for Them, they are the policemen of the soul, they make
children "crack."

 They hand her the orb and scepter, which in this case are grilled pot
roast and a whip, and the orchestra plays Tristan and Isolde." GR.505

Why Tristan ans Isolde? Something religios. 

 

It is because mothers are fertile, mysteriuosly endowed with god's own
accident of creation. Within the Mother is the great cosmic force. So
her apostasy is greatest.