re Amerikaka (NP?)

[Paul Mackin]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Henry Musikar" <scuffling at hotmail.com>

> I love my country, but I am not so provincial in time or space as to
believe
> that the world changed on September 11; if it did, then it changes
> CONTINUOUSLY. The world changed when the US pulled out of Vietnam in
defeat.
> The world changed 200 people were killed by indiscriminate Taliban
shelling
> during the war with the USSR. Wait a minute, the world didn't change for
me
> when that happened. I didn't even hear about it. But the world did change
> when Pearl Harbor was bombed, leading to extraordinary times that included
> the internment of innocent citizens in the US. Not that that could ever
> happen again; that bit of history is no longer relevant!We live in a time
of
> crusades and, potentially, plague. Whole cities may be destroyed.
> Unprecedented!
>
> Paul Mackin, I'd like to hear from you on this subject, as you possess a
> viewpoint that may be unique on this list. :-)

Ya mean because I'm old enough to have had grade school classmates whose
families recently escaped pre-war Nazi Germany and of course "Remember Pearl
Harbor" as the song goes. Alas tis true, all too true.
(Sonia Lofsky and Alice Mimi Held, where are you now? You had that old world
European culture we American roughnecks had no clue to. You played the harp
and paino respectively, and knew languages.)

Did the world change as uniquely on September 11, 2001, as if did, say, on
December 7, 1941. (talking Americocentrically of course). I don't know yet.
I do remember that the menace of Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan felt very
very threatening. It was by no means clear for quite a long time which side
would prevail. A clash of equals. Not equal in ideology but roughtly
comparable in technology and industrial power. The present conflict contains
no "equalities" whatsoever. The terrorists could be defanged in months or
perhaps might never be. To repeat we just don't know. I personally don't
feel any great fear. However if I were in a position of governmental power I
would be scared shitless. Having to decide what to do next.

On the other question, I don't think Pynchonian writings are any kind of
guide to our present actions. He's only a novelist for heavens sake. He's
not responsible for anything or anybody but himself. When he says, as was
quoted a minute ago, that world leaders have been criminally insane he
surely does not mean to be taken literally. Now if Pynchon himself were
criminally insane it wouldn't matter a great deal. He might still be a
brilliant novelist. But Pynchon can teach us many things, of that I am sure.
He can teach us to let our imaginations soar--embrace Blicero's brand of
transcendence or contemplate Roger and Pointsman's ideas upon repeal of the
laws of cause and effect--but I truly don't think he can tell us anything
about how to defend against terrorism. Some will say, have said, the novels
warn us against certain mistakes of history that we can guard against in the
future. This seems to me a terrible insult to Pynchon's readers implying as
it does that these mistakes are not already well known. Are Pynchon's
readers such babes in the wood?

The ancient one has spoken.

        P.