hysterical Pynchon

[Otto]

MalignD:
>
> And--that the people who have "enjoyed power since 1945" are "criminally
> insane" is hysterical progaganda, out of the pen of Pynchon or not.
>

Not so sure if it has been mere hysteria back then because it's been written
in the light of the fact that "They" (on all relevant sides) had exposed the
whole mankind to the danger of nuclear destruction: "(...) most of the rest
of us poor sheep have always been stuck with simple standard fears" (SL,
18-19). The rest of the paragraph indeed includes one of the key sentences
of my understanding of "Gravity's Rainbow": "Somewhere on this spectrum of
impotence is writing fiction about it (...)" (SL 19).

And this doesn't sound hysterical at all to me. What if it was meant both
ironically and seriously at the same time? I mean you don't write that
seriously, for example about JFK, even if it's 1984, without allowing
yourself the possibility to say that it has been meant ironically if
somebody tries to call in a new HUAC. Paranoia yes, hysteria no.

But I don't think that this description can be applied to Bush, Blair,
Putin, Fischer and some others who are really trying to manage the actual
crisis. If me may take P's words on the actual situation at all:
"criminally insane" sounds more like a profound characterisation of bin
Laden.

Otto