"anti-American"

[Doug Millison]

I continue to be astonished that "anti-American" could be un-ironically
used as an epithet in a forum devoted to the discussion of Pynchon's works.
But, if it works for you, go for it, perhaps you are unaware of the hateful
history of this slur, and maybe you don' know how Pynchon works the
Hollywood Blacklist of the '50s into Vineland, of which I believe it's safe
to say -- no matter how much you might try to rewrite it in an effort to
make Pynchon a champion of the right, Pynchon's not speaking out in favor
of McCarthy's cowardly attacks against Americans because of their political
beliefs.

" American voices, country voices high-pitched and without mercy. He lies
freezing, wondering if the bedsprings will give him away. For possibly the
first tme he is hearing America as it must sound to a non-American.  Later,
he will recall that what surprised him most was the fanaticism, the
reliance not just on flat force but on the _rightness_ of what they planned
to do . . . he'd been told long ago to expect this sort of thing from
Nazis, and especially from Japs-- _we_ were the ones who always played
fair--but this pair outside the door now are as demoralizing as a close-up
of John Wayne (the angle emphasizing how slanted his eyes are, funny you
never noticed before) screaming "BANZAI!"  [GR 256]

Quail, I would have thought you'd have picked up on the bitch goddess
America allusion, too. For all your taunting of Barbara and your insulting
assumptions about her knowledge of Pynchon, perhaps you don't know your
Pynchon all that well, either:

"[...] the one ghost-feather his fingers always brush by is America. Poor
asshole, he can't let her go. She's whispered _love me_ too often to him in
his sleep, vamped insatiably his waking attention with come-hitherings,
incredible promises. One day--he can see a day--he might be able finally
gto say _sorry_, sure, and leave her . . . but not just yet. One more try,
one more chance, one more deal, one more transfer to a hopeful line. Maybe
it's just pride. What if there's no place for him in her stable any more?
If she has turned him out, she'll never explain. Her "stallion" have no
rights. She is immune to their small, stupid questions. She is exactly the
Amazon Bitch your fantasies have called her to be." [GR 623]

"America _was_ the edge of the World. A message for Europe,
continent-sized, inescapable. Europe had found he site for its Kingdom of
Death, that special Death the West had invented. Savages had their waste
regions, Kalaharis, lakes so misty they could not seethe other side. But
Europe had gone deeper--into obsession, addiction, away from all the savage
innocences. America was a gift from the invisible powers, a way of
returning. But Europe refused it. [...] Now we are in the last phase.
American Death has come to occupy Europe. It has learned empire from its
old metropolis. [...] Death only rules here. " [GR 722-723]


.....and it looks like American Death has come to occupy Afghanistan, too,
after taking up residence in Iraq these past many years -- continuing the
program that Europe began, of course, when they carved up the Ottoman
Empire in the early part of the 20th century.


-Doug "Hooray For the Red White & Blue" Millison




Doug Millison - Writer/Editor/Web Editorial Consultant
millison at online-journalist.com
www.Online-Journalist.com