"anti-American"

[Paul Mackin]

Doug--you're confusing antiAmerican with unAmerican.
UnAmerican Activities Committee and all of that

AntiAmerican is a perfectly legit word within Pynchon circles and without. A
legit thing too. AntiAmericanism is a very healthy thing in moderation. At
least one day a month should be devoted to it. In the U.S. of A. and
throughout the world.

            P.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Doug Millison" <millison at online-journalist.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2001 12:42 PM
Subject: "anti-American"


> 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