Pynchonian echoes in the current situation

[Doug Millison]

A friend wrote this to me in an email today:

Part of what I find so distrubing about the aftermath
of this terrorist attack is the nature of the
authority telling the American public what to
beleive.  We keep hearing from the FBI and the
Pentagon, occaissionally from the CIA.  These are the
same organizations in the background of the Kennedy
assassination and they have a proven history of lying
to the public and engaging in manipulation.
 
    In the meantime I want to quote you the fourth
paragraph in the opening chapter, "Defining
Psychological War," of Christopher Simpson's book
Science of Coercion.  

"Since World War II, the U.S.government's national
security campaigns have usually overlapped with the
commercial ambitions of major advertisers and media
companies, and with the aspirations of an enterprising
stratum of university administrators and professors. 
 Military intelligence, and propaganda agencies such
as the Department of Defense and the Central
Intelligence Agency helped bankroll substantially all
of the post-World War generation's research into
techniques of persuasion, opinion measurement,
interrogation, political and military mobilization,
propaganda of ideology, and related questions.  The
persuasion studies, in particular,  provided much of
the scientific understanding for modern advertising
and motivational techniques.  The government-financed
communication research went well beyond what would
have been possible with private sector money alone and
often exploited military recruits, who comprised a
unique pool of test subjects."

...Doug here again.   This is certainly something I'm
keeping in mind as I watch the major U.S. broadcast
networks repackage the images of the past week, with
theme music and special f/x, into ongoing TV programs
with titles such as "America's New War" (CNN),
"America Rising" (I'm not sure which one). Even as the
corporate media have provided a channel for expressing
some grief, some feelings of national unity in the
wake of a terrible tragedy, the corporate media are
also clearly serving to pass along, with very little
dissent, the U.S. government line, giving politicians,
"statesmen", analysts, consultants, the opportunity to
wrap themselves in the U.S. flag and call for measures
that will produce more violence, enrich weapon systems
makers, contribute further to the sad state of human
relations in the world that has led us to this
juncture.

The War that never ends, that's what Pynchon calls it
in GR. In this forum we've had a lot of discussion,
arguments, flame "wars", about what Pynchon is or
isn't saing in GR and in his other works. I don't know
if you can make a case and support it with textual
support from Pynchon's works, that we -- each of us --
has the power to effect a positive change. Some
Pynchon readers find in his works an existential
despair and a refusal to affirm any values.  Others,
myself included, find in Pynchon's work a fundamental
affirmation of life and love and a creative response
to the facts of life in this world, a ray of hope
slender though it may be.  I doubt that we'll ever
reach any agreement about what Pynchon is saying, or
not saying, in his works.  And that's fine, I'm
extremely grateful we're alive and well and able to
carry on such a discussion.

As I look out at the prospect of a near future, and
years to come, in which America would take it upon
itself to devote its material wealth and energies to
an effort to  somehow "rid the world of evil," to
conduct a protracted war, I'm scared.  I don't want my
14-year-old son to have to go, in a few years, fight
in some misguided war that will serve only to make
weapons manufacturers more wealthy, keep in place the
kind of leadership that has brought us to this
crossroads, and leave untouched the fundamental issues
of justice and peace and reconciliation that are
necessary if we are to do anything other than continue
to kill each other.

In this respect, I remember a time when I was a boy, I
came home from school and found my mother weeping in
the kitchen.  I asked her, What's wrong? It's another
war, she said, the President is sending a bunch of
boys to fight in Vietnam (that was in fact the day
that Pres. Kennedy ordered the first major escalation
of that war).  But, she said, I'm so glad that you're
so young, it wll all be over before you're old enough
to have to go and fight.

But I wasn't old enough.  I wound up drafted, on that
conveyor belt to Vietnam, spared at the last minute
and sent elsewhere overseas instead.

In my personal opinion, as I read Pynchon, I hear the
outrage of a person angry that people in general
haven't yet been able to get themselves out of the
cycle of violence that leads to the War that never
ends, rage at an economic system that seems to thrive
on the War that never ends, rage at a culture that
seems poisoned at its root and unable to avoid bearing
such bitter fruit. In M&D, which I've read now three
times, including the first P-list group reading, I
hear a man who has let go of some of that rage, and
who has  embraced a bit more of that despair at
whatever it is that seems to keep us trapped in this
sad cycle.

I also hear the voice of an artist who, having felt
such deep despair and rage, chooses to press on, to
create of the situations he finds himself in (this
world, this historical moment) art of power and
beauty.  And, in M&D, more than in any previous work,
Pynchon affirms the blessing we can give each other
through friendship, family, love, even in the midst of
the most nightmarish geopolitical upheavals.

This inspires me to face the current situation and
take positive, creative action, too. Once I turned
away from the Tube the other day, and turned towards
the community, I was pleased to hear other voices, an
increasing number in fact, calling for patience,
reflection, understanding, compassion. I'll continue
to join vigils, to offer support for the people who
grieve, to pray for people who feel rage, and to act
for justice and peace.

Thanks,
Doug


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