Pynchon and the current situation

[Doug Millison]

It's understandable that in the shock, grief, and
depression that linger after the tragedy, people tend
to forget recent history.   Recall how the
military-industrial machine that developed as the U.S.
prepared for and entered WWII continued to expand and
drive the economic boom of the 50s, and when that
began to flag, another war (in Vietnam) kept the gears
turning and the money flowing and the oil pumping for
another decade or so.  It wasn't until Reagan-Bush
decided in the 80s to let the tycoons double-dip
(collect profits from Pentagon contracts for weapon
systems and supporting infrastructure and pay lower
taxes) that we got a significant slowdown in the
economy.  Sure the U.S. economy is taking a dive, but
it's temporary, and as Bush and his buddies start
pumping money into this new war effort we'll pull out
of it the way the economy pulled out of the Great
Depression with WWII.

Pynchon's work is enlightening on this topic,
particularly GR.

Terrifying speech by Bush last night, offering an
ultimatum that's impossible to meet with the threat of
military strikes in an hour that draws near.  You
could see those bloodthirsty bastards licking their
lips.  I had the impression of a stern Dad (or Mom,
probably Mother Bush in this case) lecturing an errant
teenager, laying down the law, the apotheosis of the
U.S. as parent to the world, determined to make Junior
obey the rules or else, exasperated to the point of
finally justifying that kick in the pants Junior has
deserved for so long. As every parent knows, however,
no matter how good that sort of self-righteous laying
down the law might make you feel in the moment, the
teenagers don't pay much attention to it, and if you
go ahead and hit them, well you've lost all
credibility and ended the relationship.

It seemed to me as I watched Bush and all those
well-fed men applauding him,  this is the final act of
the U.S. as Big Daddy. It's pleasant fantasy
nonetheless, and powerful theater -- Pynchon
demonstrates that aspect wonderfully in his novels,
which, to my way of thinking, grow more relevant by
the minute. But it's old thinking, the kind of
thinking that brings us to this crisis.

By contrast, and a very pleasant contrast it was,
thousands of young people gathered on campus yesterday
in Berkeley, flew the flag and called for peace and
justice, for creative solutions that have proven
impervious to the kind of thinking that Bush has
surrounded himself with, reminding us that we can be
patriotic U.S. citizens and also ask our government to
refrain from killing innocent people and plunging us
into yet another unwinnable war, ask that we spend our
energy and material treasure to create peace and
justice instead of blowing people and things to bits.

When Pynchon was writing GR (and COL49) a similar
debate was taking place: "Love it or leave it" our
fathers told us, when we criticized the criminal war
the U.S. was fighting in Vietnam; "We love our country
and want to see it live up to its democratic ideals,"
we answered. 

A Pynchon-reading friend sends this along, I wonder if
anybody else saw it on TV last week (I didn't):

"I was watching one of the disaster tapes I recorded
WThFSaSu of last
week and while skimming through a bunch of talking
head commentary, I came
across a guy on ABC who recited the first two
paragraphs of _GR_. The
hair on my arms and on the back of my neck stood up.
At first
he didn't attribute it; he made it sound like a
recapitulation of
the news.  Then he made comments on it, and then
finally he attributed it
to Pynchon. Creepy when reading from one of TP's
novels forms a simulacrum
of the day's events and the evening news.  Very
creepy."

Peace,
Doug






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