Pynchon and the current situation

[barbara100 at jps.net]

Terrance wrote:

<<Read the entire passage and think about it. It's  WWII, not Vietnam, not
<<the Gulf War, not whatever we are headed into now. 

<<"Don't forget the real business of **THE** War..." 

<<THE WAR. Not war, any war, a war on terrorism, a war on drugs, but THE
War. 

<<It's a character  in the theatre of THE war. 



You sounded okay, Terrance, when you were talking economics, but I don't like what you're doing here with  Gravity's Rainbow. You're trying too hard to convince us Pynchon only meant to critique WWII, that it's not applicable today.  It's almost as ridiculous as saying man's steel (rocket) heart is strictly German made.  Pynchon's themes are timeless and universal. He strips through all the cultural 'right and wrong' bullshit and shows us that all war stems from the same fundamental human flaws/condition/conditioning.  I think you're letting the details distract you. I think you're making excuses for yourself not to see.  Besides, Pynchon wrote that book in 1973.  I really doubt he was that interested in WWII  in 1973.    


  
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Terrance 
  To: Otto 
  Cc: pynchon-l at waste.org 
  Sent: Friday, September 21, 2001 10:29 PM
  Subject: Re: Pynchon and the current situation




  Otto wrote:
  > 
  > Terrance:
  > I think VL is a novel that addresses the current situation better than
  > GR.
  > I disagree with Doug's analysis; of the current situation and of GR.
  > 
  > I don't see that the following is limited in meaning to one or a special
  > war:
  > 
  > "Don't forget the real business of the War is buying and selling.  The
  > murdering and the violence are self-policing, and can be entrusted to
  > non-professionals.  The mass nature of wartime death is useful in many ways.
  > It serves as spectacle, as diversion from the real movements of the War.  It
  > provides raw material to be recorded into History, so that children may be
  > taught History as sequences of violence, battle after battle, and be more
  > prepared for the adult world.  Best of all, mass death's a stimulus to just
  > ordinary folks, little fellows, to try 'n' grab a piece of that Pie while
  > they're still here to gobble it up.  The true war is a celebration of
  > markets." (GR 105)

  Read the entire passage and think about it. It's  WWII, not Vietnam, not
  the Gulf War, not whatever we are headed into now. 

  "Don't forget the real business of **THE** War..." 

  THE WAR. Not war, any war, a war on terrorism, a war on drugs, but THE
  War. 

  It's a character  in the theatre of THE war. 

  Of course one could, for example,  read "All Quite On The Western Front"
  and apply it's lessons or themes or ideas to the Vietnam War. And this
  is exactly what happened here in schools all around America in the
  1960s. On can read Shakespeare's Henry and Richard Plays and apply them
  to the Kennedy, Nixon, Ford Presidencies. So on and on. And there are
  lessons in GR that can be applied to the current state of affairs, but
  how one goes about applying GR to the current situation is open to
  criticism. My criticism of Doug's post stands.
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