MDDM Ben Franklin

[jbor]

Yoda wrote:

> to hear that siren I love. Methinks great discovery this is . . .

Then Otto wrote:

> (I've seen "The Phantom Menace" on Sunday for the first time)

I lost interest about half way through that one. Ja Ja Binks suks. _The
Empire Strikes Back_ is still about the best of the lot imo.

> But seriously, of course I knew "Three Mile Island," but how in the world
> did you get to Peachbottom? Really great and not only revealing but truly
> Pynchon-like!

Homer Simpson's safety chart with all the little globes on it, of course!
"Diablo Canyon 2, why can't you be more like Diablo Canyon 1! ... " etc

http://www.snpp.com/episodes/3F17.html

>> http://members.tripod.com/~american_almanac/leiblock.htm
>> 
> from that url:
> "(...) paved the way to two world wars, economic depression, and the
> continuing genocides of the Twentieth Century."
> 
> -- this indeed seems to be rather polemic, indicating that the USA could be
> in a way responsible for the two world wars, but much of the information
> given further in the article is very interesting.

It's actually condemning Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson for being
"rabidly Anglophile" (and thus "unAmerican", one might infer) and portrays
Great Britain as "our ancient enemy", the nation responsible for the world
wars and continuing genocides. Not a particularly balanced perspective.

>> But I'd say that the general inclination of Pynchon's work, and its
>> attitudes towards history and politics in general, and towards the notion
>> of "American Exceptionalism" in particular, are about as far removed
>> from this sort of rabid pamphleteering as they are from anything else.
>> 
 
> This is a very general way to put it, isn't it? Pynchon seems to be very
> much concerned with commerce in general, and arms trade, slavery and the
> death penalty in particular, which made (and still makes) the USA not
> exceptional at all.

Yes, that's the point. "American Exceptionalism" is the myth. Even though
the topics are similar I don't think that _M&D_ envisages Britain as "the
enemy of humanity", nor is Ben Franklin depicted therein as a heroic
liberator who "was plotting the downfall of the Newtonian establishment",
and neither Leibniz nor the American Declaration of Independence (cf. the
scene in the Annapolis pub at 395.21 where Dixon inspires a very young
Thomas Jefferson with what is perhaps the most memorable and admirable
sentiment from that document) are particularly venerated there or elsewhere
in Pynchon's work. I don't even think Pynchon depicts the Confederates as
intrinsically evil human beings, leaving aside the rather charming portrayal
he does present us with of George Washington as benevolent slaveholder and
surplus crop farmer.

Some of the connections and attitudes appear to be the same, superficially,
but there's much much more which is totally at odds with the underlying
themes in Pynchon's text. Though they might use some of the same dots,
Pynchon doesn't join them up in anywhere near the same way as 'The American
Almanac'.

best