re Re: MDDM Washington

[Otto]

Nicely said, Doug, but that's not the purpose of the discussion. We were
just talking about a historical document, discussing a source (Pynchon might
have looked upon too) concerning Washington's being a slave-holder, trying
to figure out what he had been saying, what his words mean & meant back
then. All this far from being definite by the way, just speculations,
opinions . . . it's a giant step from the question if Pynchon has drawn GW
as an evil or benevolent slave-holder to the accusation that anybody says or
has said on this list that slavery isn't disgusting.

The post-modern discussion of slavery of course includes the reversal of the
master & slave hierarchy (to reveal its absurdity) as being done in the
presentation of Gershom, the smoking scene & the King George jokes.

My opinion is that Pynchon is shaking his head over those Europeans who'd
come to these shores for a better life being so cruel, and that there's
something poisoning in the mere fact of slavery on American soil, preparing
the later genocides as well as the Civil War.

By the way, as literary critics we should not write novels, according to Mr
Reich-Ranicki (our national "Oprah").
http://www.bachmannpreis.at/25_jahre/real/ranicki_2_320x240.ram
http://www.bachmannpreis.at/index25.htm (more)

JBF -- no chance!

Otto

----- Original Message -----
From: "Doug Millison" <millison at online-journalist.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Monday, July 01, 2002 9:25 PM
Subject: re Re: MDDM Washington


>
> Otto:
> >Agreed, my girlfriend said yesterday he's maybe saying that this escape
> >might have been planned beforehand, she meant it in the sense that GW
says
> >that there hasn't been any trouble recently to explain the escape.
>
> You two ought to write a historical novel that shows how it might have
> happened and subvert the mistaken popular belief that slavery is some kind
> of evil, by showing how benevolent slave-holding is really a good thing,
> not some feudalistic holdover that denies a slave a fundamental human
right
> -- you could make it really pomo and show how slavery is neither good nor
> evil, it's just a matter of whether or not the property owner is a nice
> human being, the pragmatic approach, you know, that leaves those property
> and economic relationships untouched and expects that people will be nice
> to each other out of enlightened self-interest and respect for property
> values.



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