MDDM Gershom's Intervention (was ...

[Doug Millison]

jbor
 <Gershom following GW to Raleigh's Billiard-Room in
>Ch. 58, and intervening there on George's behalf,

How does Gershom "intervene on George's behalf"?  What does Gershom do that
could be considered an "intervention"?  Pynchon doesn't depict anything in
this scene in Raleigh's Billiard-room (Ch. 58) that suggests Washington is
in any danger.  You seem to be reading an awful lot into this scene. After
Washington's comment, which seems to suggest that he recognizes Gershom's
voice, Pynchon doesn't show Washinton doing or saying anything, nobody is
pursuing him or addressing him in any way, Gershom continues to tell jokes.
Washinton literally fades from the scene.


>jbor
>But in his texts there are also white Americans and
>Europeans, such as GW, who aren't racist,

If Washington isn't racist why does he keep black people as property?  I
don't think treating the term "racist" as an anachronism works either,
Washington is a key player in a social, political, economic structure that
values Africans as property not as humans (and Native Americans as vermin
to be eradicated so the settlers can occupy their land) -- his actions and
beliefs are racist to the core.