re Pynchon's Presidents

Doug Millison millison at online-journalist.com
Mon Jun 24 09:27:52 CDT 2002


Good work, jbor, in corroborating with some textual examples the point I
made the other day:

"His consistent anti-fascist politics and outrage at the very many forms of
corporate exploitation and ruination of ecological systems -- just to name
a couple of political viewpoints he upholds throughout his oeuvre -- would
appear to cut across mainstream (US Democratic/Republican) party lines"
http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0206&msg=67421&sort=author

With this kind of teamwork we'll get these Pynchon texts figured out in no
time, my friend.

But, I still don't think you've thoroughly thought through the Geo.
Washington characterisation, especially in combination with Gershom -- in
the context of P's black/white racial politics and myth-busting, especially
in GR, the net result of these two characters interacting is far from
flattering to the Father of Our Country. Recall that Washington, for all
his humanitarian impulses, didn't manage to free his personal slaves until
after his death, through his last will and testament.  A canary singing in
a cage remains a captive, no matter how its master might dote upon the
entertaining creature.





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