Politics, Bopp in Vineland, and MDDM Washington

[jbor]

My point has been that the "inheriting" and "passing on" in Pynchon's work
is not just from US Republican president to US Republican president. There
are actually pretty lean pickings for anyone wanting to hand his texts out
as US Democrat how-to-vote cards as well, and for those still clinging to
the tattered barricades of a Marxist revolution, *as well as* for all those
neocon, neo-fascist, anti-Semitic, Holocaust-denying, Bush-supporting
apologists for slavery which you imagine to be crowding onto the list in
droves. "The System" in Pynchon extends way beyond party political lines and
left v. right rhetoric - and way beyond the US - as you do appear to concede
in parts of your post.

" ... the notorious Karl Bopp, former Nazi *Luftwaffe* officer and
subsequently useful American citizen" (Vineland 221.23)

This throwaway description certainly begs the question of how he became, and
what he's been doing as, a "useful American citizen" in the 35 years leading
up to 1980. I agree that it does relate back to von Braun in _GR_. But I
think it's a very narrow and distorted perspective to infer from this that
the point of the novel is the "association of Nazi Germany and Reagan-Bush
America". Bopp is a *former* Nazi. The word denotes that he is no longer a
Nazi. Thus, the US government he is working for in 1980 is not being
referred to as a Nazi government, except by you of course. Bopp is described
(sarcastically, I agree) as a "subsequently useful American citizen". He is
useful to CAMP because he flies planes. The point seems to be that after
1945 the US government invited former Nazis with particular skills and
expertise to become US citizens. And I'd imagine that this is, historically,
the case.

In terms of "picking apart the threads ... etc", my point about the quote
from _M&D_ which you inaccurately cited as evidence of Wicks's, and
Pynchon's, attitude towards slavery in the US, specifically refers to the
massacres of North American Indians. I am no apologist for the institution
of slavery, nor am I suggesting that Pynchon is. But it's quite clear that
within the context of his time the George Washington who Pynchon depicts in
_M&D_ is benevolent and progressive. Comparison with the way the slaves are
treated and regarded at Lord Lepton's, or at the Cape, in the same novel,
and with JFK's failures of insight regarding the ongoing oppression of
African-Americans in the US a century or so after the Civil War, as depicted
in _GR_, clearly illustrates this point.

best


on 29/6/02 5:24 AM, Doug Millison at millison at online-journalist.com wrote:

> In Vineland's 1984 time frame, Brock is a functionary of the Reagan-Bush
> Administration, as is Nazi Karl Bopp; the novel's association of Nazi
> Germany and Reagan-Bush America stands.  I agree that Reagan-Bush inherit
> the "fascist architecture" from previous administrations, just as they pass
> it on to later administrations (including the current Bush Administration
> -- check that recent Supreme Court decision that gives Bush the Younger,
> Slayer of Evildoers, the right to imprison whomever he wants for however
> long he likes with no public hearings ) -- Pynchon's critique of the
> perversion of  the American dream cuts across traditional party lines,
> cuts deep, and as we see in M&D has roots at least as far back as the
> colonial period.
> 
> That Reagan continues what Nixon inherited -- a "fascist architecture" onto
> which they both apply their own inimitable stains -- would seem to be an
> important element of Vineland, and constitutes an important link between GR
> and the later novel, which moves back and forth between the earlier and
> later historical periods.  Vineland associates Nixon, Reagan, and Bush with
> the Nazis; I can see how that might be unpalatable for readers who admire
> those presidents, or who accept the utopian myths of "free enterprise" and
> "American democracy" . GR takes the critique further into the past, showing
> how multinational corporations played both sides of the War for profit in
> part by manipulating nationalist symbols and sentiments, and how Nazi
> science ad technology and values take over the U.S. military-industrial
> complex in the post-War period.  M&D takes it  back centuries more, when
> governments and corporations begin to fuse in the project of European
> imperialism, beginning the objectification of people and nature that
> permits the genocide, slavery, environmental destruction for profit that
> continue to the present day.
> 
> Pynchon appears to leave open the question of whether these evils are the
> fault of particularly nasty individuals or if it's the System, or something
> inherent in the human condition, or some sort of combination of many
> factors; he also raises deep philosophical questions, at times wondering
> how we know what we think we know... yet he continues to identify evils and
> name the agents responsible.
> 
> "Brock [...] leaning darkly in above her like any of the sleek raptors that
> decorate fascist architecture." (Vineland, p. 287)
> 
> "all working under contract to CAMP and being led by the notorious Karl
> Bopp, former Nazi Luftwaffe officer" (Vineland, p. 220)
> 
> "this Age sees a corruption and disabling of the ancient Magick.
> Projectors, Brokers of Capital, Insurancers, Peddlers upon a global Scale ,
> Enterprisers and Quacks,-- these are the last poor fallen and feckless
> inheritors of a Knowledge they can never use, but in the service of Greed.
> The coming Rebellion is theirs,-- Franklin and that Lot,--and Heaven help the
> rest of us, if they prevail." (M&D 487,488)
> 
> "Unfortunately, young people," recalls the Revd, "the word *Liberty*, so
> unreflectively  sacred to us today, was taken in those Times to encompass
> even the darkest of Men's rights [...] This being, indeed and alas, one of
> the Liberties our late War was fought to secure." (M&D, 307)
> 
> 
> jbor:
>> Let's have the whole passage, shall we:
> 
> "Unfortunately, young people," recalls the Rev.d, "the word *Liberty*,
> so unreflectively sacred to us today, was taken in those Times to
> encompass even the darkest of Men's rights,-- to injure whomever we
> might wish,-- unto extermination, were it possible,-- Free of Royal
> advice or Proclamation Lines and such. This being, indeed and alas, one
> of the Liberties our late War was fought to secure." (307.15)
> 
>> Wicks's comments here, and the narrative and conversation on either side of
>> them, relate to the massacre of Native Americans, not to slavery.
> 
> Wishful thinking! I don't think you can pick apart the threads of Pynchon's
> tapestry quite this neatly.  The same European Imperialism project
> responsible for the genocide of Native Americans in M&D brings slaves like
> Gershom (and his ancestors) to America, by individuals and chartr'd
> companies exercising  "the darkest of Men's rights", to make of another
> human being a thing to be eliminated as necessry, or appropriated as
> property and exploited for profit. -- Pynchon weaves these strands quite
> tightly through the fabric of M&D, and the rest of his writing.
> 
> 
>