SLSL Intro "Racial Differences"

[jbor]

I guess it depends on the interpretation you apply to "racial differences",
and who you then define as "those who deplore them most". The Goad stuff
isn't necessarily apt at all (and seems to have more affinity with what Ayn
Rand has to say about race and "racism"). But I admit that the train of
thought in Pynchon's sentence is quite difficult to untangle, if not
downright, and worrisomely, ambiguous.

Rereading the whole paragraph, "racial differences" in the context relates
back to the set of Archie Bunker-like "assumptions and distinctions,
unvoiced and unquestioned", about race, as well as to JFK modelling himself
on James Bond and "kicking third-world people around".

'The Secret Integration' and the 'Watts' article emphasise where Pynchon's
real sympathies and greatest energies, in terms of US politics and society
at least, were directed at the time (early-mid '60s). So while this quote
from the 'Intro' might seem to be addressing the same domestic scenario, it
is actually more focused on global issues (the sorts of things which are
prominent in both _V._ and _GR_).

best


on 10/11/02 4:57 AM, Dave Monroe at davidmmonroe at yahoo.com wrote:

> "It may turn out that racial differences are not as
> basic as questions of money and power, but have served
> a useful purpose, often in the interest of those who
> deplore them most, in keeping us divided and
> relatively poor and powerless." (SL, "Intro," p. 12)
> 
> 
> See, at yr own risk ...
> 
> Goad, Jim.  The Redneck Manifesto: How Hillbillies,
> Hicks, and White Trash Became America's
> Scapegoats.  NY: Simon & Schuster, 1997.
> 
> "With engagingly satiric style, he shows how 'white
> cash' has always pitted 'white trash' against blacks
> with a divide-and-conquer ploy. The message is clear:
> If the Balkanization of our society and our growing
> multicultural wars are to end, then first rooting out
> the classism among whites is a necessary step."
> 
> http://www.eclectica.org/v2n3/dickinson.html
> 
> And see as well ...
> 
> http://www.bookwire.com/bookwire/perlscript/review.pl?5654
> 
> http://www.jimgoad.com/
> 
> Just don't say I didn't warn you ...