SLSL Intro "Racial Differences"

[Dave Monroe]

Well, that "Introduction" was written, published
during the first Reagan administration, in the wake of
much talk of the apparently easily divided 'n'
conquered so-called "Reagan Democrats" (largely, white
middle and working class voters) who apparently put
issues not entirely unrelated to those peculiar
American race relations ahead of even ther own likely
economic et al. concerns.  Willingly remained poor and
disenfranchised (as opposed to corporations) so long
as minorities remained poorer and even more
disenfrachised.  I mentioned G.H. Bush only because
his campaign was later to play this card quite
explicitly ...

--- jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:
>
> ... I'm not sure that the jump from this to
> Reagan/Bush (Bush the First's presidency came well
> after the 'Intro' was written, didn't it?) is really
> legitimate, or that it's a connection Pynchon
> is actually making. "Rednecks", in Goad's terms, are
> another disenfranchised group, and "racial
> differences", whatever these might be, don't further
> their interests at all, because it's their attitudes
> of racism and intolerance towards ethnic minorities
> which have marginalised them within the society in
> the first place.

For all practical purposes, however, "Rednecks" are
marginalized because of class, education, what have
you.  But i posted that Goad ref. only to highlight
what apparently Pynchon is saying here, that race has
been used to divide and conquer the "poor and
powerless" and to keep them that way ...
 
> And, in fact, it's JFK who Pynchon is criticising in
> this paragraph. I don't think you can so easily
> avoid the global context which Pynchon has brought
> in here: "John Kennedy's role model James Bond was
> about to make his name by kicking third-world people
> around ... " (p.11)

I don't think I avoided it at all, "easily" or
otherwise ...

http://waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l&month=0211&msg=72588&sort=date

... though I sure did type it badly enough.  But
Kennedy 'n' Bond are mentioned on the way to Archie
Bunker, spokesman for "a set of assumptions" et al.
that are the actual topic of the paragraph, i.e., good
ol' fashioned American racism (and sexism, and ...). 
Pynchon.  Context.  Symptoms.  "For its time, it is
probably authentic enough" ...

> Third-world people, almost without exception, might
> be described as being "racially" "different".
> 
> I'm much more comfortable reading that "us" as an
> all-inclusive, global category, rather than just a
> reference to US society and politics. But I'm
> not 100% sure about it, and open to persuasion.

Of course, "comfort" isn't really a criterion here,
but ... but what he's saying is, he said some bad
shit, he knows it, it's no excuse, but it's bad shit
that was in the air, that's perhaps still in the air,
that many were/are saying, so ...

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