SLSL "The Small Rain" depiction of military life

[pynchonoid]

Pynchon published "The Small Rain" not long after his
Navy experience. Among other things, the story
captures the relative boredom of "peacetime" (within
the larger context of the Cold War that's a
problematic concept) military service (at least
compared to my own Vietnam-era "peacetime" service
near the DMZ in Korea and in the U.S., where, in fact,
we were shot at and some of us killed). But, to my
ear, the story's depiction of military life pales in
comparison with thta sort of material in V. and GR. In
the novels, P gets deeper into the essential insanity
of the military enterprise even as he strays from the
sort of realistic portrayal found in "The Small Rain".
 It seems that the more time that passed after his own
military experience the better able Pynchon became at
getting to the crazy essence of that experience. 

-Doug



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