Pynchon's men (this happy breed of men)

[Otto]

>
>
> >
> > >
> > > This the freeest of free commonwealths the sun in his course shines
> > > upon; this one sole country nameable in history or tradition where a
man
> > > is a man and manhood the only rayalty; this people ruled by justest
and
> > > wholesomeest laws and governemt yet devised by the wisdom of men; this
> > > mightiest of the civilized empires of the earth, in numbers, in
> > > prosperity, in progress and in promise...our country, our giant
empire.
> > >
> > > --Mark Twain
> > >
> > Says Twain 150 years ago, 19th Century.
>
> So says the dream about America long before and long after Twain drifted
> down the mighty Mississippi or Melville set his ship of fools and
> confidences adrift on that river and dividing line through the heart of
> America. And it's still being said and it is not the arrogant myth of
> conservatives.  It is as deep as the Grand Canyon. As wide as Montana.
> Broader than Broadway and a Wall Street bull. It is bigger than Alaska
> and bolder than Texas.

I wholeheartedly agree.

> And it is not what Europeans have suffered from,
> a Narcissus. No, it is purely American and it obviously on the rise at
> home and abroad.  Please, don't mistake its arrogance for my own. That's
> the easy way to argue this-- ad hominem.
>

Oh, that arrogance remark wasn't meant into your direction, Terrance, my
dear friend, not at all, please believe me. But it's meant against an
economical way that only uses people, that declares the own interest for
more important than the interests of others, as we see it in the oil
companies (again, not limited to the US). Look what is done to the small
share holders in the stock market, how they are ripped by speculations that
have no other purpose than this ripoff.

If the American dream, the pursuit of happiness, the American way of life,
could be spread around (as it has in many places already) it would be best
to me. I'm the first to defend America against false (from abroad or
within), often anti-Semitic (you know what I mean, I don't want to speak it
out) accusations.

> Recall that oft misquoted passage from GR about the business of war?
> That passage is about Germany.
>

Not so sure about that if it's exclusively about Germany. Rathenau figured
the cartel that serves the war, the factory system, and you know what's said
about it in the SL-intro:

"(...) which, more than any piece of machinery, was the real and major
result of the Industrial Revolution - had been extended to include the
Manhattan Project, the German long-range rocket program and the death camps,
such as Auschwitz. It has taken no major gift of prophecy to see how these
three curves of development might plausibly converge, and before too long."

This includes your truly wonderful country (no irony here) -the Manhattan
Project- and I take it as a warning. There must be a reason why Pynchon who
has said so little apart from his novels did write this passage.

> Now there is an example of arrogance and a hard fall.
> We don't find Brock Vond reading Rilke now do we.
> What does he read? Not Twain, Melville, Emerson (I think the good guys
> read him, btw).

Yes, how many of the Americans in power & world elite members remember
these, read them actually and act equivalent? I don't see that Pynchon
distinguishes between US & foreign elect and preterite. I think this is the
reason why Germany isn't presented as negatively in GR as it could have been
without exaggerating anything; the evil isn't limited to the nazis, to one
side of the ocean in the novel. Ok, it's a German witch that burns the
children in the book, but there's a good German witch too who prevents the
brothers (Enzian and Tchitcherine) from killing each other.

And I believe that M&D shows how it had happened that the evil could spread:
greed, slavery, the destruction of the nature for purely economical reasons,
not as an necessity to survive.

I don't believe that the US is in decline. Germany, Europe may be, but even
that isn't for sure and definitely. There are still signs of hope. The Irish
have voted for Europe today, the Dutch neo-fascists will be out of
government soon.

Otto
(right now listening to Oregon, "Distant Hills" and "Music of Another
Present Era" -- wonderful American music)

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