Pynchon as propaganda

[Mutualcode at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/2/2003 5:30:14 PM Eastern Standard Time, 
jbor at bigpond.com writes:


> I interpret this passage as a poignant representation of the futility of war
> (and, more overtly, of the futility of religious faith), and of the 
> enormous
> loss of lives during WWII specifically, rather than a criticism of either
> the doomed soldiers for holding to their faith before going into battle or
> even of the actions of the "army chaplains" doing the preaching.
> 
> 

Probably not. When GR came out in '73, Saigon had yet to fall, and while
GR was ostensibly about WWII, it couldn't help but be read through the lens
of Viet Nam. My Lai had been publicized by Seymour Hersh, Fitzgerald had
published "Fire in the Lake..." and Nixon's fall lay in the future. I think 
the
tone of the passage very much reflects on what, by that time, had come to
seem as an immoral war, and that the narrative voice is sounding an authentic
sense of amazement at how far America had fallen into depravity by the
time of the Vietnamese fiasco and the publication of GR:

       Clergymen, working for the army, stood up and talked 
       to the men who were going to die about God, death, 
       nothingness, redemption, salvation. It really happened.
       It was quite common...(GR, 693)

The moral argument for the war in Vietnam had been totally discredited
by the time of GR's publication, while WW II was, and always will remain, 
the great moral crusade of the 20th century, inspite of our recognition-
with Pynchon's help- of it's darker economic underside.

respectfully

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