Pynchon as propaganda

[Mutualcode at aol.com]

> There were men called "army chaplains." They preached
>     inside some of these buildings. There were actually
>     soldiers, dead now, who sat or stood, and listened.
>     Holding on to what they could. Then they went out, and
>     some died before they got back inside a
>     garrison-church again. 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)
> 
> 

Clearly the intent of this passage is demonstrate that the army
paid non-combatant soldiers to minister to the troops in order to
keep them fighting, killing and dying. Any other reading is an
exercise in self-deception equal to the deception that the "army
chaplains" were perpetrating on the men. They- the clergymen-
were just another extension of the system, of "psy-ops." If they
too are dead now, I hope they are in Hell, if there is one. Probably,
however, there is only nothingness.

respectfully
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