Pynchon as propaganda

[Paul Mackin]

On Sat, 2003-04-05 at 22:45, Mutualcode at aol.com wrote:
> 
> > 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.


Hey, I'm with you on that nothingness. Sounds however like you think
the  soldiers were out fighting for the Lord rather than the godless
Fatherland--or the good old red white and blue for that matter. 

P.