GR 'Streets'

[Richard Romeo]

jbor:
> The Americans dropped an atomic bomb on an innocent
> civilian population, and killed most of them. How's
that?
------------
was thinking about this over the weekend and thought
of Mr. DeLillo's quote about the urge, the itch if you
will, to use all these weapons that we create. Re:
1945, I believe it was felt that even a demonstration
of the A-bomb's power would not have swayed the
Japanese. A precedent/parallel perhaps: WG Sebald
notes in On the Natural History of Destruction that
Bomber Command, even though the destruction of German
cities was not breaking morale there not affecting the
munitions output by german industry, had put into
place such a huge amount of men and materiale, that
it, couldn't change its own plans--letting all those
bombs and aircraft sit idle on the runways wasn't an
option, the weapons had to be used even though results
were increasingly of the diminishing returns type.


> 
> > I don't believe Mr Pynchon is very much concerned
> > about it beyond the legacy that atomic/nuclear
> weapons represent. can be argued I suppose tho.
> 
> Yes, I think it can.
---------
beyond righteous indignation at such slaughter, what
other possible concerns as an artist is Pynchon
getting at do you think, regarding Hiroshima? Doesn't
say much that one is horrified by atomic weapons and
what transpired in late 1945. 
I'm not sure Hiroshima and Nagasaki as events in and
of themselves are not treated in similar ways in GR as
the Holocaust is, i.e. that they are happening off
stage and not as integral to the action as some might
think when referring to 1944-45.

Rich


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