1984 Foreword "redefining a world in which the Holocaust did not happen"

[Mutualcode at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/26/2003 11:33:15 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
jbor at bigpond.com writes:


> _1984_ was published in 1948. In the excerpt from the Foreword cited above
> Pynchon is saying that the "evidence" from Orwell's writings from this time
> (1945 and after I'm assuming) "indicates either a sort of numbness before
> the enormity of what had happened in the camps or a failure at some level 
> to
> appreciate its full significance", and an ensuing "felt reticence" (less
> "naivety" than a feeling of horror, and sensitivity and respect for the
> victims, is Pynchon's point here I think) to address the Holocaust. Surely
> this implies that Orwell knew about what had happened, or that Pynchon is
> assuming he did, doesn't it? As Otto said, after the liberation of the 
> camps
> at war's end, the enormity of the Holocaust was revealed pretty quickly.
> 
> 

Pynchon's suggesting that the absence of The Holocaust in"1984"
might be either due to "numbness," or, to "a failure at some level to 
appreciate its full significance," indicates to me that he prefers to
leave the question of absence open. I think any "felt reticience"
would have easily been cast aside by Orwell if he believed, at the 
time, that such large scale state sponsored anti-semitism was more
than a horrible aberration, rather than a danger equivalent to that
of nationalism, for causing problems in the future. In that sense I
think Pynchon is suggesting Orwell's naivety.

Either way, I see a big difference between the absence of The
Holocaust in "1984" and in GR, in terms of authorial intention.
Whether, as you initially suggested, Orwell- the man- is similar
to certain characters in the novel GR, is an interesting speculation
I'll have to think about.

respectfully
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://waste.org/pipermail/pynchon-l/attachments/20030427/2a690b28/attachment.html>