1984 Foreword "fascistic disposition"

[Malignd]

Rob:

<<In the second sentence, "all this sort of thing",
though the immediate context is missing, would seem to
refer to socio-political critique, opposition to
government policy or ideology, Orwell's stance etc.>>

I agree, or agree that's a likely assumption.

<<The following sentence ("With the homeland in danger
... ") takes up the point of view of "those of
fascistic disposition" or "those among us" (which
indeed seems potentially more inclusive of Pynchon
himself) who "justify" government actions
indiscriminately. This is putting into words what 
they "will ... point out.">>

Takes it up, but is he commenting in agreement or in
opposition?  Hard to say, as you note.  And there is
that distancing "you" ("call it whatever you please").
 

The following sentence ("But the unseemliness ... ")
is offered as a refutation of the attitude expressed
in the previous sentence, and is also a justification
for Orwell's satire of British socialism (i.e.
Orwell's
"argument") in the novel, which the final sentence
reinforces.>>

This I think is far more ambiguous.  First, the word
"unseemliness" is clearly Pynchon's in my reading, not
the position of a fascistic disposition not his own,
would you agree?  You think he's calling the preceding
argument unseemly, whereas I read it, in context, as
referring to the argument opposed to the preceding,
the "prewar thinking" the "all this sort of thing." 
Otherwise I find the sense is lost and the last
sentence becomes a non sequitur.  I read the last
sentence as saying, in effect, that it's true
Churchill acted like a fascist in wartime, but it is
an unseemly argument to make while the nation is at
war.  If the argument referred to (as unseemly)is the
saying that people will stop listening when the bombs
start to fall, why is that an unseemly comment during
wartime?  I don't see how that follows.

Thus I find Pynchon saying that criticism of a
government as fascistic is unseemly during wartime,
which I suppose I should find surprising, although I'm
not sure why.  But it's all too ambiguous, finally, to
nail down.  For me anyway.


 

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