Children of the Revolution?

[jbor]

on 23/6/03 9:53 PM, Otto at ottosell at yahoo.de wrote:

>> Including _Vineland_ itself, which is, in large part, a satiric portrait
> of
>> student "revolutionaries" in America in the 60s. And it's part and parcel
> of
>> Pynchon's ongoing critique of Leftist ideologies and political movements,
>> and of "phony antifascists" in general.
>> 
> 
> It's a much more mild & friendly criticism than you're trying to make of it,
> Rob. 

The novel satirises PR3 and 24fps, Otto. And it *is* a much more critical
view than you're trying to make of it. It's certainly not a glowing tribute
by any stretch of the imagination, and that's something which is often
overlooked, or denied. Though he lived through that era, and though his own
political sympathies are explicitly with class and racial minorities,
Pynchon doesn't portray these student "radicals" through rose-coloured specs
at all. They're human, and more often than not motivated by self-interest,
ignorance or naivety. And it's of a piece with his criticisms in the Slow
Learner 'Intro', where he is careful to distance himself from the student
movements of the later '60s, and elsewhere.

> The real criticism (the other part of VL) is his anti-fascism, his
> anti-capitalism, anti-Puritanism, his criticism of structures that even
> could turn the USA into a proto-fascist state (which America was in the late
> sixties, early seventies).

It's a little more subtle than that, obviously, both in terms of the
underlying relationship between the student movement and the government
agencies and agents, and also in terms of where the "proto-fascism"
originates. Like Quail, I'm not saying that Pynchon supports the government
or the DEA or CIA in the novel -- it's almost as if LBJ, Nixon, Reagan & co.
are beneath contempt, and it's worth keeping an eye out for the way in which
the actual Administrations are represented -- but the focus is squarely on
the students and what they became, and that's where the "real" criticism
lies.
 
> In the end the hippies were just humans, like everyone else bound to error
> and failure. 

And you could say the same about Brock. And Reagan.

best

> It's just an ideology but what makes "socialism" more
> sympathetic than every other ideology is that it has a generally positive
> view of humans, contrary to capitalism that sees humans only as part of the
> production line & as consumers and fascism that sees humans as generally bad
> & egoistic who must be terrorised to serve the state.
> 
> Which is why I like Orwell's "Left of the Left"- notion.
>