1984 Foreword "fascistic disposition"

[Dave Monroe]

Dissident:government::critic:literature?  "Dissident" need not imply "anti-government," much less "anti-democratic" (indeed, there's a sense in which dissidence requires aspirations at least to democracy), much less "anarchist" (though I believe there are some here who would argue for a certain anarchism and/or libertarianism on Pynchon's part), any more than "critical" need imply "anti-literature," much less, if not necessarily "illiterate" (illieracy not necessarily being a stance against literacy), "ill-read," "phillistine," whatever.  Dissidence as a critical stance toward "the establishment" or whatever, albeit one which is in dissent, disagreement with it.  One need not be against governemnet, or even against "the" government per se in order to disagree with its practices and policies ...

jbor <jbor at bigpond.com> wrote:The idea of a "dissident government" is oxymoronic, and I posed the question to Otto a couple of times whether Pynchon is in fact anti-government. If he is, he's trying to yoke Orwell into that camp too, but that's inaccurate. Orwell was pro-democracy. Socialist democracy.

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