1984 Foreword "fascistic disposition"

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2003 12:28 PM
Subject: Re: 1984 Foreword "fascistic disposition"
>
> All government systems impose restraints on civil liberties.
> They're called "laws".
>

"The illegal we do immediately. The unconstitutional takes a little
longer."--Henry Kissinger [shortly after the coup détat against Salvador
Allende.]

"In this century we have come to think of Sloth as primarily political, a
failure of public will allowing the introduction of evil policies and the
rise of evil regimes, the worldwide fascist ascendancy of the 1920's and
30's being perhaps Sloth's finest [765] hour, though the Vietnam era and the
Reagan-Bush years are not far behind." (17)

(17) Thomas Pynchon, Nearer, My Couch, to Thee,
N.Y. TIMES, June 6, 1993, § 7, at 3, 57

"(...) it may be a generation or two before our civil rights are restored to
their pre-Reagan status--if they ever are. Pynchon, in Vineland, has
reversed the familiar commandment from the Wizard of Oz, encouraging
Americans to "Pay Attention to that man behind the curtain," before it is
too late." (David Thoreen)
http://www.law.utexas.edu/lpop/etext/okla/thoreen24.htm

When Pynchon says that there are important "subtext(s)" in "1984" this makes
me suspicious about possible subtexts in his most recent writing, this
"Foreword" entitled "The Road to 1984" in the Guardian:
http://books.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,12084,948203,00.html

The fact that this is published in the Guardian and not in the New York
Times (like his other essays):
http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/18/reviews/pynchon-watts.html
http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/18/reviews/pynchon-luddite.html
http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/05/18/reviews/pynchon-sloth.html
could be seen as some evidence that the Playboy-interview is authentic if
it's not merely a coincidence:

"The New York Times was usually the most reliable media for checking what
happened in 20-30 years ago, but no more. Today, the Guardian of England is
the most reliable newspaper that is read by the intellectuals of today.
People read it on the Internet."
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=189303

So he wants us to read & discuss the Foreword.

Otto