Pynchon and War

[David Morris]

--- Otto <ottosell at yahoo.de> wrote:
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "David Morris" <fqmorris at yahoo.com>
> >
> > --- Otto <ottosell at yahoo.de> wrote:
> > > "(...) children may be taught History as sequences of violence, battle
after battle, and be more prepared for the adult world."
> > >
> > <<Sorry David, but this isn't simply a piece of fiction & thus can be
dismissed as such. This is how history has been taught for generations and I
really dosee a lot of truth in it.>>
> >
> > Sure, there is truth in it, but it was never intended to be taken
literally, nor as "truth", the passage Doug cited included.  I think it goes
without saying that Pynchon's fiction doesn't believe in "truth" but in a
dynamic of life and death.   But Doug insists in its literalness because it
suits his pacifism.
>
> I'm not so much interested in Doug's opinion than in yours and in Pynchon's.

OK, let's back up a minute.  You want to focus on one small part of this
paragraph (a part I have no problem with taking literally - up to a point).  I
was responding to a post from Terrance that challenged Doug's literal take of
this passage from GR, especially in regards to profit ($) being the the
motivation for the present war (so don't hassle me about citing Doug's use of
it):

<<"Don't forget the real business of the War is buying and selling. The
murdering and the violence are self-policing, and can be entrusted to
non-professionals. The mass nature of wartime death is useful in many ways. It
serves as spectacle, as diversion from the real movements of the War. It
provides raw material to be recorded into History, so that children may be
taught History as sequences of violence, battle after battle, and be more
prepared for the adult world. Best of all, mass death's a stimulus to just
ordinary folks, little fellows, to try 'n' grab a piece of that Pie while
they're still here to gobble it up. The true war is a celebration of markets."
(Gravity's Rainbow, p. 105)>>

> Some things & sayings I take literally and some I understand exactly the
other way round they've been written by P. For me it's part of the reading-game
trying to get where he's serious and where he's ironic.

Sure, but the main point of this passage are contained in the first and last
sentences:

"Don't forget the real business of the War is buying and selling. [...] The
true war is a celebration of markets."

It's a beautiful passage, and contains SOME truth, in an abstract distilled way
(and applied more to the Vietnam war than to the present one - BTW, kai, in
1973 I was marching on DC against the war, but I hadn't even heard of GR), but
only a fool would try to apply it literally to the present war.

Your focus on the children passages was nice, but not what I was posting about.

David Morris

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