GR evoking the Vietnam War?

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2003 1:26 PM
Subject: GR evoking the Vietnam War?


> on 21/5/03 8:13 PM, lorentzen-nicklaus at lorentzen-nicklaus at t-online.de
> wrote:
>
> > it has already
> > been said here that some of the war scenes read a lot more like vietnam
than
> > like ww II.
>
> What war scenes?

It's like the "Foreword," you cannot omit the actual time in which a text
has been written.

"Dear Mom. I put a couple of people in Hell today. . ." (537) -- I always
thought of Vietnam letters here.

All that reefer madness in GR:

"(...) some merrymaker has earlier put a hundred grams of hashish in the
Hollandaise." (244)

I've once put about an ounce into a honey cake, great success.

'Next time we run across that Englishman,' Dzabajew looking curiously at his
hands on the steering-wheel, 'or American, or whatever he is, find out, will
you, where he got this shit?' 'Make a note of that,' orders Tchitcherine.
They both start crackling insanely there, under the tree." (391-392)

Compare how Neal Stephenson describes a WW-2 GI "encountering" hashish:

"What is that? Chocolate?" Bobby Shaftoe asks.
"If it was chocolate," Root says, "that guy wouldn't have taken a Hershey
bar for it."
Shaftoe shrugs. "Unless it's shitty chocolate."
"Or shit!" blurts Private Nathan, provoking incredible hilarity.
"You heard of Mary Jane?" Root asks.
Shaftoe--role model, leader of men--stifles the impulse to say, Heard of
her? I've fucked her!
"This is the concentrated essence," says Enoch Root.
"How would you know, Rev?" says Private Daniels.
The Rev is not rattled. "I'm the God guy here, right? I know the religious
angle?"
"Yes, sir!"
"Well, at one time, there was a group of Muslims called the hashishin who
would eat this stuff and then go out and kill people. They were so good at
it, they became famous or infamous. Over time the pronunciation of the name
has changed--we know them as assassins."
There is an appropriately respectful silence. Finally, Sergeant Shaftoe
says, "What the hell are we waiting for?"
They eat some. Shaftoe, being the highest-ranking enlisted man present, eats
more than the others. Nothing happens. "Only person I feel like
assassinating is that guy who sold it to us," he says.
(Cryptonomicon, Chap. 15, 'Meat')

Otto