GR evoking the Vietnam War?

[Terrance]

Dave Monroe wrote:
> 
> I look at it this way.  GR was set in WWII, and
> written, published during the Vietnam War.  Set in
> war, written during a war.  That "Foreword" was
> written and published after the Sept. 11th WTC attack,
> during/after an invasion of Afghanistan, during a "War
> on Terrorism," under the "Patriot Act," on the cusp of
> a long-considered invasion of Iraq, et al., about a
> novel set during a permanent state of war, prophesying
> the Cold War, whilst making reference to WWII.  Et al.


Interesting. Ain't it? Gravity's Rainbow is as much about America in the
era of Vietnam and civil rights as it is about Europe at the end of
World War II, but  P never mentions the war in SE Asia in the novel. The
Foreword is as much about 9-11 and America in the era of 9-11 as it is
about Orwell's Europe, Orwell, and _1984_, but  P never mentions 9-11 in
the Foreword. 

                There is some felt reticence, as if, with so many other
deep issues to
                 worry about, Orwell would have preferred that the world
not be
                 presented with the added inconvenience of having to
think much
                 about the Holocaust. The novel may even have been his
way of
                 redefining a world in which the Holocaust did not
happen.