Religious Fundamentalism in Orwell and Pynchon

[jbor]

>> "What point is being made with the allusions, and what is the
>> support for these points in the essay?"

on 22/5/03 7:39 PM, Jonathan Hall wrote:

> Yes. If you go searching for such evidence you have to ask yourself why just
> in case you 'find' some - which is not to say out of hand that it is not
> there, merely that 'finding' has a little too much naivete in it.

I think Otto did offer the argument that Pynchon is using the "allusions" to
9/11 and suchlike as warnings in much the same way that Orwell's novel
serves as a warning. But I agree with the larger point that you and s~Z are
making: an allusion by itself is, well, gratuitous, unless there's some
point to it. Some substance. It's why I remain pretty sceptical about many
of the more outlandish claims for "allusions" which are announced here from
time to time.

> Is such a search driven by a view of Pynchon as modern-day prophet who must,
> then, have made significant declarations on all the dramatic events in our
> time?
>
>
> BTW - William Spanos deals with Moby Dick and the Vietnam War and mentions
> GR often, and overuses 'prolepsis' throughout when perhaps he should have
> simply come out as a mystic and embraced 'prophecy'. He seems to want to
> draw it in to bolster his argument for a poststructuralist Pynchon - his
> rather bizarre claim being that the Vietnam War was an enabling condition of
> poststructuralist thinking. (William Spanos, The Errant Art of Moby Dick:
> The Canon, the Cold War, and the Struggle for American Studies)
> 
> Jonathan (new around here and a little punch-drunk after a few days
> spectating)

Welcome. Just jump right in, I'm sure you'll soon get the hang of it!

best