"fascistic disposition" paragraph

[jbor]

>> I can't remember when "enemy bombs" fell on the USA since Pearl Harbor
>> either.
> 
> Assume that bombs have fallen on the US.

Why assume something which hasn't happened? It's not just the bombs, it's
the use of the word "enemy". He's talking, specifically, about a war.
Moreover, it's framed as a hypothetical situation, and he's commenting on a
general tendency for people to think in certain ways when something like
this occurs. There are so many countries and populations which have suffered
the experience of bombs falling on them, mostly bombs dropped by the USA,
since 1942, but before and after 9/11 as well, that the inappropriateness of
the metaphor which is being claimed for Pynchon here isn't just linguistic.
The general points he's making apply to every country across the globe, not
just the USA. 

You read "those among us" as Americans, now; I read it as people, in all
times and places. When Pynchon writes, three pages later on, "recall that in
the present-day United States", that's the first time that he narrows the
scope of his commentary. Discursively, this imperative construction tells
the reader straight out that he is going to talk about "the present-day
United States" at this point. What it also indicates is that before this
point in the essay, he hasn't been talking about "the present-day United
States". If he had been, the direction to the reader here is redundant.

There's nothing in the paragraph, or the one before it or the ones after,
which indicates that he's alluding to the USA in particular. If anything,
the specific context is Britain in the late '30s and '40s, as it is for much
of the Foreword. There are several specific references to the USA throughout
the Foreword, and there's no question about those and what they do say, but
there are a greater number of specific references to Britain and British
history. I just don't get this great urgency to make *everything* about the
US, as though no-one else matters, no-one else suffers, no-one else has ever
been bombed or lost family and friends in war. It's so self-centred. Perhaps
it's because I'm not an American, but this attitude seems to me to be
symptomatic of the idea of American exceptionalism - the way many Americans
define themselves as being above everyone else on the planet - which gets on
the rest of the world's goat a lot of the time. Maybe it is Pynchon's
attitude too. Maybe he did mean to allude specifically to 9/11 in the
paragraph. I'm inclined to think he didn't.

But by all means focus on the US. Think of 9/11. Think of Vietnam. Or think
of the Cuban Missile Crisis, for example. That was also a time of "strong
leadership and effective measures", when warnings of the "homeland in
danger" were to the fore. Think of the measures introduced by the government
then. Think of the internment of Japanese and German people in the US during
WW II. The comments Pynchon makes here have wider applicability in my
reading of them.

As I've said, I agree that a reader might apply what Pynchon's saying in the
paragraph to the situation in the US after Sept. 11, and I acknowledge that
some readers perceive an allusion to Sept. 11 in the paragraph itself. All
things considered, however, I disagree with their interpretation, as do
others here. The cases have been made, and no consensus has been reached,
and that's about as far as the discussion can go. It is, after all, an
argument about the writer's intention. In terms of the discussion here, it's
about respect.

best


> If so, the question to ask is
> 
> Why have no bombs fallen on the US since pearl Harbor?
> 
> Some bombs did fall on the continental US during W.W.II, but there are
> hardly worth remembering compared with all the other bombs that fell
> elsewhere. 
> 
> Other than these balloon bombs why have no bombs  fallen on the US since
> PH? 
> 
> Does Hiroshima have anything to do with it?
> 
> Victory in Europe?
> 
> The US being so big and protected by two oceans?
> 
> The power of the US military?
> 
> Where have bombs been falling since PH and who has been dropping them?
> 
> Why did it take so long for an enemy to finally bomb the US PH to 9-11?
> 
> Terrorist bombings kill people just like cluster bombs or A-bombs. And
> when family and friends are killed by terrorist bombs or rockets or high
> jacked planes, the reaction of the people can be a bit mad.
> 
> P is warning us to come to our senses.