"fascistic disposition" paragraph

[jbor]

on 24/5/03 11:13 AM, Terrance at lycidas2 at earthlink.net wrote:

>>>> 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?
> 
> No problem , but I don't it's unreasonable to assume that we are
> being presented with a hypothetical that can run thus--assume bombs are
> falling on your head and your government is reacting as Orwell's
> government did when bombs fell on his Nation. And we are being asked to
> consider the very real situation (say in W.W.II England or Iraq) when
> bombs are  falling on the homeland and the government is asserting its
> power.  For me, the only  "bombs falling" on the  homeland with  the
> government initiating policies that some may consider fascist even if no
> one is willing to listen to them or even if some are listening and it
> doesn't much matter is 9-11 and the post 9-11 Bush government --"patriot
> act" ect. & Co. 

That's fine, but you're mixing up the hypothetical and the actual, the
objective and the subjective, in a way that can't really be justified by the
text itself. The debate is over whether Pynchon intended an allusion, or
whether he didn't. You think he did; I think he didn't. It's not resolvable.

best

> 
> So I can assume Orwell's position.
> 
> Assume the position of anyone anywhere, as S~Z put it (including me in
> NYC on 9-11 and post 9-11).