Foreword: 9-11

[pynchonoid]

The problem is not that Keith's questions are
unanswerable as much as it is that they are framed in
a way that won't move this discussion along.

> 
> > [W]hy did he use the phrase [enemy] bombs falling
> in an
> > allusion to 9/11?

I don't think anybody has argued that the "enemy
bombs" alone constitutes an allusion to 9-11.  Several
factors work together in the Foreword to point to
comparisons/contrasts/parallels/divergences between
the historical situation in which Orwell writes 1984
and the historical situation in which Pynchon writes
the Foreword.  It is unquestionably "obvious" that
Pynchon publishes his Foreword post-9-11, by date of
publication plus internal reference to "circa 2003". 
The Foreword makes direct references -- all of which
have been mentioned again and again in this thread, if
not exhaustively discussed -- to the current US
goverment and ways in which it might be considered
similar to the government in _1984_, the Foreword
identifies as examples of circa 2003 "doublethink" and
so on. 


> > And why did he date references to other things
> circa 2003 and use allusion
> > for 9/11?

This is irrelevant, merely a different version of the
first question.  Several elements in the Foreword 
work together to compare the current situation in the
US (where the book is being published in May 2003) to
Orwell's situation and what he describes in _1984_.

None of this restricts the Foreword to a concern with
the post-9-11 US, either.  Both/and.

Here's a question for readers who would claim that
Pynchon does not refer to the post-9-11 US government:

How do you account for the fact that reviewers (who
have no axe to grind with any particular P-list
participant), readers (ditto) in other online forums
(the Metafilter discussion, for example), and other
readers, so easily see that the Foreword compares the
US, post-911 and circa 2003, to the historical
situation in which Orwell wrote _1984_ and to the
society described in _1984_? Apart from simply
claiming that all those readers and reviewers are just
wrong, misguided, deluded, don't have the magic eye,
etc.?

  




=====
<http://www.pynchonoid.blogspot.com/>

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