What Pynchon wrote?

[Paul Mackin]

On Tue, 2003-05-27 at 15:07, pynchonoid wrote: 
> -- Paul Nightingale <isread at btopenworld.com> wrote:
> [...snip a fine, well-written and reasoned response to
> an interlocutor who rarely merits such treatment...]
> 
> Is "Orwell" who we think he is, Pynchon asks. He goes
> on to ask:  Is _1984_ what we think it is? Is
> "fascism" what we think it is? In a world that tends
> towards fascism, what can give us hope for something
> better?


Whose questions are these? Are they supposed to be a paraphrase of Paul?

Why start off in the present tense? Why not ask, WAS 1984 (consequently
Orwell)  what  it was generally perceived to be on publication almost 60
years ago? Pynchon says that 1984 wasn't supposed to be just about the
Soviet Union, or just an anti-communist screed. (even though perceptions
at the time were that it was these things)

The question about fascism should ALSO be anchored in the past? Did
Orwell believe that political parties of the democracies were as
fascistically minded in their way as Germany, Italy, and Spain? Pynchon
seems to think Orwell was not far from such a position. Perhaps Pynchon
is not far from agreeing with him. He doesn't really say but if he does
agree is he correct in doing so?

Where does the "hope for something better" idea fit in? It might refer
to the fact that Newspeak dies out. It may also refer to P's quote of O
to the effect that slavery is not a stable system and can't last in a
modern setting.