Pynchon and fascism
Malignd
malignd at yahoo.com
Thu May 29 14:49:04 CDT 2003
<<For the second time you've chosen to ignore the way
I elaborate on my use of 'fiction' here. There is a
very clear statement of what, specifically, I don't
mean by fiction in this context; you have failed to
acknowledge that.>>
<<The fact remains that your statement does not
correspond in any meaningful way to what I wrote. Your
dismissal of what you've decided is "tedious and
unrewarding" rests, perhaps conveniently, on your
distortion of my earlier paragraph.>>
I'm afraid I don't see the injustice I'm doing you.
You wrote:
<<Part of this approach is that one questions the
distinctions usually drawn between different kinds or
genres of writing. Most obviously fact/fiction.
You did also write:
<< P has been dealing with the fictions of history
writing -- "stencilised history", pastiche, the
unreliable narrator -- since his first stories, and
this is how I approach the Foreword. >>
And:
<< Which doesn't mean P has written [the foreword] as
one of his short stories...>>
Is it these clarifications you think I've ignored,
perhaps intentionally? Or maybe just misunderstood?
I read: although the foreword is not similar to his
other fiction, you'll nevertheless treat it as fiction
because, in his other fiction, his stories and novels,
Pynchon has dealt with what you describe as the
fictions of history writing. (Therefore the foreword
is history writing as fiction?)
Undoubtedly I'm committing more distortions, but an
approach that questions the differences in the writing
of fact and fiction and proceeds mainly by redefining
or blurring those terms--you're going to have to
expect some people to find it less than persuasive.
<<But how do I know this is fascism? If I know
anything, it's that I'd rather not be there.>>
I know as well that something is being done to me
against my will, that my will is being coerced by
physical force; I may know as well that those doing
the coercing have done so to others, to my father or
brother, perhaps, that they apparently operate from
some sort of sanction as these actions are repeated
without reprisal. In short, I can cobble together out
of no more than personal experience a pretty fair
notion of the power structure to which I'm subjected
and conceptualize it fairly accurately for what it is.
But perhaps that's just creating a "text"?
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