VLVL the collapse of the Youth Movement

Otto ottosell at yahoo.de
Sat Feb 21 08:03:14 CST 2004


----- Original Message -----
From: "jbor" <jbor at bigpond.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 21, 2004 12:25 AM
Subject: Re: VLVL the collapse of the Youth Movement


>
> It's Frenesi, and traitors like her, who, in the greater scheme of things,
> have been responsible for the collapse of the Youth Movement, and for the
> setting aside of the *real* issues of the day:
>
>         War in Vietnam, murder as an instrument of American
>         politics, black neighborhoods torched to ashes and
>         death, all must have been off on some other planet. (38)
>
> best
>

I'm wondering why you always leave out the state's agents role. Here we have
an example of "murder as an instrument of American politics" -- without
Brock Frenesi wouldn't have become a traitor and Rex wouldn't have killed
Weed. So we can add to the above list of crimes America's war against her
own children.

The real *real* issue of the day was Zoyd's and Frenesi's famous hippie
wedding, not politics. Zoyd has no idea that he's just a disguise and it
wasn't Frenesi that made the guests forget about Vietnam & Watts:

"the visible worls was a sunlit sheep farm." (38) -- this, followed by the
part you've quoted sounds to me like a paraphrase of the later
Bhagwan-motto: Be Here & Now (ganz entspannt im Hier & Jetzt).

So in my opinion Pynchon here questions what had become of the movement when
the hippies had married the revolutionaries that had betrayed the
revolution. It has become obvious that the movement will be unable to stop
the war and the repression. Love & Peace -- that doesn't fit well into a
violent revolution, and so the marxist terminology by and by was exchanged
for esoterics. Karmic explanations instead of political analysis. What would
old Osho (Bhagwan) have said: how can you dare to try changing the world as
long as you're unable to change yourself. How can you speak of peace as long
as your heart is full of hate.

Otto




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