VLVL: PR3

pynchonoid pynchonoid at yahoo.com
Fri Jan 9 07:38:47 CST 2004


jbor:
[...]It's worthwhile to note again that neither 24fps
nor PR3 nor any other
individuals or organisations of the '60s generation
depicted in the 
novel
thus far have demonstrated any commitment to the
anti-War or Civil 
Rights
causes.[...]

I guess you're forgetting that, having set his novel
in the '60s moment of student protest, said
commitments can be taken for granted, it was part of
the landscape.  

You also seem strangely eager to skip over the fact
that the portrayal of the PR3 rebellion may have as
much to do with the Free Speech Movement (you'll find
the archives online if you care to find them) that
took place earlier in the 60s in Berkeley as it does
with the massive anti-War protests that engaged
students (and many other people) later in the '60s,
student protests which effectively forced a halt to US
aggression in Vietnam. 

Yes Pynchon does show the human foibles of his
characters, the many tangled and sometimes
contradictory motives that drive them -- clearly he
takes care, unlike too many of his readers, to view
any given situation from multiple points of view and
present it in much of its complexity. It's also pretty
clear, both from Vineland and from Pynchon's other
novels and writings, that he understands the
neo-fascist tendencies of the Nixon-Reagan-Bush
dynasty and holds them responsible for their crimes.

Surely -- re the gratuitous swipe at Chomsky --jbor
doesn't want to skip over the fact that, for every
progressive who may have entertained sympathies for a
dictator (until said dictator proved unworthy of
same), we've got mainstream (which now includes what
used to be the far right) politicians -- Pres. Bush,
for example -- who continue to support dictators and
to employ thugs and assasins in the pursuit of US
foreign policy objectives. 



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