VLVL Rex Snuvvle

[Otto]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Fiero" <rfiero at pophost.com>
To: <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Sent: Friday, January 09, 2004 7:48 PM
Subject: Re: VLVL Rex Snuvvle
>

>
> The Chomsky reference began with the following intentional
> misreading of the text:
> jbor wrote
> >Pynchon's allusion to the brutality of "Uncle Ho's" regime
> >(BLGVN "sent to Vietnam some 500 Trotskyist cadres, none of
> >whom, being to the left of Ho Chi Minh, were ever heard from
> >again" 207.27) is interesting enough in and of itself, of
> >course, but Rex Snuvvle, a student activist, being involved
> >with the remnants of a Southeast Asian Communist group who
> >were to the left of Ho Chi Minh in the late '60s cannot but
> >remind one of the Khmer Rouge and
> >its supporters and advocates in the West.
> >
> >People like Chomsky, for instance, a notorious apologist for Pol Pot:
>
> Along with the echo that followed, this is throwing shit on the
> fire until we notice that it stinks in here. When done well
> this can be quite humorous. Overdone is another matter.
>

So let's focus on the text.

I don't think that Rob's remark is a total (and intentional) misreading. The
part I agree too is "Pynchon's allusion to the brutality of "Uncle Ho's"
regime" -- when the student revolution was calling his name like
a mantra on the streets.

To me the whole Weed Atman-episode seems to be a parable of how the radical
left (or the ones who thought they were the radical left) admired the wrong
people.

Bringing in the Trotskyists looks like an ironical side blow to the
sectarian nature of the "new left" whose "(...) success (...) later in
the sixties was to be limited by the failure of college kids and blue-collar
workers to get together politically." (SL 7)

It took Germany until 1998 before this happened. In Europe at least the
sectarianism of the "new left" definitely kept many people voting for the
conservative, liberal or traditional left political parties for a long time.

Otto