VLVL 24fps and "the Movement"

[pynchonoid]

I can see how somebody who has no first-hand knowledge
of the 60s could construct such a view of Vineland,
but it's so off the mark and politically/culturally
biased as to be funny.

jbor gets off on the wrong foot almost immediately by
limiting the Movement to only its most extreme
elements, when in fact throughout the 60s "the
Movement" comprised a far broader and looser coalition
of groups that came together to fight for civil rights
and against the War (first in the 50s, in fact, in the
struggle for civil rights and against the Bomb) -- an
understandable rhetorical move, given the political
stance jbor has  projected onto Pynchon's novels since
he showed up during the last group discussion of
Vineland here. 

The idea that "the Movement", however narrowly
defined, attracted the Nixonian Reaction because of
its excesses is ludicrous, the Nixonian Reaction
being, in fact, only the latest phase of
anti-progressive reaction by the US government going
back through the McCarthyite 50s, to the  Red scare,
actions against the IWW, and even earlier US
government violence against democratic uprisings.  In
_Mason & Dixon_, Pynchon fills in some of that detail,
portraying how the so-called "Revolution" merely
shifted power from one group of white, male, European
property-owners to another. The US government has
always moved, more or less immediately, to stamp out
any kind of grassroots movement that showed any real
promise of undermining the power of the ruling elite.

Pynchon's satire of various elements of the Movement
is funny and reflects what appears to me to be real
disappointment and frustration on the author's part
that the Movement crumbled due to its own human
weaknesses, under enormous and violent pressure from
Nixon & Co. But his portrayal of the neo-fascist
elements of American culture that enabled the Nixonian
Reaction (which continued to build steam in subsequent
Administrations, especially Reagan-Bush, is scary,
reflecting as it does a real-life situation that
continues to the present, as Pynchon made clear last
year in his introductory essay to the new edition of
_1984_.

jbor:
>I think that Pynchon satirises [...] 
>They make films of hippie chicks dancing, chain
>smoke and
>play three tvs at a time while they work

I doubt they're amusing themselves by watching
television program broadcasts:  editing film requires
the use of one or more TV monitors, it's part of the
job.


 

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